ASUS Announces Strix Sound Cards

cageymaru

Fully [H]
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
22,060
ASUS Announces Strix Sound Cards
http://rog.asus.com/442312015/gaming-sound-cards/asus-announces-strix-sound-cards/

Strix Raid DLX 7.1
Strix Raid PRO 7.1
Strix Soar 7.1

Strix-Raid-DLX_7.1-PCIe-gaming-sound-card-set.png
 
Yes I believe you do. Probably to power headphone amp? Isolate power from motherboard perhaps.
 
That Power connector has FETs nearby and some inductors and a warehouse of large and small capacitors, so it looks like the main power section.

Especially how near it is to the digital section and how few elements there are between the PCIe connector and the outputs. The cool thing about this is that one could try to wire a battery to it for pure DC. And it means isolation from motherboard fluctuations - so it's not just overkill.

I don't like they just boast the 124 SNR ratio of the DAC present in the top of the line one. And then what - no other losses down the line? 124 from the DAC right to the output jack? Let's hope so...

The LME49600 opamps ... Compared to my beloved LM1469:
Slew rate - 20V/us - same/similar
Common mode and Power Supply rejection: noticeably better on the STIX
Bandwidth - STIX is around 50-55MHz - half of the LM4569 which may make them more forgiving about PCB layout - good move but I'm no doctor
Output impedance: 0.01 on the STIX, 0.02 on the 4569 - excellent.
So all in all good opamps for the main channels. And they are the headphone amps, apparently.

2 volts RMS is nice compared to the 1 or so level on my old Prodigy 7.1.

I see no word about the three DIP8 opamps in the centre, though. Two have a feedback loop (red squares) and combined with the front LM49600 that's 8 channels total.

But there's another one in front of them with no feedback loop - so probably in a unity gain config. It could be a buffer that mitigates some electrical differences between the two behind it. Nice touch.
But I can't make out the model numbers on those three - and the specs on Asus' site don't mention them at all. Not cool.

If that's a fan I'm seeing, it needs to go. Fans generate varying fields around them.

So that's my first glance amateur opinion. I would still get the Essence STX if I needed only stereo.
 
Oh, and I wouldn't boast those 49600 as 'true' headphone amps when you consider they put a TPA6120A2 in the Essence STX. That critter can do, among others, the following tricks:
- friggin 600mA of output power
- ten fold quicker slew rate
- 126 db SNR at 15V power supply
So that's some juice.
 
Last edited:
issue with Asus cards are the drivers, or that was in the past?
 
I believe all soundcard vendors fail in this area and fail miserably.

Also, pre-Vista was a whole different world. The kernel side interface was wide open which was a risk for stability and security but oddly enough people reported less issues. And the feauture sets were astounding. Audigy 2 ZS with a LM4562 soldered in, bypassed output coupling caps, using kX drivers which alllowed you to actually write assembly for the Digital Signal Processor on the card was something out of this world.
 
This is rather interesting -

Sonic Studio also includes controls for Sonic Radar Pro, a unique feature that precisely maps in-game sounds — such as footsteps and gunshots — and displays them on an on-screen overlay, so gamers can pinpoint their enemies for a competitive advantage in first-person shooters.

I'm wondering if there will be any controversy regarding this feature.

Edit: Looking into it more and seems like this has been available for awhile. Anyways discussion is more suited for a different forum.
 
Last edited:
I've had OK experiences with my ASUS Phoebus card but that's the only ASUS card I've ever used.

I never had any issues with both the Essence STX and Z that I used to have. Last time I complained was VIA/SB issues. I'm sure you remember those days.
 
This is rather interesting -



I'm wondering if there will be any controversy regarding this feature.


The FPS I used to play would call this out as a radar hack and permban.

Hell, volume normalizers (aka dynamic range compressors) that made distant sounds much louder while maintaining explosions and such at non-deafening levels was considered cheating.
I played UrbanTerror.
 
This is rather interesting -



I'm wondering if there will be any controversy regarding this feature.

Edit: Looking into it more and seems like this has been available for awhile. Anyways discussion is more suited for a different forum.

There are very few people who can use the feature so there hasn't been too much bitching about it. Not to mention people using it probably don't tell other people that they are using it.
 
There are very few people who can use the feature so there hasn't been too much bitching about it. Not to mention people using it probably don't tell other people that they are using it.

What I'm thinking about is back to when one company (wasn't ATI, Nvidia or 3dfx. Either one of PowerVR, S3 or Matrox last attempts at the consumer desktop gaming market) implemented additional rendering modes (like transparency? white walls?) in their graphics drivers. Even though very few people would have gotten that particular card (since at that point ATI and Nvidia had both basically becoming entrenched) there was still pretty wide discussion and that feature was removed by the company the itself. I want to say it was a PowerVR or S3

Also in general, but this is going off topic which I said better discussion for a separate forum such as the gaming section, I find the topic of at what line do we draw between "aids" and outright "cheating."
 
I've had OK experiences with my ASUS Phoebus card but that's the only ASUS card I've ever used.

Only ASUS soundcard I ever used was the phoebus, and not only were the drivers a nightmare, but their support was even worse.

lol, I yanked the phoebus out of my system a year ago.No more BSOD, no more glitchy audio in games, no more apps just failing to play audio, etc. I don't know about the other Asus cards, but the phoebus was a joke. Next to no driver support, little feedback on their own forum(it was primarily one asus employee in the first few months after launch who eventually just began telling people off who were complaining about issues with the card). Even when they did release a driver(they're up to what, 3 now after 2.5 years?), there was next to no information about actual changes in the driver(if they even bothered to type out something resembling a change log).

If I ever find that card(I tossed it in a bin and stuff it in a closet), it's going straight into the trash. That's probably the worst purchase I've made in a decade considering the time spent fiddling with it, nevermind the cost of it.

Last I heard, the driver was still missing features. The hardware portion seemed fine, and just like cageymaru said it was great... "when it worked" but when the manufacturer doesn't bother to support the product via necessary software, it's pointless.
 
power seperate from MB and with its own ground? Shielding over the entire card?

Ugh, why cant they make an STX like this?
 
Do these support 3d surround processing for games..
Similar to SBX or CMSS-3D, etc.
 
The problem with modern sound cards they cost as much as a motherboard which already has onboard sound.
 
Yeah sorry, until Asus gets multiples better at regular and up to date driver issuance I have no mind to use any of their items that rely heavily on driver updates unless, like in the cases of Nvidia and AMD, the drivers come from some other more reliable source.
 
I've used my Xonar DX for 6 or 7 years and it costed <100$. Thanks to it I can buy cheaper mobos since i don't need to target Realtec 1150 equipped models ;)
 
On-board sound to discrete sound, it's like comparing a USB 2.0 flash drive to a SATA III full 6Gb/s speeds.

Not really, because you have to work hard in order to make a proper comparison, and 99,99% of users don't.

Meaning: people do not know the real difference in onboard vs external. And if use low tier headphones or speakers, directly, there might be 0 difference to notice.
 
I have a very nice set of KRK studio monitors with the matching sub. I've had several sound cards over the last 4 or 5 years. I just recently purchased the Asus Xonar U7 external sound card / DAC and Headphone Amp that outputs 24bit / 192hz. the sound is absolutely amazing. I cannot see how they can do any better.
 
I've used my Xonar DX for 6 or 7 years and it costed <100$. Thanks to it I can buy cheaper mobos since i don't need to target Realtec 1150 equipped models ;)

The Realtek ALC1150 is on some fairly cheap motherboards.
 
The power issues are fixable. Look at the power section on a prodigy 7.1 hifi - I keep referencing it because I had it for years.
There are beefy filtering caps there, they also boast shielding planes.

I recommend creating a DIY shroud over the whole card if you want, I did one on a Audigy 2ZS and on the Prodigy. Improvements were there. Not due to expectation bias because I simply had to bump the volume up.

I make them from a piece of cardboard, fold it in half so that it covers both sides, and then cover the outer side of the cardboard with aluminum or copper foil securing it in place with transparent tape. Remember - no part of the foil should touch anything inside!

If you want to ground it, just leave some uncovered foil, and connect it to the PC case. I can PM you about this if you want specifics.


power seperate from MB and with its own ground? Shielding over the entire card?

Ugh, why cant they make an STX like this?
 
Whats the windows 10 support like on the Xonars? I couldn't find shit on ASUS web site (not that this is surprising).
 
There are some 3rd party re-packaged drivers for Asus sound cards for Windows 10 that work and work pretty well I've read.

I would do a google search.

More often than not it's the community that will come to the rescue before the actually manufacturer.
 
Whats the windows 10 support like on the Xonars? I couldn't find shit on ASUS web site (not that this is surprising).

The Xonar Phoebus finally has a Win 10 Beta driver as of 9/17/2015 it seems. There are some issues with it. If you turn on the surround processing the sound cuts completely off. And there is an issue with the SPDIF out. And Netflix (anything using DRM) is still blocked. But at least they are trying.

Phoebus driver.
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=ROG+Xonar+Phoebus&p=21&s=3

Discussion where you can read and have a good chuckle at Asus support.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?68137-Windows-10-Driver/page11
 
My Sound Blaster Z sounds amazing and it does not require a power connector.

Why would they do that? Looks fugly.

What's next? 6 pin power connector for MEMORY modules.

Maybe because of the RAID mode. Can't seem to see how you'd RAID the headphones and speakes. Well, it's Asus.

Asus has a history of including power connectors to their pcie cards, seems pcie does not supply enuffpower, think I'll get a soundblaster z as my next upgrade
 
I'm thinking dump my xonar phoebus for the sound blaster x7 . Horrible support from asus on this sound card !
 
The Realtek ALC1150 is on some fairly cheap motherboards.

I know my Xonar DG was $15 (refurbished) and it definitely sounds better than the crap that came with the motherboard (Realtek ALC800 something). The speakers (LSR305) were noticeably more boomy with recessed mids using the onboard. The Xonar was clearer and less boomy right out of the box; no adjustment needed. I believe the real culprit was the crappy Soundblaster equalizer that was built into the board.

I imagine the ALC1150 is leagues ahead of what my motherboard is capable of, though.
 
This is mainly targeted at games wanting the special processing right [CMSS 3D/Dolby Headpone/ Multi-Channel out] ? I mean if you really care about audio quality, you'd want your DAC/AMP out of the computer and on your desk.
 
This is mainly targeted at games wanting the special processing right [CMSS 3D/Dolby Headpone/ Multi-Channel out] ? I mean if you really care about audio quality, you'd want your DAC/AMP out of the computer and on your desk.

Seconding this. Honestly, I haven't had an offboard sound card in about 6 years. Last card I had was an Auzentech Xplosion (RIP Auzentech). Though I do sometimes miss CMSS 3D or Dolby Headphone, i'm perfectly satisfied with my offboard DAC/AMP.

Music and Movies sound fantastic and I don't have to deal with ridiculous driver issues that pretty much all soundcard manufacturers have run into.

As much as people like to ding Microsoft for "ruining" desktop audio with their OS changes, Windows became a helluva lot more stable ever since they booted Asus, Creative and others from creating kernel level drivers.
 
I just noticed that this apparently have some kind of noise cancelling, is this for if I want to use a mic with speakers?

I know that the newer Sound Blaster cards have a feature like that, but because they don't support 7.1, I won't buy them. If these ASUS cards have that feature, I could see myself buying one.
 
Seconding this. Honestly, I haven't had an offboard sound card in about 6 years. Last card I had was an Auzentech Xplosion (RIP Auzentech). Though I do sometimes miss CMSS 3D or Dolby Headphone, i'm perfectly satisfied with my offboard DAC/AMP.

Music and Movies sound fantastic and I don't have to deal with ridiculous driver issues that pretty much all soundcard manufacturers have run into.

True, but remember, SPDIF format limitations and the like. If there were an easy way to get uncompressed lossless 7.1 from a PC to an AMP/DAC, then sure, soundcards can just die, but right now, there really isn't an easy way to do this short of using HDMI. And most low end AMP/DACs dont have HDMI passthrough for the video portion.

As much as people like to ding Microsoft for "ruining" desktop audio with their OS changes, Windows became a helluva lot more stable ever since they booted Asus, Creative and others from creating kernel level drivers.

Agreed. Worth noting the Soundblaster Z, far as I've heard, are free from the fabled Creative driver problems. MSFT went for stability first and foremost.
 
BTW, it's also worth noting that ASUS cards rely on the base C-Media audio driver, which they modify to meet each cards specific needs. Wonder if the delay on the driver side is ASUS or C-Media's fault?

Either way, I'm probably going Creative next time, because either way, the lack of driver support is unacceptable.
 
Agreed. Worth noting the Soundblaster Z, far as I've heard, are free from the fabled Creative driver problems. MSFT went for stability first and foremost.

SoundBlaster Z and Soundcards in general aren't subject to the stability issues nowadays because when Microsoft went to Vista, the driver architecture changes isolated the kernel from most drivers. This was directly in response to the perception that Windows was unstable and crashed compared to other OS's (and it was true). Microsoft analyzed it pretty thoroughly and found most cases of the kernel dying or crashing was usually due to a driver going into a bad state and blocking various calls and other issues.

They tried working with a lot of vendors to get them to shape up and fix their code, but in the end, they had to get really strict since many were unable to do so (sound card vendors were the primary source of the problems).

So it's a lot harder to crash the OS because of a bad driver (hence why you see Nvidia and AMD cards now able to reset the drivers without rebooting the OS. Same deal with other devices. If they crap out, the device simply stops working instead of taking the OS with it.
 
Back
Top