ASUS Xonar Essence STX II

G

German Muscle

Supreme [H]ardness
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Thoughts?
 
I'd be interested in know what the difference between the STX "1" and "2" are. The "1" sounded amazing as it was.
 
you have links for where those photos came from?


the obvious and glaring "HEY look at me difference" is the pins for the daughter card and the daughter card itself. and then the apparent multichannel output (assume the spy pics or whatever are legit).


this is the STX with rf shield removed.

 
Ruoh said:
I'd be interested in know what the difference between the STX "1" and "2" are. The "1" sounded amazing as it was.
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Well amazing after an op amp swap.

I was intrigued by the new USB DAC units...until I saw the price.
 
Is there much point to having discreet 7.1 channel output? Looks cool, but I've never even seen an amplifier that supports that as an input...

And what does the cable that connects the primary card to the daughter card look like? Just a massive wad of shielding?
 
Unknown-One said:
Is there much point to having discreet 7.1 channel output? Looks cool, but I've never even seen an amplifier that supports that as an input...
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Dont know where you have been but most receivers have 7 Analogue inputs these days
 
genkifd said:
Dont know where you have been but most receivers have 7 Analogue inputs these days
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Just dropped a grand on a receiver. Not a single one in the stereo shop (including those in the $4000 to $5000 range) had this capability. Piles of HDMI inputs (and SPDIF inputs), but analog-input was limited to stereo in every single case.

The more expensive receivers seemed hell-bent on making you believe they include the best DAC known to man, and expect you to deliver bitstreamed audio over HDMI.

In a way, it does make sense. Why shove your DAC inside a case full of EM noise and then run extremely long cables carrying an analog signal to an amplifier... when you could just bitstream over HDMI and let the DAC in the receiver handle everything? Should be far less prone to noise... I mean, as long as the DAC in the receiver is decent.
 
Unknown-One said:
Just dropped a grand on a receiver. Not a single one in the stereo shop (including those in the $4000 to $5000 range) had this capability. Piles of HDMI inputs (and SPDIF inputs), but analog-input was limited to stereo in every single case.

The more expensive receivers seemed hell-bent on making you believe they include the best DAC known to man, and expect you to deliver bitstreamed audio over HDMI.

In a way, it does make sense. Why shove your DAC inside a case full of EM noise and then run extremely long cables carrying an analog signal to an amplifier... when you could just bitstream over HDMI and let the DAC in the receiver handle everything? Should be far less prone to noise... I mean, as long as the DAC in the receiver is decent.
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Yeah, that's why I've always preferred AVRs with analog inputs and Pre outs... Don't need o keep upgrading your receiver every time HDMI 2.347 comes out.

Analog in, let your HTPC handle DAC. Pre out, let an external amplifier handle the amp stage. Also lends itself to home theater bypass.

An AVR circa 2006 is good enough as long as it has these.
 
if you wanted to go this route (not sure why honestly) for 5.1 or 7.1

then I guess something like this would work just fine with that xonar

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/xpa-5
for 5 channel and or

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/upa700


for 7

blah blah blah.. could certainly make it work.. going to be a fairly niche thing for someone that wants 7.1 on their computer who doesn't just grab a hdmi AVR receiver instead however.

meh...


oh right and the preamp to go with it...

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/processors/products/umc200
 
Im just curious as to if the card itself is any better. I met an audiophile last year. He let me hear his setup on some good master CDs and it was nice. Audio like ive never heard it before. I told him about my sound card and he doubted it. We did have to use his Amp because the sound card couldnt drive his speakers. He did attest that the card was able to put out just as good of quality as his DAC. The card does well and the quality is there if you have good speakers/cans. Im really just wondering if they were able to top themselves or did they just move stuff around and add a daughter board.
 
Unknown-One said:
Just dropped a grand on a receiver. Not a single one in the stereo shop (including those in the $4000 to $5000 range) had this capability. Piles of HDMI inputs (and SPDIF inputs), but analog-input was limited to stereo in every single case.
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Wow - where do you buy your AVRs?

http://au.denon.com/au/Product/Page...8ac-4dee-ab7a-5d374a9c8050&ProductId=AVR-4520

this denon has the analogue inputs.


Unknown-One said:
The more expensive receivers seemed hell-bent on making you believe they include the best DAC known to man, and expect you to deliver bitstreamed audio over HDMI.
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Actually the top separate Receivers have very good DACs. far better than any sound card.

If you truly care about the DAC you should have a separate DAC unit. but imo they are way too expensive.
 
Unknown-One said:
Just dropped a grand on a receiver. Not a single one in the stereo shop (including those in the $4000 to $5000 range) had this capability. Piles of HDMI inputs (and SPDIF inputs), but analog-input was limited to stereo in every single case.

The more expensive receivers seemed hell-bent on making you believe they include the best DAC known to man, and expect you to deliver bitstreamed audio over HDMI.

In a way, it does make sense. Why shove your DAC inside a case full of EM noise and then run extremely long cables carrying an analog signal to an amplifier... when you could just bitstream over HDMI and let the DAC in the receiver handle everything? Should be far less prone to noise... I mean, as long as the DAC in the receiver is decent.
Click to expand...

Gawd this shit....

Your AVR is no cleaner an environment for a DAC than the inside of a PC...it is more than likely worse. PC power supplies (decent/goodones) are very good at producing clean power. Unlike the jobbies shoved inside PSUs....further AVRs have worse noise sources from things like speaker amps inside them that crank out more noise than PC parts. And to make matters even worse, due to said amp racks AVRs are often on the verge of overheating from poor cooling enough to damage components (like recent HDMI Onkyos) which further destabilizes voltage regulation.

You STILL have to run "long cables" to your speakers anyway.


An AVR is more full of noise than a modern PC case.
 
Skripka said:
Your AVR is no cleaner an environment for a DAC than the inside of a PC...it is more than likely worse.
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I just had to shorten fan cables because there was enough EM noise inside my PC that is was screwing up RPM readings and causing auto-fan-speed to go crazy.

I also wasn't able to use mic-in without relocating my sound card to the very, very last slot on my motherboard. Positioning it in the top slot (between the graphics card and motherboard power regulation circuitry) resulted in all audio coming from mic-in sounding like a lawnmower was running in the same room as the mic as soon as the graphics card started to do ANYTHING while recording. That's a shitload of EM noise...

Somehow, I think my AVR (which was designed with audio in-mind) is going to be a better place for my DAC to reside... it also means I don't have 8x16 feet of analog cable running near power cables that would also add noise to the signal. :rolleyes:

Skripka said:
You STILL have to run "long cables" to your speakers anyway.
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One long cable is better than two :p

And you should know that getting noise into the signal before amplification is far worse than getting noise on the individual speaker channels after amplification.

Skripka said:
An AVR is more full of noise than a modern PC case.
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Tell me how to make my GTX 780 stop throwing out so much EM noise that it screws with case fans and sound cards, and I'll believe that...
 
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Unknown-One said:
I just had to shorten fan cables because there was enough EM noise inside my PC that is was screwing up RPM readings and causing auto-fan-speed to go crazy.

I also wasn't able to use mic-in without relocating my sound card to the very, very last slot on my motherboard. Positioning it in the top slot (between the graphics card and motherboard power regulation circuitry) resulted in all audio coming from mic-in sounding like a lawnmower was running in the same room as the mic as soon as the graphics card started to do ANYTHING while recording. That's a shitload of EM noise...

Somehow, I think my AVR (which was designed with audio in-mind) is going to be a better place for my DAC to reside... it also means I don't have 8x16 feet of analog cable running near power cables that would also add noise to the signal. :rolleyes:


One long cable is better than two :p

And you should know that getting noise into the signal before amplification is far worse than getting noise on the individual speaker channels after amplification.


Tell me how to make my GTX 780 stop throwing out so much EM noise that it screws with case fans and sound cards, and I'll believe that...
Click to expand...

So one by your own admission malfunctioning GPU is indicative of all EM noise from all normally functioning PCs everywhere.

Got it.
 
Skripka said:
So one by your own admission malfunctioning GPU is indicative of all EM noise from all normally functioning PCs everywhere.
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I don't know what post you read, but I never said anything like that. I certainly never said that anything was malfunctioning.

Every graphics card I've ever used has thrown out lots of EM noise, that's just the way things go, and appears to be 100% normal operation.

Skripka said:
Got it.
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You only "got it" if you're going to say that my 7900GT, 8800GTS, HD 5850, HD 5870, HD 6970, and GTX 780 are all "malfunctioning" by throwing out enough noise to cause noticeable issues with PC audio :rolleyes:

Edit: All of the above graphics cards were in different motherboards and many of them paired with different sound cards. Common thread: stressing the graphics card ALWAYS causes noise to appear on any nearby internal sound card no matter what configuration is tried.

There's a legitimate reason high-end sound cards have massive RF shields. It's not just for show...
 
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Unknown-One said:
I don't know what post you read, but I never said anything like that. I certainly never said that anything was malfunctioning.

Every graphics card I've ever used has thrown out lots of EM noise, that's just the way things go, and appears to be 100% normal operation.


You only "got it" if you're going to say that my 7900GT, HD 5850, HD 5870, HD 6970, and GTX 780 are all "malfunctioning" by throwing out enough noise to cause noticeable issues with PC audio :rolleyes:
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Both 6970s I've owned have never done the behavior you describe, nor did the 4850x2 nor the GTX260 or the 8500GT. The MacPros jammed into roadie cases for touring that the roadie bands I've worked for that have 5870s in them never do this. And those systems live a harder life than any machine you or I use.

I got what you said. Which is that a card that is malfunctioning is apparently wreaking havoc. A GPU should not throw out that kind of noise. End o story.
 
Skripka said:
I got what you said. Which is that a card that is malfunctioning is apparently wreaking havoc. A GPU should not throw out that kind of noise. End o story.
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No, no apparently you DIDN'T get what I said. All of the above graphics cards have functioned perfectly.

You're saying that 6 graphics cards, across 4 motherboards, across 2 different sound cards are all "malfunctioning" configurations? With exactly the same "malfunction"? Sorry, no :rolleyes:. I guarantee you I could replace this GTX 780 with ANY other, and see exactly the same issue. I'd bet money on it.

Graphics cards generate noise, it's a fact of life. Positioning a sound card in the slot above most any high-end graphics card will cause issues. I've NEVER seen a scenario where this isn't true. Moving the sound card farther away helps. Shielding the sound card helps. Making the DAC external eliminates the issue entirely.

Edit: Also, I DID SAY that the graphics card was under load when these issues manifested at their worst. That's an important point. How many tests have you done on your audio hardware while also putting the graphics card under heavy load?
 
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Unknown-One said:
No, no apparently you DIDN'T get what I said. All of the above graphics cards have functioned perfectly.

You're saying that 6 graphics cards, across 4 motherboards, across 2 different sound cards are all "malfunctioning" configurations? With exactly the same "malfunction"? Sorry, no :rolleyes:. I guarantee you I could replace this GTX 780 with ANY other, and see exactly the same issue. I'd bet money on it.

Graphics cards generate noise, it's a fact of life. Positioning a sound card in the slot above most any high-end graphics card will cause issues. I've NEVER seen a scenario where this isn't true. Moving the sound card farther away helps. Shielding the sound card helps. Making the DAC external eliminates the issue entirely.

Edit: Also, I DID SAY that the graphics card was under load when these issues manifested at their worst. That's an important point. How many tests have you done on your audio hardware while also putting the graphics card under heavy load?
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No drama from me, I just find this issue pretty fascinating and my gut instinct is that the video cards are actually not at play, but the PSU might be if it was a constant throughout all the other components you switched out. I had a nice Rosewill modular PSU that caused big thumping from my speakers whenever it kicked the system on/off sleep/wake. The noise itself is normal behavior, and I get a tiny thump from all the power supplies I've tried since, but the problem was majorly amplified by that PSU somehow.

About what you guys are debating specifically, I think there's a million reasons you can get noise into your recordings, and obviously a computer case is not the best way to go about eliminating them. I'm positive there are absolutely studio-worthy mid-tower mounted DACs in operation, but I agree it's probably not ideal to have a graphics rendering machine right next to your recording inputs.
 
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Bluesun311 said:
No drama from me, I just find this issue pretty fascinating and my gut instinct is that the video cards are actually not at play, but the PSU might be if it was a constant throughout all the other components you switched out.
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Heh, nope. 3 different PSU's have been gone through.

Ultra 500w, Corsair TX 750w, and Corsair HX 850w. Dirty power has been ruled out multiple times with a multimeter.

Edit: Also worth noting... moving my sound card to the last slot on my motherboard puts it directly above my power supply. If the PSU were a large RF source, the move should have made things worse rather than better.

Bluesun311 said:
I had a nice Rosewill modular PSU that caused big thumping from my speakers whenever it kicked the system on/off sleep/wake.
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The Xonar I'm using now has nice big relays to prevent that kind of thing. You can hear an audible "click" from the sound card during boot-up as it mechanically disables the audio outputs during system initialization.

I have some fairly large speakers hooked up, so if it allowed any pops through during boot-up or shutdown, I'd hear them. lol
 
That is a weirdly consistent issue. I had the same problem with older xfi and asus cards. With the creative zx I can't recall hearing any noise so far.
 
Well, the zx has a giant metal shield covering the entire face of the card. That probably helps a bit.

Neither my old Audigy 2 or my new Xonar DX have such a shield, and apparently, it shows.
 
Aren't Muses $50 a pop?

I'm not sure I'm understanding the table in the article correctly. Does the non-7.1 version come with 3x Muses preloaded plus an additional Muses and 2x LME's? It does say "included op-amp swap kit"
 
rastaban said:
Aren't Muses $50 a pop?

I'm not sure I'm understanding the table in the article correctly. Does the non-7.1 version come with 3x Muses preloaded plus an additional Muses and 2x LME's? It does say "included op-amp kit"
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You can get MUSES 8920s for $15:

http://audiotrack.net/en/store/2203

Both versions come with the MUSES 8920s preloaded in all 3 sockets. But it comes with a MUSES 8820 and 2xLME49720s if you want to swap out a bit. I have LME49720s in all the sockets on my STX now (IIRC) and like it a great deal.
 
hmm, that looks cheap enough for me to consider for my next needless upgrade itch :D

I've never fiddled with the opamps on the STX but I've read a lot of good impressions with 2x LME49720s. Where do you suggest I can pick some up? and have you compared them with Muses?
 
rastaban said:
hmm, that looks cheap enough for me to consider for my next needless upgrade itch :D

I've never fiddled with the opamps on the STX but I've read a lot of good impressions with 2x LME49720s. Where do you suggest I can pick some up? and have you compared them with Muses?
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I've never tried the MUSES...I'm tempted, that site I've never dealt with first search hit that came up for those op amps on Google.

I really hated the stock opamps on the STXv1. Sounded tinny and small compared to what the LME49720s can do. Much warmer, much bigger soundstage, still sounds natural. As a musician, classical music sounds like it should (good voice separation, good staging etc). Come to think of it I have an LM6172IN in the buffer socket and the 49720s in the I/V (had to check my notes to see what I did). That buffer only impatc the RCA out whereas the 49702s in the 2x I/V sockets are for headphone only IIRC.

You'll need to search around, my LMEs came with the card I bought used.

This thread on head-fi has impressions/ideas on different opamp configurations:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/421890/the-xonar-essence-stx-q-a-tweaking-impressions-thread
 
Ah yes that headfi thread I've visited a few times in the past. I can definitely use any added warmth for my K702s although I usually use speakers.
 
The Xonar Essence STX is probably still considered Asus's flagship audio card--sorry, dear Phoebus--and, AIUI, strangely, one of the two of their entire line that's generally been the most supported since launch (next to the Xense). If this is its replacement, their support element preemptively needs to step it up...at least in comparison to what they've done in the past year or so.

Flip side, since it too will have to go up against the Sound Blaster ZXR...this will at least be interesting to watch. For a minute.
 
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