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Asus Xonar Essence STX

F

frost

n00b
Joined
Nov 10, 2005
Messages
34
Just got mine Asus Xonar Essence STX, wow this card rocks, upgraded from X-FI, all of it connected to M-Audio Bx8s Deluxe.
Asus is the new king of audio.
How you guys like yours?
 
Hi, I've just got mine, it indeed sounds fantastic.
I mean, it is by far th cleanest source that I've ever used since my first sound card 10 years ago.

I'm using Senheisser HD600 now as my primary gaming gear.
Some might wonder isn't that for audiophiles? but I say good audio should be unversal, there is no such thing as music only or gamer only.

Anyways, glad to see people using the same gear here...
 
silverlai3 said:
I'm using Senheisser HD600 now as my primary gaming gear.
Some might wonder isn't that for audiophiles?
Click to expand...

No...I was wondering something more like "um, doesn't that thing need a bit more amplification than you're ever going to get out of a sound card?"
 
Sure, and that's the point of Xonar Essence STX.

It's got built in headphone amp able to driver up to 600 ohm, and the quality is compariable to some $700 desktop amps... you really need to hear it to believe it.

Anyways, here's ROBSCIX' 18 pages reivew of this card on 2/13

It's a Guru3D TOP PICK
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-xonar-essence-stx-review/

ASUS has proven that they are not only a presence in the PC audio market but a serious force to be reckoned with and an audio design entity not to be taken lightly by fans or competitors. The Xonar sound machine has been put into high gear and the question on my mind is; if the Essence has sound quality this impressive; imagine what ASUS has up their sleeves next?

We highly recommend this card to anybody who wants exceptional sound quality for their headphones or stereo speaker system. This card offers sound quality that is many times better then its price really reflects. I am also awarding this card the Top Pick Editors choice award and it will remain my new reference card for headphones until surpassed by ASUS or another.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, seeing as there's not a separate power supply to deal with the fact that PCI-E isn't really set up for that...I'm going to call bullshit. Unless it's one really crappy $700 amp. One of the key issues is that ability to drive =/= ability to drive well. You just can't reasonably expect that from a sound card type device.
 
ashmedai said:
Yeah, seeing as there's not a separate power supply to deal with the fact that PCI-E isn't really set up for that...I'm going to call bullshit. Unless it's one really crappy $700 amp. One of the key issues is that ability to drive =/= ability to drive well. You just can't reasonably expect that from a sound card type device.
Click to expand...

There is a molex connector on the sound card that provides power for the amp.
 
I was interested in this, but I'd like to see an Impedance/Power chart.

rant:

Why the hell doesn't this type of info ever get posted by most mfrs of HP Amps???

Like these specs from a Little Dot 1+:

Power Output:
150mW @ 300 ohms
300mW @ 120 ohms
800mW @ 32 ohms

Useful shit there....you know this would be a bad amp to drive, say, HD650's, but great for D2000's.

/rant
 
silverlai3 said:
Sure, and that's the point of Xonar Essence STX.

It's got built in headphone amp able to driver up to 600 ohm, and the quality is compariable to some $700 desktop amps... you really need to hear it to believe it.

Anyways, here's ROBSCIX' 18 pages reivew of this card on 2/13

It's a Guru3D TOP PICK
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-xonar-essence-stx-review/
Click to expand...

This card is well received by the Head-Fi crowd but comparable to a $700 dedicated headphone amp? Please. Its strengths lie in its DAC, not in its amp section. Just because it needs a molex power connector to feed it doesn't mean it's a quality, high end amplifier. Better than a $700 receiver maybe. Better than an RSA or a Singlepower? Not even close. One guy commented how it wasn't even on par with his Gilmore Lite. :eek: Call me when the traditional FOTM fire dies down and then we'll talk.
 
Have you really listened to it? and perhaps you've missed other 53 pages of discussions


I think Guru3D and Robscix are not site and reviewer who doesn't care about their reputations.
Also lots of people on Head-Fi are very experienced and maybe more devoted to headphones and audio then people here.

Probably everyone here has one or two piece of X-FI, so we know how good it is. But have you actually heard of this Xonar?
 
I don't care if it's made of platinum-coated gold dust forged in the heart of a dwarf star using alien technology. It's just not plausible for a sound card to live up to the claims you made for it. If you want, you can come over to Head-Fi and I'll call bullshit on it again?

Sure, it's a good sound card. But it's a sound card, not a discrete amplifier. There are some things you just can't expect a sound card to do.
 
And that's some reasonable discussions going on here.

So basically we can do this, change this phrase into this that people used to say some 30 years ago:
Sure, it's a good PC. But it's a PC, not a IBM mainframe. There are some things you just can't expect a PC to do.
IBM_360.jpg
 
Good for you.

You want a sound card that can handle high-demand phones? Stick an external power connector on it. You're not getting it from inside an ATX PC.

Also, it would need to be considerably larger to deal with the HEAT that most full-blown amplifiers tend to generate.
 
Guys, I think ashmedai have complete no idea about this card, he doesn't even know that the card has built-in headphone amp and MOLEX power at fist place... com'on, even a full-blow HEADPHONE amp generates much less heat (we ain't talking about poweramps here), did he even get it?

Yeah, you can hate soundcards and refuse to embrace new tech, but if you don't have (and refuse to have) any idea about the thing then stop making all that BS.
 
So again, you are mixing Class A or B amp with a 21 century class D amp.

A/B/AB could be hot and good, but that doesn't rule out a D could also be a good amp. I think TI has really made something good out there.

I, myself, also a owner of tube amp dared mp5 for my PC and also a Marantz PM8003, am very very impressive how capable of this Xonar to drive my HD600.

I got this Xonar Essence is only because i need something good in my new workstation in my office to drive my HD600 while I'm working, and I don't want to hang lots of boxes and cables on my desktop. And guess what, without burning, the out of the box clairy and detail literally dropped my jaws to the ground.

Anyways, don't want to sound like a sales here, just sharing my thoughts and experience with the people here and the mod of this thread.
 
IvesKu said:
Guys, I think ashmedai have complete no idea about this card, he doesn't even know that the card has built-in headphone amp and MOLEX power at fist place... com'on, even a full-blow HEADPHONE amp generates much less heat (we ain't talking about poweramps here), did he even get it?

Yeah, you can hate soundcards and refuse to embrace new tech, but if you don't have (and refuse to have) any idea about the thing then stop making all that BS.
Click to expand...

You really don't need to play me-too with him. Really you don't.

For starters, you clearly have no clue what you're talking about - because every sound card in the world has a headphone amp in it. Some of them - like the one in the STX - are even pretty solid quality. But none of them have one capable of driving the highest demand headphones well, which is the claim silverlai3 is making for the STX.

And most of the more powerful headphone amps that can do what he claims? They do get pretty hot to the touch. Take that heat spread out across the large chassis of many of those amps and concentrate it, and you're talking something approaching GPU or CPU levels of heat. You would need similar levels of cooling as high end GPUs and CPUs demand at a rough estimate - in addition to the power needs, which as I've said far too many times now are not going to be met without an external source.

But if you don't want to listen, feel free, go embrace your new tech. I'll be here wondering why you did it based on nonsensical claims.

And that's pretty much it for me, because this thread is going nowhere fast and has been nowhere near the original topic for quite a while. Like frost said, it's a pretty darn sweet card. And we've covered why silverlai3's claims are no good pretty thoroughly for anyone that might be misled by him (see also strend, skyline who both wisely didn't get drawn in). Anyone that still is...well, not my problem. :D
 
I don't really think it's a mislead, in fact, all personal opinion could be misleading (mine, and also yours) because everyone feels different ways. IMO you may have higher requirement to audio quality than that Silver dude - but if he's all satified with his rig and wanted to share than what's misleading about it?

And there's nothing wrong if you have listened to the card and say "this is not good enough for me". But what I've seen is that you say it's bad just because it's a sound card. Not forcing you to embrace new stuff but com'on be a little bit open-mided
 
silverlai3 said:
Have you really listened to it? and perhaps you've missed other 53 pages of discussions


I think Guru3D and Robscix are not site and reviewer who doesn't care about their reputations.
Also lots of people on Head-Fi are very experienced and maybe more devoted to headphones and audio then people here.

Probably everyone here has one or two piece of X-FI, so we know how good it is. But have you actually heard of this Xonar?
Click to expand...

I read through all 53 pages of discussion actually. Well 54, now that someone decided to link over here.

Only two people have actually done any kind of comparison to an actual external amp. Everyone else, in 53 pages of discussion, are all running it directly without any kind of external amplification. You would think that if this thing really beat out $700 desktop amps, there would be more real comparisons. :rolleyes: The only guy who favored this amp was the guy at the beginning of the thread who said it was better than his Corda Blue, which is a modded HA-1. The only other person who actually did an external amp comparison, said it wasn't even on par with his Gilmore Lite; and this came from someone who was just as enthusiastic about the Essence before its arrival, one who was misled into believing that this sound card's amp section could top out a $700 amp like the Meier Opera.

In general, I have never been a fan of the Meier house sound. Though their high end amplification is sublime, their low to mid-end stuff has never showed me the kind of clarity and musicality I wanted, so to me, besting the Corda is not exactly a tough accomplishment. In my opinion, having always been a fan of Head-Amp's gear, the Gilmore Lite represents a good benchmark for this price-range and the fact that it could not compete, is all I need to keep me from purchasing one. If you like the sound, good for you. If you think it can power your HD600s well, good for you. But please don't mislead everyone else into thinking this can compete with a $700 desktop amp.
 
So whether $700 compariable or not, I'm open, and i can take the heat by quoting the words from head-fi. $700 or not is open for debate, but that's based on my personal review, so don't put mis-leading into my mouth.

But again, be reasonable, for the price of $200 and SNR @124dB, Xonar Essence STX is an incredibly clean audio source. And it even powers high impedence head phones, seriously, pretty nice. Please let us know if there is any sound cad better than this one for your headphone on PC. I did own pretty much all genration of X-FI (lately got Titanium for my kid) and even one emu0404 before, but none of them could even drive my HD600 properly.

Here's some fact decriptions of the amp section of the chip from TI, I think ASUS has made pretty good use of this newly released chip.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-xonar-essence-stx-review/9
The high Impedance (Z) headphone amplifier used on this card is the Texas Instruments

TI6120A2 which provides better then 120dB dynamic range, a SNR of 120dB and a fast Slew Rate of 1300 V/µS add the fact that this amplifier circuit is swinging from -12 V to +12 volts and we have a serious high fidelity power source for demanding headphones.

The THD+n graph from the specification sheets show impressive results and this amplifier chip has very low distortion within the audio bandwidth.
Click to expand...

TI6120A2 Spec Sheet
 
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