New soundcard for KRK RP5 G2s

C

chortler

n00b
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Sep 14, 2005
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6
Greetangs and saultations,

So literally 2 hours from me placing an order for a pair of KRK RP5 G2s my audio starts sounding like the theme from Bowser's castle and then craps out completely. This means I am now in the market for a new soundcard and after a few days of trawling reviews and threads I am still a bit bamboozled by it all.

I am mainly looking for info and opinions on the Asus Xonar Essence STX and alternatives of similar quality. I understand that the STX is targeted towards headphone users but I think for my 2.0 setup it looks really good. I like the analogue outputs and I think it would match the speakers really well. My main concern is the lack of EAX and the impact that this would have on gaming on a 2.0 speaker setup. If I was just looking at music I probably would have ordered the card already.

I would say my usage is 65% music 35% gaming (no movies). Most of the day it is music but after dinner its Left 4 Dead o'clock! So yeah I game on my PC and like to keep up with new releases. If anyone has first hand experience gaming with an STX that would be great info, especially if you are using speakers. I am also interested in how gaming is if the card is left pure stereo in hi fi mode.

I can get the Essence STX for .au$230 and I am happy with that but would probably be cool going up to .au$300 (~200US). I am looking into Auzentech as well but I do like the more audiophile tilt of the STX.

I am running Win 7 beta (will format to W7 RC when I get the new card)
Q6600 @ stock, Asus Striker Extreme, 4GB RAM, 4870 512mb
Upgrading from Logi Z-680s (KRK RP5s on the way) and an Audigy 2 Platinum

Sorry about the long post. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 
Well, looking towards the future the lack of EAX support is irrelevant (it's a dead API, only supported on Vista thru Creative's ALchemy app which translates calls to OpenAL), so unless there's a few old games that you think you can't enjoy w/o full EAX support you should be fine with the STX and your 2.0 setup. :p
 
What are you using the KRK's for? I would almost suggest a USB/optical DAC especially if you're listening to music heavily.
 
@ Impulse: Yeah I had thought something similar. I don't really know what is going to happen to EAX but I can definitely see the move away from it. I don't really play that many old games and the ones that I do are fallout age anyway, making EAX a moot point. My main concerns are L4D and TF2, which seem to use Miles anyway and future treats like Bioshock 2. I dont know if it is worth getting something like a Prelude just on the EAX support.

@UncleDavid218: The KRKs will be for my everyday listening, so music and games. More music than games but I would like both to be great. Despite the fact that they are monitors I probably wont be doing much mixing on them :). I do have a set of Sony MDR - 7509s, but they dont see much use.

I looked into the external DAC path for a little while but I think (for this upgrade and my current usage patterns at least) the internal soundcard will be more suitable. The KRKs are also going to take up most of my remaining free space.
 
I think Essence STX is the best sound card right now for 2.0 audio, expect maybe EMU 1212m/1616m.
 
Thanks for the input guys!

I've found some more info on using the STX with games and I think even without the haxering EAX mode (gx2.5), or EAX itself I should still get decent positional audio and good quality in Hi Fi mode, considering my speakers and the card. I also think driver updates + the move to OpenAL will make not having EAX less of an issue. So hopefully that logic is sound :D
 
Also, take a look at the Asus Xonar DX. Very good soundcard and still has the majority of the Essence's features. 10-band eq ftw
 
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