Power Supply for Asus Essence STX II?

[Marcm]

My brother-in-law bought me the Asus Essence STX II sound card as a present. The IT specialist from my office installed it (I have a desktop PC, VelocityMicro...about 7 years old).

As he was installing it he said to me that the card requires its own power supply. But then he somehow hooked it up with the power supply for the PC.

One questions is this: I've read that a separate power supply for this card would make a real difference in sound quality (I listen to classical music). Can anyone verify this?

If so, can anyone recommend a power supply for the Asus sound card?

Thank you.

 

[JS_]

While I don't have that exact sound card, I do have a different ASUS sound card that also has an additional power connector which requires you to plug it into your computer's power supply. You don't need an additional power supply nor was it recommended anywhere in the product info. As for whether a separate power supply would improve sound quality, I have my doubts as the card is plugged directly into your motherboard which is plugged into your computer PSU already so there would be no way to isolate things unless the card somehow isolates the two power supplies onboard. I could be wrong though.

 

[Mchart]

While I don't have that exact sound card, I do have a different ASUS sound card that also has an additional power connector which requires you to plug it into your computer's power supply. You don't need an additional power supply nor was it recommended anywhere in the product info. As for whether a separate power supply would improve sound quality, I have my doubts as the card is plugged directly into your motherboard which is plugged into your computer PSU already so there would be no way to isolate things unless the card somehow isolates the two power supplies onboard. I could be wrong though.

The power between the digital and analog stages on the STX are separated. So it uses the standard PCI-E motherboard provided power to run the DAC/digital side of the card, but then draws on the external power connection for the analog stages and headphone amp. I would assume an external power brick providing molex would theoretically provide cleaner audio if you had a crappy PSU w/ a molex connector on a shared rail with a bunch of other noisy crap.

 

[thyfleshconsumed]

Yes, Asus Essence STX and STXII have 4 pin molex that is supposed to power the card. Theoretically, a dirty/noisy power supply could affect sound quality, and if that's the case, theoretically external power supply terminated with 4 pin molex would improve the sound.

Having said that, stuff like this mostly likely comes from head-fi. I stopped visiting head-fi 5-10 years ago because it just became a cesspool of snake oil salespeople trying to convince people that cable burn in matters, that better power cable will have audible difference, etc, etc... I couldn't stand it so I left. I recently took a peak, and although it's much better, the snake oil selling is very much alive, it just got high tech - I still got private message offering to send me https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/cable-plus-a2r/ fancy cable that was supposed to improve the sound as long as I agreed to review it, sigh...

Anyway, I say unless you actually hear some static noise then don't bother, 4pin molex from your power supply is enough. I've had Asus Essence STX I, I now have Asus Essence STX II, I had both of them powered by the computer power supply, I had them driving PPA V2 and O2 amplifiers through analog outputs and then to HD-650. I never noticed any sound problems, it always sounded clean and breathtaking.

 

[westrock2000]

If you are feeling adventurous.....

I am working on a multichannel amp and had issues with amplifier modules causing noise on the DC rail that caused static when more then 1 board was in use.

So I bought these PCB's on eBay that are meant for normal +/- voltage supplies and with some slight modification (nothing to the board) I was able to use it to have 2 independent V+ outputs.

Looking at the documentation of your soundcard I couldn't tell if the 5V is being used on the molex....the 12V for sure is if it's powering the opamps. But you could use 1 of these boards and use a 12V+ and 5V+ voltage regulator to make a very clean molex supply.

Voltage regulators require 2 volts or more (generally) then what they put out, so if using a 12V regulator you would need 15V (closest common available voltage) coming in, and the 5V would be fine also using that. You could safely go up even higher if you can find or have a cheap 19V laptop supply.

I used TI 780 regulators (12V / 5V). They offer very high noise rejection and also allow for 1.5 amps of current instead of 1 amp the typical LM7812/LM7805 offer. When using a voltage regulator, the output voltage itself is not of concern (an op-amp doesn't care about 12.05V versus 12.5 volts). What they do is reject noise on the rail, especially at higher frequencies. That's where the differences come in.

The biggest change to be made to board is swapping 2 legs on one of the voltage regulators. The other changes involve just soldering some components in a different direction.

Again.....if you are interested.

 

[westrock2000]

Having said that, stuff like this mostly likely comes from head-fi. I stopped visiting head-fi 5-10 years ago because it just became a cesspool of snake oil salespeople trying to convince people that cable burn in matters, that better power cable will have audible difference, etc, etc... I couldn't stand it so I left. I recently took a peak, and although it's much better, the snake oil selling is very much alive, it just got high tech - I still got private message offering to send me https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/cable-plus-a2r/ fancy cable that was supposed to improve the sound as long as I agreed to review it, sigh...

That sounds like its just a simple buffer. The most basic thing there is.