ASUS Launches Essence STX II and Essence STX II 7.1 Sound Cards

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Mar 14, 2014.

  1. Andrew LB

    Andrew LB Maha Guru

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    Talk about the biggest load of crap i've read on the net in a long time. I have zero driver issues with my x-fi titanium HD, latency is normal, and the sound quality completely obliterates any onboard sound. I guess they may sound the same with a pair of $15 headphones, but if you actually had quality studio monitors or headphones like my Sennheiser HD580's, the difference is like night and day.
     
  2. Andrew LB

    Andrew LB Maha Guru

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    OH...my...God... that is one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen. Do such places exist in the United States? Or do I have to make the Journey to Japan to experience such glory?
     
  3. orky87

    orky87 Guest

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    Sound cards are a must for gaming that said there no point in spending 150-200 on one, fooling yourself into believing that it's a great audio solution.

    With that money or for a little bit more (or less if second hand) you could invest in an external USB DAC/Amp and move it from one source to another without having to limit yourself to PCI/e only.

    Sound cards get their power from PSUs which can be electrically noisy and as it sits inside your case jammed beside a GPU they are surrounded by EMI. These two valid factors don't go well with audio and are often brought up in arguments against sound cards.

    Moving to external audio eliminates EMI and most USB DAC/Amp combo's also benefit from plug&play with native OS driver support.

    As an example of what could be had instead of a sound card here's a list of credible combo's that will do a great job yet don't have a ridiculous Audiophile price tag attached to them;

    -Leckerton Audio UHA-6S.MKII
    -JDS Labs or Mayflower Electronics O2+ODAC, (UK Ver. Epiphany Acoustics EHP-O2D)
    -Audinst HUD-mx2 or cheaper mx1
    -Yulong U100

    Getting ether one of the above is all you really need to replace a sound card, I'm sure there are others to consider but the list consists of very credible audio combo's. There's not much out there that matches this level of bang for buck really.
     
  4. FULMTL

    FULMTL Ancient Guru

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    The closest you can get to this is in the US is the Headroom store in Montana.

    http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/beauty-headphone-store
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    They will most likely have headphones worth listening to and not everything in a lineup as they do in Japan. Quality vs quantity. According to the above link, he says there's about 10 headphone stores in the US.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2014

  5. ASLayerAODsk

    ASLayerAODsk Guest

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    I wonder how big the difference will be from the STX to the II....if any.
     
  6. Darkest

    Darkest Guest

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    While I agree that external products are often superior for headphone use, I would advise that people stay away from Mayflower in general. After the ridiculous video they made with Tek Syndicate, in which they spewed misinformed nonsense and outright lies, I would suggest people go elsewhere for their audio products.
     
  7. MasterBash

    MasterBash Guest

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    Wondering the same thing lol. Probably not much if anything.
     
  8. orky87

    orky87 Guest

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    Not just headphones as one can use it as a DAC/Pre-amp with a line out to an external loudspeaker amp.

    For audio production with more inputs/outputs E-MU 0204 would do an excellent job and still acts as a DAC/Amp combo probably the ultimate bang for buck out of all.

    Regarding Mayflower I only mentioned them as an alternative to JDS Labs as it's the very same product.
     
  9. Darkest

    Darkest Guest

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    That's exactly what I do with my setup, although I primarily listen to headphones.

    T1 line out > Nad C316BEE > Wharfedale Diamond 10.1's

    I do think soundcards have a place for some uses. One of those being physical surround setups, if I was going to go for a 5.1 speaker layout I'd probably grab a ZxR or one of these new Asus cards and run analogue out to a receiver. There's merits in different setups, although I can't see myself moving from my current setup speaker wise for some time.
     
  10. finaxe

    finaxe New Member

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    3rd party Xonar driver

    Are you referring to the UNi Xonar Drivers?
     

  11. bigcid1

    bigcid1 Master Guru

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    when's it going to be available for sale though?
     
  12. bobdude

    bobdude Guest

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    agreed
     

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