Xonar Essence ST Sneak Peak

[leeperry]

Originally Posted by e6600

so would you say that a stock ST > STx by a big margin?
or even possibly worth a price increase ($200-280?)

if you're looking for a crazily analytical sound, most definitely.

the SQ is so good that many recordings that sounded fine on the STX just lack now on the ST...it's put the bar one notch further

the stereo image is just way better, far less crossfeed/distortion...I read that some ppl were disturbed by the LME49720 level of details, that's exactly what I'm experiencing right now....there's FAR too many details for my little earthling ears, it'll take some time to get used to I guess

PS: the ST is less than US $10 more expensive than the STX.

[e6600]

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX

Well the specificaitons for both cards are identical.
The difference being the new high precision clocking circuit which cuts down on alot of jitter.

is that a new hardware component of the ST? or is it completely software based?
may be possible to just flash the STx's bios and have it be recognized as a ST card to get the ST driver support

[ROBSCIX]

Hardware clock chip. Cleans up the master clock signal.

[e6600]

Originally Posted by leeperry

if you're looking for a crazily analytical sound, most definitely.

the SQ is so good that many recordings that sounded fine on the STX just lack now on the ST...it's put the bar one notch further

the stereo image is just way better, far less crossfeed/distortion...I read that some ppl were disturbed by the LME49720 level of details, that's exactly what I'm experiencing right now....there's FAR too many details for my little earthling ears, it'll take some time to get used to I guess

PS: the ST is less than US $10 more expensive than the STX.

$10
i wonder if they will drop the prices of the STx or just phase it out.. either way for $210 USD, its unbeatable

[leeperry]

well, one of my test discs is the remastered(from the original master tapes) "Enter The Dragon" OST...god---- the chinese percs in track #6 are

Amazon.com: Enter the Dragon: Lalo Schifrin: Music

and the funk/jazz tracks also sound mind blowing...my upgraditis is at peace for now, until Asus does it again

[ROBSCIX]

Originally Posted by e6600

$10
i wonder if they will drop the prices of the STx or just phase it out.. either way for $210 USD, its unbeatable

No, many are not interested in PCI gear.

[Bojamijams]

Originally Posted by leeperry

if you're looking for a crazily analytical sound, most definitely.

the SQ is so good that many recordings that sounded fine on the STX just lack now on the ST...it's put the bar one notch further

the stereo image is just way better, far less crossfeed/distortion...I read that some ppl were disturbed by the LME49720 level of details, that's exactly what I'm experiencing right now....there's FAR too many details for my little earthling ears, it'll take some time to get used to I guess

PS: the ST is less than US $10 more expensive than the STX.

This is confusing to read.. you're saying the SQ is so good, that it 'lacks' compared to STX?

And crossfeed and distortion are nowhere near the same thing, yet you write it as if they're synonymous?

[DanD]

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX

No, many are not interested in PCI gear.

I've read somewhere that PCI is actually better compare to PCI Express, when dealing with jitter. PCI Express wasn't really design with that in mind but bandwdith throughput. Anyone can confirmed this ?

[ROBSCIX]

Back when PCI-E was being talked about, Creative of all people stated that PCI-E was no good for audio for whatever reason. I have PCI and PCI-E cards and they all work great. I have never read nor seen any information which suggests that one interface is better then another in terms of stability of the clocking signals.

[DanD]

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX

You cannot hear Jitter. What you hear is the affects it has on the sound, such as distortion and artifacting.

Correct me if I am wrong, Jitter refers to the drift in actual clock compare to reference clock. What you actually hear as a result of jitter is called phase distortion. Apparently (topic of debate) our ears are very sensitive to phase distortion. It is said that our ears can detect in order of microsecond in term of phase distortion. So that means our ears can detect phase distortion upto 1 MHz signal. That also means you need around 2 MHz sampling for digital audio not because we can hear ultrasonic frequency, but because we can detect phase distortion in signal less than that.

Is that also the reason why SACD sample the audio at 2+ MHz using DSD instead of standard PCM ? Their goal is being to avoid phase distortion ?

Is there anyway of measuring jitter to compare ST and STX ?

[ROBSCIX]

There are many types of jitter, You cannot really "hear" jitter, as I mentioned all you hear is the negative affect it has on the output signal.

The type we are talking about in relation to the clocking chip on the ST is periodic jitter which is variation in the start and end times in the transition of the master clock cycle.
The master clock enables the DAC and ADC depending on these pulses. When these pulses arrive early or late the audio is converted at incorrect times which distorts the output signal. You can also have artifacting which can be mathematically related to the jitter in the clock signal. You are right though, it is a hot topic of debate. I prefer to stay out of that one.
You can measure the difference if you have both cards and the tools to do so.
To note, The STX and the ST measure the same for THD,IMD, Frequency Response, Dynamic range..etc.

[genclaymore]

Originally Posted by DanD

I've read somewhere that PCI is actually better compare to PCI Express, when dealing with jitter. PCI Express wasn't really design with that in mind but bandwdith throughput. Anyone can confirmed this ?

The thing is PCI-E can help if you have more PCI-E's then PCI slots. and or can place cards in PCI-E slots but not in your pci slots etc. alot of boards have pci-e1x cards behind the video card that you can use.

I could use my PCI slot as It would be in my way whenever i go sli.

[12Bass]

Has anyone tried clocking another card (particularly the STX) from the ST's low jitter clock source? If the clock is making the difference, then slaving from the ST's clock ought to clean up the sound of other cards.

[ROBSCIX]

You can buy higher precision clocks if you want to replace the XO on your card.
This works great for upgrading a soundcard. I know three guys that have upgraded some other cards with a high quality clock source. This is also a common way to upgrade a CD player...

[leeperry]

Originally Posted by DanD

I've read somewhere that PCI is actually better compare to PCI Express, when dealing with jitter. PCI Express wasn't really design with that in mind but bandwdith throughput. Anyone can confirmed this ?

well, the STX has a PCI-E>PCI bridge, it's not going to help w/ latency(and jitter?)
there's a tight link between both, the more latency the higher the jitter.

Originally Posted by Bojamijams

This is confusing to read.. you're saying the SQ is so good, that it 'lacks' compared to STX?

And crossfeed and distortion are nowhere near the same thing, yet you write it as if they're synonymous?

it's much more resolving.
many recordings sounded OK on the STX, but *now* w/ the much more accurate stereo image sometimes you can hear slight glitches(the work of crappy op-amps in the mixers like the JRC5532?)

it's been said that most recordings have gone through hundreds of 5532(mixers, preamps, etc etc), Gregorio has told us many times that ppl in studios couldn't care less about audiophile grade components....and you can hear that!

the improved clocking drastically decreases crossfeed and distortion, the sound is not "held" back...it's hard to put words on it. read the Asus fluff, they're right! the jitter improvement is VERY audible

basically, the audio is not constantly cycling in the 2 channels, it stays L and R solid, not LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR..if that makes any sense