Xonar Essence STX: Sneak Peek!

[limesinferior]

Originally Posted by finaxe

I'll put to the tests my new Xonar Essence STX against the gears of Pompon: SinglePower MPX3 Slam, AudioResearch CD3 MK2, HD650 recabled with Equinox LE...

Wait for our review...

WOW :-)

[limesinferior]

[QUOTE=fzman;5275391]go to the audioasylum forum-- pc-audio, and look for the post from john swenson regarding a linear power supply for the fit-pc. he posted a schematic and instructions for a good psu. it wil have to be made for both 5v and 12v, and we are not sure yet whether it is big enough, since we don't have the specific current demands for the two voltages seprately. maybe rob can get more specific answers from asus.....

thanks. according to this thread Audio Asylum Thread Printer john swenson's psu is optimized for 1-1.5A with max at 2A so lets wait for power specification. many thanks ROBSCIX

[QUOTE=fzman;5275391]20 watts is a pretty big supply, so this is a work in progress. i just ordered the parts from digikey (inductors from mouser).

i m not suprised, especially if u r going to use chokes. btw whats the cost for john swenson's psu?

i got encouraged to build switch mode power supply with very low ripple noise. design and testing probably will take some time.

[limesinferior]

what material has been used by asus for emi shielding of the analog section. anyone knows / has any hints - i would appreciate some info in this area

[BigTrouble]

Originally Posted by XtremeD

Also, my Cyberlink PowerDVD comes with Dolby Headphone option atm, and I can run it with my Realtek onboard soundcard. So how is this different to having the Essence STX that supports it?

I'm quite sure people here ain't buying no Essence STX for Dolby Headphone only, the key here is the audio quality and the way it supports our lovely headphones with an even lovelier amp.

[d(((--)))b]

after reading all these comments about this soundcard I ordered my Xonar STX from a local store. But the NZ Stores wont have them till next month or so.

so its worth the wait right

[taso89]

Just committed to buy this thing, picked up the last one from NCIX on eBay! Here's to hoping they actually have it..

I will post impressions, plus impressions with OPA627 as well!

[XtremeD]

Originally Posted by BigTrouble

I'm quite sure people here ain't buying no Essence STX for Dolby Headphone only, the key here is the audio quality and the way it supports our lovely headphones with an even lovelier amp.

Nice first post :P

No my question was more to ask is whether the hardware will be doing the Dolby Headphone processing as opposed to Cyberlink Powerdvd (dvd software) doing it? And if anyone has experienced it, is there a difference between software and hardware dolby headphone?

[fzman]

[QUOTE=limesinferior;5278711][QUOTE=fzman;5275391]go to the audioasylum forum-- pc-audio, and look for the post from john swenson regarding a linear power supply for the fit-pc. he posted a schematic and instructions for a good psu. it wil have to be made for both 5v and 12v, and we are not sure yet whether it is big enough, since we don't have the specific current demands for the two voltages seprately. maybe rob can get more specific answers from asus.....

thanks. according to this thread Audio Asylum Thread Printer john swenson's psu is optimized for 1-1.5A with max at 2A so lets wait for power specification. many thanks ROBSCIX

Originally Posted by fzman

20 watts is a pretty big supply, so this is a work in progress. i just ordered the parts from digikey (inductors from mouser).

i m not suprised, especially if u r going to use chokes. btw whats the cost for john swenson's psu?

i got encouraged to build switch mode power supply with very low ripple noise. design and testing probably will take some time.

parts would come out to about $70 US, i think-- i bought some extras, and tend to pay for expeditied shipping, so i spent a bit more than that. the whole benfit is from using a LINEAR supply -- otherwise you can just get a second computer psu and run the sound card from it. switch-mode psus tend to throw noise back down the powerr line, and may deliver stable votages, but tend to be "dirty". i'd say go for the linear one.

the psu thati've got working uses two chokes in series, and a bigger xformer to get 2 amps into 12v, in case that is necessary for the xonar, and i'll fiddle with the 5v leg later. i posted some pix on the pc audio asylum of the work in progress if any one is interested--

hope that helps...

[riderforever]

Hi to everybody!
This is my first post in this forum, and first of all I want to thank you all for the detailed reports on this really awesome sound card!

I really can't wait to have it available here in Europe...

I see that some of you are trying to build a linear psu in order to give better juice to the analog stage of the Essence. That will surely improve the sound, but why not starting with opamp replacement?

In particular I think that using a discrete opamp as buffer, instead of the LM4562, will make a big step forward in terms of dynamics, resolution and texture.

At least this is what I've found after the replacement of the frontal opamp of my Auzen X-Fi Prelude with a discrete one from Burson Audio.



You only need to make room for it in your pc case

[ROBSCIX]

A few of use have been looking down that road and experimenting with opamps.

[BigTrouble]

Originally Posted by XtremeD

Nice first post :P

Nice first reply

Indeed, if you A/B onboard+Cyberlink's Dolby Headphone with Xonar's Dolby Headphone, you'll find Xonar kicking onboard codec's butt very seriously (I did this with realtek / Xonar D1).

But the key here ain't Dolby headphone, it's Xonar's superior sound quality making the virtual surround waaaay better than onboard, all the details are brought up and made a seriously realistic sound image. I don't know if it's a hardware Dolby headphone, but I can assure you that we just can't ignore sound quality when trying to compare sound effect.

BTW, just saw this card awarded by a more gamer-oriented media -
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...view/page8.asp

[Shahrose]

Originally Posted by riderforever

Hi to everybody!
This is my first post in this forum, and first of all I want to thank you all for the detailed reports on this really awesome sound card!

I really can't wait to have it available here in Europe...

I see that some of you are trying to build a linear psu in order to give better juice to the analog stage of the Essence. That will surely improve the sound, but why not starting with opamp replacement?

In particular I think that using a discrete opamp as buffer, instead of the LM4562, will make a big step forward in terms of dynamics, resolution and texture.

At least this is what I've found after the replacement of the frontal opamp of my Auzen X-Fi Prelude with a discrete one from Burson Audio.



You only need to make room for it in your pc case

welcome to head-fi!

might i ask how you installed the Burson discrete opamp on the prelude? it's a $130 opamp, so i'm expecting it to sound good when i get mine, hopefully with the STX.

Edit: i'm also wondering if it comes with a plug...so i can attach it to the opamp section of the STX.

[Bojamijams]

Problem with discrete opamps, is you're not going to be able to use the EMI shield as the socket is under there.

[riderforever]

You're right, with the discrete opamp the EMI shield can't be used. Anyway I'd like to try using the Essence without it and see if there are noticeable differences, also with the help of RMAA suite.

The last version of the Burson Discrete Opamp needs a little work to be mounted, so I contacted the Australian guys and they sent me the previous version of their opamp, named 101.
As you can see in the picture of my first post, it's ready to be plugged into the traditional 8 pin socket, so the replacement is very straightforward.

The other good news is that the price of that opamp was 90 AUD instead of 155

BTW, the opamp replacement does have effecte only on the RCAs line-out and can't alter the quality of the integrated headphone amp, am I right?

[taso89]

OPA-Earth from Audio-GD is exactly the same thing, and priced much cheaper than Burson's discrete opamp; Zero owners have confirmed that the only difference is in the price.