Xonar Essence STX: Sneak Peek! - Page 8

THat does synerise with DAC (such as the iBasso D3/Pico) through ASIO?

I can't find the button in Xonar Essence' page on NewEgg.

Does that mean sold out?!!! that's really fast....

If you look at the ETA should been next Friday 1-2-09 when back in stock. Better be fast I have my money ready

hi, I'm a new guy here and this is my first post here, so cheers...

well.. what I want to say is, I am a Taiwaness, and I am really surprised to find Asus is also making seems pretty good sound cards now. I mean, these cards are not sold or discussed in Taiwan but is highly praised here.

Guess I'll have to make some phone calls to their HQ and tell them "I want it in my and also your own country, and I want it now...."

Can't wait to get this card, I've got 1TB of music files waiting for it....

ok, just learned that there is a Part II of the sneak preview... nice preview, looking forlward for the full review...

ASUS Xonar Essence STX Sneak Peak Part II - Hardware Canucks

I think what was suggested was to connect the grounding wire to the analog ground. Although im sure any ground would work, or no ground at all. I remember there was discussion over this and most people either didn't bother with it or just attached it to analog ground because it was recommended by Kingwa, the designer

Either way, the general concensus is that OPA-Earth provided better SQ then the OPA-Sun on the basis that OPA-Sun tended to be overly bright and unatural. I have only tested OPA-Sun Version 1 for this.. so maybe they fixed it a bit with Ver. 2. OPA-Moon is said to produce a more "tubey" sound. I have yet to try this one but I know a few people that enjoy the sound.

OPA-Earth sits in my Zero atm, probably the most neutral of the three, which is fine for me as I have a Darkvoice Tube amp feeding AKG K701s

Ahh, thanks, good info to know. I might try connecting the wire to one of the hypergrounding screws on the card. I'll have to do a little more research, but if the Earth is the most neutral as you say that'll probably be the one I go for since right now I really like the overall sonic signature of the STX.

@ROBSCIX, yes, I've replaced the LM4562 opamp w/ my LT1361, and I plan on trying the LT1364 and LME9860 later on as well since I have them on hand. I might also try the LM6171 since Jan Meier has had such good luck w/ it in his Corda amps, and am considering dual OPA637's as well, though that route is a little bit spendier than the others so maybe I'll just wait until you guys over at HWC to test that one first.

The LT1361 in the STX is an improvement over the LM4562 BTW, although the differences are minor. It provides very similar benefits to the other cards I've tried it in. Lower/mid Bass becomes stronger and more visceral. 3D imaging and soundstage depth are also improved especially in the treble region. Instruments sound a little more focused as well.

OTOH, the LM4562 does have a little more treble energy, and the overall volume seems a touch higher than the LT1361. There also seems to be a slight boost in the upper mids/lower treble region which makes the STX sound ever-so-slightly too bright in some recordings for my taste. The boost isn't uncomfortable or distracting at all though, and I could see where someone could prefer the slight boost.

Overall I prefer the 1361, though. I only paid $6.38 for it at Digikey, so I suggest that anyone who buys an STX at least try it out since it's so cheap.

Oh, I also said I'd post some pics, so here they are.

Here is the card and all of the box's contents. We have 2 marketing brochures, user guide, driver cd, booklet of Audio Precision test results, RCA-to-mini adapter, 1/8"-to-1/4" adapter, and spdif adapter.



Closer shot of the goods.



This one is of the STX w/ the shield off (held on by 4 screws from the back) and the LT1361 installed to the right of the red RCA connector.



Here it is next to the Xonar HDAV 1.3. The STX is about 1/4" shorter in length.

I wonder, is there maybe like an 'ultimate' OPAMP upgrade for this.. maybe even upwards of $50? the 1361 offers a 'minor' upgrade as you say.. so is there like a $50 OPAMP that might give a major upgrade?

Btw, thank you for pics

Alydon you read my mind I wanted to know what accessories came with the card
And how was it switching out the OPAMP any problems?

hi,

does anyone know when this card will be available in germany or somewhere else in europe?

seems to be interesting.

anyone testet this card directly with hd650 without anything else like extern dac or amp? how are the results?

how good is the dac on this card compared to the esi juli@?

how good is the amp compared to a beginner tube amp like the darkvoice 336se?

thx

maybe i cosider to get this card instead of the juli@+darcvoice amp if the result is not much different.

Swedish stores will be getting it February 1st and since it's really easy to import headphones and stuff from Germany here I don't see any reason why Germany wouldn't get it before or at the same time.

FineAxe have one in order ... the good news .. I live very close to him and we will be able to test that sound card against : X-Meridian stock + lm4562, X-Meridian + LM4562 + caps + dc decoupling mod, Xonar D2X

I never heard one soundcard as good as the X-Meridian 7.1 ... the best DAC I heard (without paying 14 000$) was tie with my x-meridian and my cd-player (high end unit) is slighty better ... difficult for me to know wich one is playing.

If the XTS is better than that, I will buy one! 8-)