Xonar Essence STX: Sneak Peek! - Page 13

Sorry, I obviously don't own it, but perhaps switching relays?

That's odd, I could've sworn I could use Dolby Headphone through the RCA outs. I'll have to double-check that when I get home from work cuz now I'm curious (not that I'll use DHP that much).

As for the clicking, yes I hear it when switching between Headphone and Speaker mode. Like ADD said it's probably relays on the card switching on and off to route the signal to the appropriate output.

OH, and ADD, I'll measure my card for ya when I get home too.

That's a shame. The asus site says the next driver is supposed to have improved dolby headphone with better 3d positioning (hopefully). But since it won't work with the rca's I have to use the asus amp which may or may not be as good as my glite. Seems like they could have just done this with software
I like online fps shooters and I was really looking forward to having a 3d headphone effect that really works. Someone said the built in amp is on par with a corda opera. How does the opera compare to a glite, particularly with my specific phones?

Well not to nitpick, but differences in amp quality should only really be important/usefull when listening to music.

When playing a game, can you really notice a difference from using one amp over another? I mean.. you're 'muddying' the sound anyway with Dolby Headphone so are you really going to be able to tell the difference of a gunshot from one amp to another? And in the grand scheme of things, how much would it REALLY matter? A gunshot, a scream, a headshot is going to sound pretty similar and lets face it.. its not like the designers are encoding it in WAV anymore

Edit: Also I'm curious where on the asus site you found out whats going to be included in the next driver. I'd like to Bookmark the page and keep an eye out if you can give us the link. Thanks

I dont own an essence but their other sound cards make an audible clicking when the computer is turned on or a new driver is installed. Im sure its the same thing.


edit-just noticed this was already answered above

urr.... I don't see the connection between your post and your quote.
What won't work with the RCA?

and where did Asus says what will be updated?....

I was talking about positional audio(dolby headphone, DS3D, whatever it is) working with the rca outputs of the stx rather than just the headphone out, and how I think it sucks that it doesn't work because it may be getting better with the next driver release for the D2X. This is the description for the beta version they have for the next set of drivers that they're working on. I assume that if they improve ds3d for one card they'll do it for all of them. To be honest I also mixed up dolby headphone and GX (oops hehe). Well I messed that all up but uhh...here's what I was talking about from asus's website.....

Beta Version 5.12.8.1747

Description Xonar D2X driver for Windows XP Version: 5.12.8.1747beta
Upgrade new DS3D GX v.2.5 3D sound engine to support more vivid environmental reverberation sound effects for games and music.
Fixed Bugs:
1.No music in Mass Effects game
2.Crash issue in Oblivion game
File Size 17.9 (MBytes) 2008/09/29 update
Download from Global China

Dolby Headphone only works with headphone out?

I doubt it. According to the sepc, there is also Dolby Virtual Speaker that come with the card. So either way there must be somthing to use in the output.

I think you over worried. Just relax...

Happy New year..

Yeah you can use virtual speaker with the RCA outputs. Which I guess you could call relatively same thing if in the end they're going to be going into headphones.

Just in regards to Bojamijams, alot of games still use wavs. For example, the Quake series (QI to QIV), Half-Life 1/2, Cstrike/Source, Dod/Source, TF2, Left 4 Dead. Those latter games take up a huge proportion of the fps gaming industry.

OK I confirmed what Boja said, Dolby headphone isn't available when listening through RCA outs. But he's right in that virtual speaker works fine and produces a very similar result.

@ADD, I measured the the card. It is 170.5mm x 106.8mm x 19mm. The molex power connector adds another 16-18mm to the length when plugged in. So it sounds like it'd be too small for your case anyway.



I spent a little more time listening to the amp section, and it's got about 50+ hours of burn-in now, so I would like to amend my comparison to the Opera a little. The STX's amp is almost on par with the Opera, but the Opera is slightly better overall. The difference is very small tho. So small that when I use my Outlaw PCA IC's to connect the Opera to the STX, the Opera loses its advantage and I believe they are on equal footing.

However, when I switch to using BJC LC-1 for IC's, then the Opera reveals that it is a slightly better amp. The soundstage is a little more 3D-holographic, and instruments are a little more focused and have slightly more body and presence within the soundstage than they do using the STX's amp. The bass is also a little more present, detailed, and textured as well.

The STX's amp OTOH is a little more forward in the treble region, has slightly more air and a more natural/longer decay to sounds. The soundstage is also a little bit larger on the STX's amp than the Opera, and you're taken a half step back further away from the sound than with the Opera (a point that is neither good nor bad, just different). So with the STX you're standing in front of the conductor's stand, right in front of the orchestra. With the Opera you're sitting in the middle of the orchestra with the Viola's.

However, being the imaging and details freak that I am, I prefer the Opera. Slightly.

So I bought this card after following this thread, and I have to say the sound quality is amazing. This is my first non onboard sound and I'm loving the difference. I only have one big problem with this card.

Whenever I try to load up World of Warcraft, it gives me a blue screen complaining about cmudaxp.sys, which is the driver file the card uses. Whenever I try to run dxdiag, it also gives me the same bluescreen when it reaches the sound area of the test. After restarting and running dxdiag again, it notices that I crashed last time at the direct sound part and asks if I want to skip that portion, so I say yes and it loads fine. I then pass all the direct sound tests fine.

Later I find out that WoW and dxdiag only bluescreen whenever the DSP mode "DS3D GX" is not enabled. With it enabled, they load fine. The next problem is that when I have this enabled, I can't listen to music on winamp for some reason. It acts like it's muted. As soon as I turn it off though, it will play fine but then the blue screens are back with the other 2.

Another problem is even though WoW loads with the DSP option on, I can't get any sound to run through it no matter what options I try to set. I have tried another Blizzard game which also uses eax effects (Warcraft 3) and it had no difficulty loading with the DSP mode off or on.

I'm running Windows XP on a evga 680i LT mobo (Bios is the newest one). I just reformatted and installed windows fresh and it still blue screens in the same places without the DS3D GX on. This problem is extremely annoying and if I could get rid of it this card would be perfect. Any suggestions?

Mcegan, have you uninstalled all your old drivers from the onboard sound card? And disabled your onboard sound in the BIOS?

It seems like there may be some IRQ conflicts going on, though I'm not that well versed in them and I don't know if DS3D GX being on and off would somehow alleviate that.

Honestly, your best bet would be to call Asus tech support.

Yes onboard sound is disabled and since this was a fresh install I never installed the onboard drivers.