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Xonar Essence STX: Sneak Peek! - Page 37

post #541 of 2057
2/2/09 at 9:20pm
Is there any news on the new driver for the Essence?

The driver download link still goes nowhere on the ASUS site...
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post #542 of 2057
2/2/09 at 11:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by riderforever View Post
Me too

Anyway, would there be any side effect in connecting a power amp directly to the RCAs of the essence?
no, there would not. in fact, that's what i'm planning to do.
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post #543 of 2057
2/3/09 at 3:25am
The driver update on Asus' works as of about an hour or 2 ago. It works.
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post #544 of 2057
2/3/09 at 1:42pm
There was a broken link on their site to begin with, but somebody found a way to download the file. It seems to back down again. Keep checking...

I have another odd question. I hate to interrupt this technical discussion, but I notice a lot of noise, which I could describe as hissing in lack of a better description, on pretty much all my 128kbps MP3 files. I would've thought that kind of impurities with the recordings would be tamed by this fancy audio card, either with its DAC or something. I couldn't really notice them with my on-board audio and cheap speakers or headphones. I was reading reviews describing the HD650s letting you hear instruments or small sounds you wouldn't notice otherwise, and with this audio card with even a headphone amp, doesn't blow my mind as I thought 250$ equipment would. In Norway we have a saying "it cost more than it tasted" and that certainly would be the case here.
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post #545 of 2057
2/3/09 at 1:45pm
128kbps mp3 files are utter crap though. The noise is induced into the recording due to the compression. Try listening to an audio CD or FLAC or WAV files and see if the noise is still there.

Even a $250000 sound card can't fix a crappy source. The chain from source to dac to amp to headphones is only as strong as the weakest link. And a 128kbps mp3 is a VERY weak link.
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post #546 of 2057
2/3/09 at 2:35pm
Thanks for the reply.

The sound is clean and pretty good when I play Flac files or audio CDs. The problem is that this sound card emphasizes those impurities, instead of camouflaging them. It's like I get a little better sound on my high-quality files, while my previously-just-fine files are now basically worthless.

And it's a rather large collection of 128kbps files and many of albums that are hard to come by again, let alone in 320kbps (audio CD equivalent?) or Flac quality.

Another thing is that when a sound suddenly plays, like when you click in to folders in Windows, there's a hiccup of some sort at the beginning.
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post #547 of 2057
2/3/09 at 2:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NGX View Post
Thanks for the reply.

The sound is clean and pretty good when I play Flac files or audio CDs. The problem is that this sound card emphasizes those impurities, instead of camouflaging them. It's like I get a little better sound on my high-quality files, while my previously-just-fine files are now basically worthless.

I can confirm that. Badly encoded files sound far worse than they sounded with my Elite Pro, but that's just what I expected when I ordered this card. My Marantz SACD player sounds ugly when playing audio copied to a cd starting from mp3s. It just isn't its purpose to play such stuff. The real difference comes when playing cds, dvds or perfectly (losless?) encoded files...there, sound quality is much better than on the Creative to my ears.

If u're expecting the STX to make your 128kb MP3s sound divine, forget about it. This card isn't made for that purpose. But that's the same with every high end audio component.
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post #548 of 2057
2/3/09 at 2:51pm
That is an issue with most hi-fi equipment. It has better emphasis and resolution. Thus is better emphasizes the qualities of the recordings. If they're good, you get better. If they're bad, you get worse.

The only true "cd-audio" equivalent is lossless audio (though a few will argue that any compression, even lossless, means its not the same)

As far as I know though, there is no quick fix for you. You're just going to have to try and find the better collection. Used CD stores are a gold mine now as everyone thinks that 128kbps is plenty for them and are trading in their CDs.

And amazon sells 256kbps MP3's for a LOT of albums so you should be able to upgrade some select works relatively quickly and relatively cheap too.

Well the quick fix I guess would be to just change the output to direct sound linked to the onboard audio and plug in the cheap speakers/headphones and use them for the low bitrate mp3s
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post #549 of 2057
2/3/09 at 3:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brando View Post
The driver update on Asus' works as of about an hour or 2 ago. It works.
Thanks, I was able to finally download it earlier. It wasn't working yesterday, the link seems to be up and down.

As for 128kbps MP3s, get rid of em. The Essence is a step-up in PC sound cards So, you really need to get higher bit-rate MP3s or lossless FLAC files, which sound great on this card BTW. The Essence and a good set of cans will bring every bit of detail out of the music, good or bad.
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post #550 of 2057
2/3/09 at 3:22pm
Still. I think the audio recording technology identifies monotone sounds as unwanted background noise and deletes them, so I was expecting something similar on playback with this high-end card from Asus.

If I may just ask for an answer to my other questions up there, and curiously inquire into the difference between 44khz and 192khz options you have in this Xonar software, I'll be out of your way soon
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post #551 of 2057
2/3/09 at 3:32pm
Thread Starter 
You want your soundcard to give you a accurate representation of what is there. The card doesn't emphasis these bad qualities of the lowbitrate MP3, the card just doesn't mask them. That is a good thing.

Just move away from the MP3 altogether or atleast move up to a higher bit-rate or use VBR. The STX is capable of spectacular sound but it can only give you what you have at the source file. You can use enhancers or teqnques to try and make them sound better but in the end it is a lost cause.
With a good soundcard you need good source files again this is a good thing that this card allows you to hear the negative qualities these lower bit rate files have. This also means this card will allow you to hear all the positive aspects of FLAC or higher bit rate audio.
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post #552 of 2057
2/3/09 at 3:32pm
Technically, it upsamples the data to give a smoother sine-wave reproduction from the original digital signal. Whether or not you can hear it though, will depend greatly on how well your ear is trained, how good your headphones and interconnects are, and of course, the quality of the original record. But, there should definetly be a difference between 44khz and 96khz
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post #553 of 2057
2/3/09 at 5:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fafner View Post
I can confirm that. Badly encoded files sound far worse than they sounded with my Elite Pro, but that's just what I expected when I ordered this card. My Marantz SACD player sounds ugly when playing audio copied to a cd starting from mp3s.
Have you ever done a side by side comparison of your Marantz and the Essence? I know they play in a really different league, but it would be nice to know if the extra money of the Marantz is really worth it.
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post #554 of 2057
2/3/09 at 11:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROBSCIX View Post
You want your soundcard to give you a accurate representation of what is there. The card doesn't emphasis these bad qualities of the lowbitrate MP3, the card just doesn't mask them. That is a good thing.
I agree with Rob here, we all know if you upgrade your headphones to a nice 650 and stick with crappy source (such as Audigy...), you feel you've been ripped off.

In that case, it's completely normal that if you upgrade your source to Essence STX and stick with mp3, you feel you've been ripped off, too.

On the other hand, crappy soundcards can't let you enjoy all the goodies of high quality content - 44.1 and 192 sounded the same. Though you may find all 128kb stuff not what they used to be, keep in mide that STX is opening a new world of "for real" stuff in front of you.
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post #555 of 2057
2/4/09 at 10:34am
I was playing around with the Essence software last night and there is something I noticed.

When plugged into the 1/4" jack on the Essence, I choose "Headphone" on the Analog Output menu. This gives me the options of Dolby Headphone, Dolby Pro Logic II and 7.1 Virtual Speaker. All of which, when selected, really degrade the sound quality of the source material. Be it music or gaming or whatever. I just do not like the sound that comes from those options.

So, I thought, let me try plugging my headphones into the front audio connectors using the RCA splitter cable. So, I did that and chose "2 Speakers" from the Analog Output menu. When doing that, I get the option of either Dolby Virtual Speaker as well as 7.1 Virtual Speaker. When selecting those options, the sound quality sounds much better than the headphone options I listed in the first paragraph. I mean, the Dolby Virtual Speaker sounds good! It gives you that 'out of head' feeling without destroying the sound quality.

Unfortunately, the front panel connectors through the RCA splitter are not amped. Why would ASUS not include these options in their SW when selecting 'headphone' on the analog output? I would think there would be a way to rig the software to allow these options to show up when using the headphone output. Since I am not all that savvy with changing .dat files and whatnot, I just can't figure out where to change this.

Has anyone here noticed this sound quality difference?
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