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(HELP) Choosing between Xonar D2X & Xonar Essence STX

post #1 of 8
2/10/09 at 5:31pm
Thread Starter 
Hello guys,

I need your help.
I want to buy a sound card which I will mainly use for watching movies, listening music and sometimes gaming (I don't play a lot of FPS game, but RTS or strategy games, so EAX might not be that important?).

I have 2 options in mind:
1. Asus Xonar D2X
2. and the newly released Asus Xonar Essence STX

Which one do you think is better for my purpose and why?
And could someone tell me the difference between those two?
The only thing I know is that Essence STX does not have five 3.5 mm inputs for Front, Rear, Subwoofer speakers in it, but it does not matter since I will be using Coaxial/TOS link anyway.

Please tell me if you have in mind any sound cards better than those two.

Oh, and one thing to add:
I use Logitech Z 5500 and sometimes use headphones.
I know that Essence STX is made for headphones lover, but I also get the sense that Essence STX has all the features of D2X, so the new headphone feature in Essence STX seems to be a plus over D2X.

Thanks in advance!
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post #2 of 8
2/10/09 at 8:53pm
If you use nice headphones AND optical out for speakers then get the essence for the amp. The D2X would be perfect if you were doing surround with all analog outs from the D2X.
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post #3 of 8
2/10/09 at 11:08pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry, i'm a bit new on this.. Could you explain what is analog?
iI that the green, red, blue, etc holes for 5.1 channels on the back of the sound card?

If it is.. can't optical produce surround sound?? (which means essence can only produce 2.1 surround??)
Because i heard that using SPDIF/TOSLINK produces better sound so i was planning to use SPDIF, but if they're surround then i'll stick with 5.1 cables.
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post #4 of 8
2/12/09 at 6:52pm
Thread Starter 
any advice guys?
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post #5 of 8
2/12/09 at 10:40pm
Basically yes, analog is output via the green/red/blue jacks on your MB.

Xonar can outpu 5.1 surround sound by encoding them into Dolby Digital or DTS Surround in real time. So you'll need a decoder/receiver to decode them into 5.1 audio channels. For speakers, it would be like Logitech Z5500, for receivers, it would be like Onkyo or Denon receivers.
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post #6 of 8
2/13/09 at 4:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by audionewbieyao View Post
Basically yes, analog is output via the green/red/blue jacks on your MB.

Xonar can outpu 5.1 surround sound by encoding them into Dolby Digital or DTS Surround in real time. So you'll need a decoder/receiver to decode them into 5.1 audio channels. For speakers, it would be like Logitech Z5500, for receivers, it would be like Onkyo or Denon receivers.

Thank you!

So, can digital output SPDIF also produce surround 5.1?
since xonar essence stx does not have analog 5.1, from previous posts i got the impression that essence STX cannot do surround since it has only SPDIF output.
but, if SPDIF also produces surround 5.1, then does that mean essence STX has all Xonar D2x features but better because of the new headphone feature??
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post #7 of 8
2/23/10 at 5:18am
If you output via SPDIF you have to have a decoder to decode the digital SPDIF signal into the 5.1 surround channels. Luckily your speaker system is able to do that. Now the decoding is done by a decoder a DAC on your speaker system rather than the sound card. So the quality of the sound outputted depends on the quality of the DAC on your speaker system if you do it that way. If you output the surround via analog on the D2X the quality of the sound is output via the DAC's that are on the xonar. My bet is that sound quality would be waaaayyy better outputting analog on the xonar than outputting via coax to your decoder on your logitech speaker system.
In simple terms if you output digitally: sound quality is dependent on the decoder in your logitech speaker system
If you output analog sound quality is dependent on the excellent decoder (DAC) on the asus D2x.

So...if you consider movie surround sound quality more important then get the D2x and output in analog.
If you do most of your music listening on headphones which are of good quality then get the essence BECAUSE of the headphone amp and sacrifice not so good sound quality on surround.
If you want to buy a good separate headphone amp then I think the Asus xonar D2x is your bet.
Also, don't output digitally for movies or music if you are using those logitech speakers if you care about sound quality. If you do buy a really good reciever which has a good DAC on it, then output digitally. Understand the reason your buying asus sound card is for the sound quality which really comes from the DAC's on it. If you do digital, if you buy a peice of s***t 20 dollar sound card and output digitally you will still get the same quality from your logitech speakers.
Hope that helps. The key thing is....are headphones important to you, and if so, are you willing to buy a separate headphone amp if you are going for the essence.
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post #8 of 8
2/23/10 at 8:24pm
The main thing is the Essence got a better DAC section therefore a far better choice for both separate headphone amp using RCA out or using internal amp (not so good anyway).

Speakers like a Logitech 5.1 isn't gonna benefit much from the better sound, but using a better pair of headphone or speakers will certainly show the differences.

Or just get the Essence ST with the 7.1 extension board for better sound than the D2X and muti-channel analogue support.
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