The Xonar Essence STX Q/A, tweaking, impressions thread - Page 2

Can you still open the main control panel for the card?

Telix,

Could you elaborate on the E-MU 1212m being a "superior" card? I'm assuming by superior you mean that the E-MU 1212m sounds better than the Xonar Essence STX, if you could elaborate on that I'd appreciate it!

Thanks.

What is this superior dac that it uses?

The STX has both a higher SnR ration and a lower THD+N value. It also uses an external power supply whereas the EMU uses the dirty PCI bus for power.

The E-MU is made for recording people, from specs there is nothing that points to it to being a better DAC then the STX.

From another thread I just posted this info...

Lets look at the data:

EMU 1212M
D/A: Cirrus Logic CS4398

Output
THD+N (1 Khz): -105 dB (.0006%)
SNR (A wieghted): 120dB
Dynamic Range: 120dB

Xonar STX
D/A: PCM1792A

Output
THD+N (1Khz): Front-Out: -110dB (0.0003%)
SNR (A-Weighted):127dB
Dynamic Range: 127dB

Very different cards meant for very different people, However according to the data and measurments the STX has the superior DAC chip. Feel free to check and compare for yourself. I am in no way saying one card is superior to the other as this is a apples to oranges comparison...they are not the same.

Hey guys, can any of you help me with the following problem:

I installed the Xonar Essence STX on my old Win XP PC (Asus A8N-PCI Deluxe) and when I try to intall any of the two released drivers for XP I get the following error message:

Any ideas how to fix this?

Did you make sure you plugged the card in?

Make sure the plug is inserted fully a buddy had the molex connected but he had a splitter etc in there somewhere and the card wasn't getting a good
conenction so everything looked good but no power. You are better having a straight tap straight to the card from the PSU as all the amplifier
ciruitry is powered through the molex not the bus.

The card is fully inserted into a PCI-E x16 slot, and the molex connector is only used for the card. I think this is more of a software issue.

I suggest you change a PCIE slot and try again, it usually helps.

It's a typical MB problem that certain slot has inferior quality than others.

This comes up when the card is not plugged in but as you stated it may be a error if the card is has power supplied. Double check the molex connector a buddy had his plugged in also but the conenctor was not actually supplying power for one reason or another.

Anyone tried using K701 with them and compare to a desktop amp?

OK, here is an update on the situation. All attempts to run the card from the PCI-E x16 slots failed miserably. I broke a part of the heatsink to be able to stick the card in one of the PCI-E x1 slots. So far, so good, but when I boot with the Xonar in place (powered up) Windows BSOD's the moment it enters the loading screen. Without the Xonar the machine boots up normally. Any suggestions? (Already god the latest bios... 2007 :/)

I failed to boot up properly the first few times after I installed my card. However, I figured it was due to my machine being overclocked and in particular the system bus. After I lowered it back to default (and later back up a bit) it's been it's usual rock stable self. The card is seated in a regular PCI-Ex1 slot since I wanted to avoid it being close to and obstructing the air flow to my passively cooled Radeon HD4850.

Core 2 Duo E8400, default 333MHzx9 multiplier, now running at 444x9

what's your MB model?

MB: ASUS P5Q Pro

edit: and yeah, I realize you were probably asking the problem guy, but who knows...