Seller refused to take card back and paypal ruled in his favour too! Rather than selling it at a loss I've made a HT-PC with it running XBMC for Windows through S-VIDEO to my TV.

I've done this for years already using an XBOX 1's XBMC optically feeding a Trichord Pulsar One DAC. This was a very high end piece of kit in it's day (mid nineties) playing through my hifi the Asus Xonar ST sounds a heck of a lot better! It's a weaker sound, the mid-range is far less prominent and there's no boomy bass (which sounds better overall) in it's favour however there's tonnes more resolution and detail in comparison. Overall, a far more balanced presentation for my system IMO.

I'm really surprised 15 years on that a £150 sound card with a cheap 2nd hand workstation-turned HT-PC beats a £1500 DAC. The Trichord has lots of components in it and even an external PSU, goes to show how far things have come I suppose.

For those in the know - does the XONAR improve with a better power supply? I know it uses hardly any power (like 10 watts extra compared to onboard). Still for the sake of a cooler and quiter setup, I am tempted to take out the HDD altogether and run "tiny XP" / XBMC via a bootable USB memory stick.

From what I've read it's easily doable, and will take some of the strain off the HT-PC teeny compaq PSU. Reckon it's a worthwhile venture?

Quote:



A few guys built external linear supplies for the STX and ST and said they noticed an improvment compared to stock PSU. The cards both have very good cleanup section but better power is always better for audio. Yes, the PC soudncard market has come a very long way. Well if your forced to keep the ST, you can grab the H6 DAC card and use it for surround if you have an analog receiver. I am in the process of building an external music PC also, but I havenlt decided what I am going to use for the audio output either a modded card or a DAC possibly. I guess I will figure it out when I get to it.
I dropped you a PM asking you a couple things.

Any links/info on the linear PSU mate? That sounds like a good idea

That was quite awhile ago now. Send a PM to Fzman, he was one of the first to build one.

I had an STX but it had a conflict with another card that also used the PCI to PCI-E adapter chip (the STX is like a PCI card with a PCI to PCI_e bridge adapter circuit/chip). I returned it and got the ST.

I think the ST is better straight out of the box than the STX. There's a noticeable difference but nothing to really rave about. For the money, they are both good choices.

However, both cards have too much jitter because they both use a low quality oscillator. They also both use ceramic capacitors in the signal path - they are in the low-pass filter in the I/V op amp stage. These add distortion in the very high frequency ranges. So overall, neither give truly sweet clean treble unless these components are replaced.

Nonetheless, I'd recommend both cards and the ST over the STX by the slimmest of margins.

One easy change is to replace the JRC2114 op amps for LM4562. Ppl say this op amp is the same as the LME49720 but it doesn't sound the same and doesn't have the hissy edge the 49720 can have in some situations (like the ST....).

Hope this helps...

EDIT : It's kind of ironic, but I bought this card for its built-in head amp. But now I'm using a diy amp based on LME49710+LME49600 and this is so much nicer than the one in the ST (with re-cabled HD650).

Yes I noticed the ST can have quite aggressive upper mids/treble at times. Fortunately however, My Dynaudio Contours are pretty smooth in the treble regions, so there is no harshness when using it the ST with them. It actually sounds more detail compared to the external DAC. With the wrong speakers however, I can see it sounding pretty bad...

I'd take a look at changing the op-amps none the less, but the rounded screw on the PCB board means I can't take the cover off

Try a dab of superglue on a screwdriver tip ?

Good idea, i'll give that a go sometime #

In short though I am still really impressed with the card. It's nigh on true high end sound for a very reasonable price.

drill it out...if you have no other choice.

Thoppa, National told me the only difference between the LM4562 and the LME49720 in DIp8 formats is the paint on the label. However, as you said I have heard a few suggest they hear differences also. To note, Auzentech has been using the LME49720 over the LM4562NA they usually use on their cards.

The soundcards are getting better these days but with some improvments many of them can be so much better. You just have to find where the company cut the corners, then improve those parts. You can usually never go wrong with improving components such as XO,Caps and opamps.

Do the op-amp upgrades effect the line out as well as the headphone amp? I am only interested in line out to my amp - is it still recommended to replace all 3 op-amps?

The line out uses all three opamps.
The headphoens out only uses the rear two.

The rear two JRC 2114D form a differential input Current to Voltage convert section, most just say "I/V" section.
The front LM4562NA opamp is a single ended buffer.

When using the line out all three are used but when you switch to the headphones output a relay routes the LM4562NA out of the circuit and replaces it with the headphene amplifier chip. If you hear clicks when the system boots or when you change inputs etc, this is norma as it is just the relays.