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Xonar Essence ST - background noise

post #1 of 9
6/25/11 at 11:19am
Thread Starter 

I have been noticing a very very faint "white noise" on the background of anything playing through the headphone output on the Essence. It quite resembles the noise that you get from vinil records when it is changing tracks.

 

 

On classic music and other songs with long silences it is quite noticeable.

 

 

It is impossible to hear at the +0dB headphone setting, very faint at the +12dB setting and easily audible at the +18dB setting.

 

My headphone has 150ohm impedance so, in theory, I should be using the +12dB but I stepped it back to the +0 setting to avoid it.

 

I know I mostly "solved' the problem by using the +0 settings, but I am quite curious as to what could be the most likely reason? Bad power supply? Opamps getting old? Headphone being too sensitive?

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

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post #2 of 9
6/25/11 at 1:11pm

Are you listening to old recordings ? Try to listen to something with a DDD  spars code.

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post #3 of 9
6/25/11 at 2:31pm

Hmm I remember reading something about noise if using 44.1kHz (not 100% sure if it was that or 48k) sample rate. 

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post #4 of 9
6/25/11 at 2:43pm

I quote myself cause i'm too lazy to write it again:

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samsunait View Post

It's a common issue of all Asus Xonar Essence ST/STX cards; there was already a topic here on head-fi about this problem --> http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/493349/asus-xonar-essence-st-sound-quality-issues

 

To summarize, the hiss/white noise is present on the Headphone out and NOT on the Line Out; it's quite audible at 44.1KHz but it's still here EVEN at the other rates, just almost inaudible.

I have a Xonar Essence ST, and i can hear this hiss on both my HD 595 and HD 598.

So the partial solution is to not use 44.1KHz (i'm using 96KHz), the "final" solution is to use Line Out.

 

This problem is pointed out even on a review of Xonar Essence STX at XbitLabs --> http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/asus-xonar-essence-stx_8.html#sect0 where they wrote at the end And why is the odd problem with the noise level at 44.1 kHz not solved since the Xonar D2?

 

Said this, i was very disappointed when i found this problem, and if I had known about it, I never bought this sound card...

 

Here another topic about this problem: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/546291/white-noise-coming-from-my-essence-stx-from-44-1khz

 

 

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post #5 of 9
6/25/11 at 5:30pm

Weird I'm listening to 44.1 hz music , and there's Zero white noise. Even when amping, with my hd595. Unless I'm listening at very loud volumes, but then it depends of the recording.

 

@Samsunait

You have both the hd595 &  hd598, they are not same ?

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post #6 of 9
6/25/11 at 7:05pm

change the sample rate from anything but 44.1kHz

 

this a flow in the card

you cant not upsample

 

i dont know why people recommend this card so much

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post #7 of 9
6/26/11 at 1:00am
Thread Starter 

I should have used the search instead of just assuming that since there wasn't anything in the first page it probably wasn't a very common issue. Shame on me.

 

Weird thing is that I had never noticed it with my 3 previous headphones and my current one isn't low impedance. Problem is:

 

[quote]

If you hear it one time, you'll hear it forever... [/quote]

 

That is quite true.

 

 

I will try other sampling rates and setting the sound to 24bits.

 

thanks for the replies.

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post #8 of 9
6/26/11 at 2:23am

Ye i use 96KHz from 2 months now, and i almost forgot about this noise now and just enjoy my music; after all this soundcard is a wonderfull one for everything else 

except this problem.

 

@extrabigmehdi

I bought 595 some months ago, then sold it to my brother and got the 598. And not, they AREN'T the same, 598 is better in many aspects, just do a quick search here and you will find out (plus i really like the color scheme of 598).

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post #9 of 9
6/26/11 at 11:41pm
Thread Starter 

For the record: changing the sampling rate didn't help any.

 

Changing from 16 to 24 bits solved the issue.

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