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Which Amp/DAC should I buy to replace Xonar Essence STX

post #1 of 7
10/14/11 at 2:54pm
Thread Starter 

Hey guys, so I have the Denon AH-D2000 headphones and the Xonar Essence STX and loved the sound quality. My Xonar card died however, and I'm actually running into space issues a little bit considering that my computer has 2 GTX 580 video cards and a Silver Arrow CPU cooler. I'm basically looking to replace the Xonar card with a USB DAC/Amp with sound quality that is as good or better. I was looking at getting the Xonar Essence "One" USB DAC, but it isn't availble in my region (Canada). What other USB DAC's would be comparable for sound quality for the AH-D2000 headphones?

 

Thanks!

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post #2 of 7
10/14/11 at 4:08pm

How much are you willing to spend? 

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post #3 of 7
10/14/11 at 4:23pm

Asus Xonar DG (PCI) is a small sound card.

 

Creative Labs is launching two new sound cards (Soundcore 3D) soon.

They might be smaller then the Essence STX.

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post #4 of 7
10/14/11 at 11:34pm
Thread Starter 

I'm willing to spend around $400, maybe more if there is a tangible difference for my usage. Of course I'm not going to get another sound card... I mean I don't have the space in my computer literally... like the pci-e slot is covered and the one pci slot is in between my graphics cards, so that is not happening.

 

Basically I need something that would be considered "on par" with the Xonar Essence STX or better (depending  on price).

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post #5 of 7
10/15/11 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 

Anything?

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post #6 of 7
10/15/11 at 10:57pm

The CEntrance DACport will sound almost exactly the same (or exactly the same) with your headphones. Both the DACport and the card measure spectacularly in everything but output impedance, where they're both about 10 ohms.

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post #7 of 7
10/16/11 at 1:08pm
Thread Starter 

yeah but if I ever get something that has higher impedance, which I'm thinking about getting, that dacport thing will be useless.

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