[xxAMAROKxx]

Could you share how to measure volt of STX II or any document mentioned it 4.5 V? I just replace Muses 01, SQ is good but feel week because of lower volt of STX I think.

Hi, 4.5 V is written on some components on the STX II board. It was also unstable with muses 01.

 

[ko853]

Hi, 4.5 V is written on some components on the STX II board. It was also unstable with muses 01.

I just ordered 2 muses 02 for replacement 01 although I heard they are not good as 01.
EVGA nu audio card opamp run at 5V, so STX 4.5 V is make sence. However, if we can measure it by oursevles for sure is good.

 

[xxAMAROKxx]

I just ordered 2 muses 02 for replacement 01 although I heard they are not good as 01.
EVGA nu audio card opamp run at 5V, so STX 4.5 V is make sence. However, if we can measure it by oursevles for sure is good.

Muses 02 is a bit darker/warmer sounding (also against muses 01), which I like. It's pleasant.

 

[ko853]

I measured by myseft. Its +13V, not 4.5V
I read STX 1 document (cannot find STX 2 docs for op amp), it said 12 V. So, I install Muses 01 again. They are stable but need burn in 100h to show its best quality.

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

Hello guys,

I am using my STX II to power my Focal Clear headphones and the recently bought Hifiman Arya. Having invested into these wonderful headphones I am not going to try an external amp (Topping A90) for the following reasons:

1. I can hear sound colouration added by the card's op-amps.
2. I have never experienced either of these headphones on a balanced cable and I'm dying to find out what difference it will make.

I am a little confused as to how I can make the STX II act purely as a DAC (I may go for an external one at some point in the future but wanted to first test if the card's DAC is perhaps good enough). My initial thought was that the RCA output should give me direct access to the DAC, bypassing the card's op-amps, so to test my theory I connected my headphones to via those two ports (2RCA --> 3.5mm). To my surprise, the sound was even louder than using the "Normal gain" setting via the headphone output (let alone the "IEM" setting!) and there is A LOT more bass, especially on the Focal Clears (to the point that it was giving me a headache within a few minutes). I thought that using the "2 speakers" analog line out would bypass all the amplification and get me the sound directly from the card's DAC which I could hook up to an external amplifier, but surely if the signal seems to be louder and (much) more coloured than the "Normal" headphone setting, then I take it that the RCA out outputs do not fully bypass the card's amplifiers (or I'm doing something wrong).

The sound is the quietest and the cleanest when I use the headphone output and go for the "IEM" setting. I am wondering if that setting is the only way to access the DAC directly (or is the sound here processed as well - the signal being purposefully weakened to accommodate for IEMs' sensitivity?).

I know very little about DACs and amps and I would appreciate it if you could please give me some advice on how I can achieve what I'm after, and ideally also enlighten me on why I'm hearing what I'm hearing through the RCA output.

Thanks!

 

[kefs]

Hello guys,

I am using my STX II to power my Focal Clear headphones and the recently bought Hifiman Arya. Having invested into these wonderful headphones I am not going to try an external amp (Topping A90) for the following reasons:

1. I can hear sound colouration added by the card's op-amps.
2. I have never experienced either of these headphones on a balanced cable and I'm dying to find out what difference it will make.

I am a little confused as to how I can make the STX II act purely as a DAC (I may go for an external one at some point in the future but wanted to first test if the card's DAC is perhaps good enough). My initial thought was that the RCA output should give me direct access to the DAC, bypassing the card's op-amps, so to test my theory I connected my headphones to via those two ports (2RCA --> 3.5mm). To my surprise, the sound was even louder than using the "Normal gain" setting via the headphone output (let alone the "IEM" setting!) and there is A LOT more bass, especially on the Focal Clears (to the point that it was giving me a headache within a few minutes). I thought that using the "2 speakers" analog line out would bypass all the amplification and get me the sound directly from the card's DAC which I could hook up to an external amplifier, but surely if the signal seems to be louder and (much) more coloured than the "Normal" headphone setting, then I take it that the RCA out outputs do not fully bypass the card's amplifiers (or I'm doing something wrong).

The sound is the quietest and the cleanest when I use the headphone output and go for the "IEM" setting. I am wondering if that setting is the only way to access the DAC directly (or is the sound here processed as well - the signal being purposefully weakened to accommodate for IEMs' sensitivity?).

I know very little about DACs and amps and I would appreciate it if you could please give me some advice on how I can achieve what I'm after, and ideally also enlighten me on why I'm hearing what I'm hearing through the RCA output.

Thanks!

I have found the rca out is far superior to the headphone out. I connect to a Sugden Headmaster with rca in, WOW

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

I have found the rca out is far superior to the headphone out. I connect to a Sugden Headmaster with rca in, WOW

That was my first impression too, but there is so much bass (and I normally ike bass!) on the Clears that it's hard to listen for longer than a few songs. I would say that using the RCA output makes the sound punchier, but at the same time there is less detail and texture (it just gets lost in the sheer quantity of the bass, e.g. in Lost Yourself to Dance by Daft Punk, whereas it's detailed and open-sounding on the IEM setting). It makes me wonder why that is the case, and since the volume is higher than on the Normal Gain headphone setting there must be some amplification (and colouring) going on here.

 

[kefs]

I would say that is the onboard amp, i was none to impressed hence external amp

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

But I guess that to achieve the best result it wouldn't make sense to send a signal that's already amplified (and coloured) to the external amp, therefore I am trying to figure out if there is a way to bypass all this processing done by the card and get the sound straight from the card's DAC (sound that is true to its source). When I go to the "IEM" setting I can hear a click which doesn't happen when I switch between different levels of amplification (Normal, High, Extra High). It makes me think that perhaps the IEM setting is the only one that provides unprocessed sound (the click seems to engage/disengage the op-amps, or so it would appear). Then I guess I would need to use the headphone output to send the sound out to the amp (6.35mm --> 2x RCA).

 

[EternalChampion]

I am a little confused as to how I can make the STX II act purely as a DAC (I may go for an external one at some point in the future but wanted to first test if the card's DAC is perhaps good enough). My initial thought was that the RCA output should give me direct access to the DAC, bypassing the card's op-amps, so to test my theory I connected my headphones to via those two ports (2RCA --> 3.5mm). To my surprise, the sound was even louder than using the "Normal gain" setting via the headphone output (let alone the "IEM" setting!) and there is A LOT more bass, especially on the Focal Clears (to the point that it was giving me a headache within a few minutes). I thought that using the "2 speakers" analog line out would bypass all the amplification and get me the sound directly from the card's DAC which I could hook up to an external amplifier, but surely if the signal seems to be louder and (much) more coloured than the "Normal" headphone setting, then I take it that the RCA out outputs do not fully bypass the card's amplifiers (or I'm doing something wrong).

I prefer DAC-out from the digital port instead of the analogue RCAs for multiple reasons such as noise, simplicity etc. Make sure to tick SPDIF out PCM and then you can use a coaxial or an optical cable (adapter is provided) to connect the card to the external DAC. I'm getting cleaner signal compared to the RCA but I'm not 100% sure what the card has to say about this because the digital cable that I'm using is far superior to the standard analogue RCA.

 

[bcschmerker4]

Hello guys,

I am using my STX II to power my Focal Clear headphones and the recently bought Hifiman Arya. Having invested into these wonderful headphones I am not going to try an external amp (Topping A90) for the following reasons:

1. I can hear sound colouration added by the card's op-amps.
2. I have never experienced either of these headphones on a balanced cable and I'm dying to find out what difference it will make.

I am a little confused as to how I can make the STX II act purely as a DAC (I may go for an external one at some point in the future but wanted to first test if the card's DAC is perhaps good enough). My initial thought was that the RCA output should give me direct access to the DAC, bypassing the card's op-amps, so to test my theory I connected my headphones to via those two ports (2RCA --> 3.5mm). To my surprise, the sound was even louder than using the "Normal gain" setting via the headphone output (let alone the "IEM" setting!) and there is A LOT more bass, especially on the Focal Clears (to the point that it was giving me a headache within a few minutes). I thought that using the "2 speakers" analog line out would bypass all the amplification and get me the sound directly from the card's DAC which I could hook up to an external amplifier, but surely if the signal seems to be louder and (much) more coloured than the "Normal" headphone setting, then I take it that the RCA out outputs do not fully bypass the card's amplifiers (or I'm doing something wrong).

The sound is the quietest and the cleanest when I use the headphone output and go for the "IEM" setting. I am wondering if that setting is the only way to access the DAC directly (or is the sound here processed as well - the signal being purposefully weakened to accommodate for IEMs' sensitivity?).

I know very little about DACs and amps and I would appreciate it if you could please give me some advice on how I can achieve what I'm after, and ideally also enlighten me on why I'm hearing what I'm hearing through the RCA output.

Thanks!

One convenience in the ASUS® XONAR® Essence™ ST/X/II series is the set of connections to A/B external DAC-amps with the internal hardware. The STX, which packs a Burr-Brown/Texas Instruments PCM1792A DAC, ships with two Japan Radio Corporation 2114D's in the I-V and one National Semiconductor/Texas Instruments LM4652N in the line-level buffer (the STX II substitutes two MUSES 8920's and one MUSES 8820 respectively); the Digital Out (S/P-DIF, coax or TOSLINK) by-passes the internal DAC and amplifiers.

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

One convenience in the ASUS® XONAR® Essence™ ST/X/II series is the set of connections to A/B external DAC-amps with the internal hardware. The STX, which packs a Burr-Brown/Texas Instruments PCM1792A DAC, ships with two Japan Radio Corporation 2114D's in the I-V and one National Semiconductor/Texas Instruments LM4652N in the line-level buffer (the STX II substitutes two MUSES 8920's and one MUSES 8820 respectively); the Digital Out (S/P-DIF, coax or TOSLINK) by-passes the internal DAC and amplifiers.

Thanks for that. I take it that if that solution bypasses both the DAC and op-amps then it simply sends the digital signal straight to an external DAC? So I would need both a DAC and an amp, what I'm trying to achieve is to use the card in DAC-only mode (only bypassing the card's op-amps) hooked up to an external amplifier.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Hello guys,
I am using my STX II to power my Focal Clear headphones and the recently bought Hifiman Arya. Having invested into these wonderful headphones I am not going to try an external amp (Topping A90) for the following reasons:
1. I can hear sound colouration added by the card's op-amps.
2. I have never experienced either of these headphones on a balanced cable and I'm dying to find out what difference it will make.
I am a little confused as to how I can make the STX II act purely as a DAC (I may go for an external one at some point in the future but wanted to first test if the card's DAC is perhaps good enough). My initial thought was that the RCA output should give me direct access to the DAC, bypassing the card's op-amps, so to test my theory I connected my headphones to via those two ports (2RCA --> 3.5mm). To my surprise, the sound was even louder than using the "Normal gain" setting via the headphone output (let alone the "IEM" setting!) and there is A LOT more bass, especially on the Focal Clears (to the point that it was giving me a headache within a few minutes). I thought that using the "2 speakers" analog line out would bypass all the amplification and get me the sound directly from the card's DAC which I could hook up to an external amplifier, but surely if the signal seems to be louder and (much) more coloured than the "Normal" headphone setting, then I take it that the RCA out outputs do not fully bypass the card's amplifiers (or I'm doing something wrong).
The sound is the quietest and the cleanest when I use the headphone output and go for the "IEM" setting. I am wondering if that setting is the only way to access the DAC directly (or is the sound here processed as well - the signal being purposefully weakened to accommodate for IEMs' sensitivity?).
I know very little about DACs and amps and I would appreciate it if you could please give me some advice on how I can achieve what I'm after, and ideally also enlighten me on why I'm hearing what I'm hearing through the RCA output. Thanks!

The STX II's headphone jack uses the two op-amps (operational amplifiers) in the I/V slots.
The line-output (RCA) jack uses all three op-amps (two in the I/V slots and the one in the buffer slot).
The RCA jacks bypass the STX II headphone amplifier.
The RCA jacks can directly drive headphones, but because of impedance issues, low Ohm headphones (or IEMs) will get a bloated (louder, less detailed) bass.
The STX II headphone jack has a 10-Ohm output impedance, which might cause a slightly bloated bass with some lower Ohm headphones, where as the RCA jacks would have a much higher output impedance, causing an even more bloated bass.
Suggest connecting a solid state headphone amplifier to the RCA jacks, as modern solid state amplifiers can have an output impedance of less then 1-Ohm, which would help bring out the detail in the audio and no bloated bass.

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

The STX II's headphone jack uses the two op-amps (operational amplifiers) in the I/V slots.
The line-output (RCA) jack uses all three op-amps (two in the I/V slots and the one in the buffer slot).
The RCA jacks bypass the STX II headphone amplifier.
The RCA jacks can directly drive headphones, but because of impedance issues, low Ohm headphones (or IEMs) will get a bloated (louder, less detailed) bass.
The STX II headphone jack has a 10-Ohm output impedance, which might cause a slightly bloated bass with some lower Ohm headphones, where as the RCA jacks would have a much higher output impedance, causing an even more bloated bass.
Suggest connecting a solid state headphone amplifier to the RCA jacks, as modern solid state amplifiers can have an output impedance of less then 1-Ohm, which would help bring out the detail in the audio and no bloated bass.

Thank you so much for the detailed description! I have two questions, though:

1. I understand that when you say "line-output (RCA)" and "the RCA jacks" you mean to same output - "2 speakers" line out, left + right. You first mention that they use all three op-amps, then that they bypass the headphone amplifier. The latter would mean that the RCA connection only engages the op-amp in the buffer slot, whereas the headphone jack uses 2 headphone op-amps. What are you referring to then when you mention the RCA line-out using all three op-amps?

2. None of the options you've described involves all three op-amps being disengaged. Does it mean that even when I'm using the IEM setting through the headphone jack, at least one of the card's op-amps is still engaged? It is the only setting where the sound signature seems quite flat (meaning balanced and detailed) so I was inclined to think that this setting bypasses all of the card's op-amps (delivering the sound straight from the card's DAC).

Thanks!

 

[kefs]

The STX II's headphone jack uses the two op-amps (operational amplifiers) in the I/V slots.
The line-output (RCA) jack uses all three op-amps (two in the I/V slots and the one in the buffer slot).
The RCA jacks bypass the STX II headphone amplifier.
The RCA jacks can directly drive headphones, but because of impedance issues, low Ohm headphones (or IEMs) will get a bloated (louder, less detailed) bass.
The STX II headphone jack has a 10-Ohm output impedance, which might cause a slightly bloated bass with some lower Ohm headphones, where as the RCA jacks would have a much higher output impedance, causing an even more bloated bass.
Suggest connecting a solid state headphone amplifier to the RCA jacks, as modern solid state amplifiers can have an output impedance of less then 1-Ohm, which would help bring out the detail in the audio and no bloated bass.

What he said.............. This is how I enjoy listening. I have worked through may scenarios and this works best for me