[tricky]

Hi everyone,

I have a few basic questions about the Asus Essence ST soundcard, I've decided to purchase that model after reading some of the reviews and comments here on these forums - thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences by the way, I found many of the postings here to be very useful and would have ended up buying some low-budget soundblaster card without them - but now that I do have a good soundcard, I'm actually scared to use it.

So, here are my questions/problems..

1) The card produces strange "clicking" sounds when switching certain options - are those normal, or a sign of trouble?

..After the installation I briefly wanted to check what kind of features the included software package offered, so I went into the control panel and switched a few options here and there. I noticed that, whenever the recording source is changed (i.e. from "Line-In" to "Mic"), the card itself produces a noticable "clicking" sound. I've never noticed any other card to generate such sounds and I can't find the cause, so I'm a bit worried?

(...yes I am aware a soundcard is *supposed* to produce sound, but I don't know how else to describe this effect..

)


2) The soundcard's system requirements include "high-quality headphones". If you use low-quality ones, can they be damaged (or damage the card) in any way?

I would like to use the Asus "H6 expansion board" for audio output in the future, but until it can be purchased, I am stuck with a pair of lower-budget Sennheiser "HDR 140" headphones. I am unsure about their ohm impendance and if I can safely use them (..or any other low-budget headphones for that matter) ?


3) Is there any information available on how much power the Essence ST requires, or a way to measure its power consumption?

...Until I bought the Essence ST I was under the impression that soundcards do not need more than 15-20 Watts under full load, but this card apparently requires a dedicated power connection from the PSU and turned out to be quite power hungry.

I use a 650 Watts PSU myself, which I figured would suffice for anything and everything, but after adding the Essence ST, I actually had to remove my TV tuner card from another slot just to get the PC to boot up.

Now I'm scared to try out any audio applications or even 3D games, seeing how much power seems to be required, just to boot things up. Do you guys have any info regarding the ST's consumption levels?


Any help or advice would be welcome, and thanks for taking the time to read my questions!

Kind Regards,
Tricky

 

[tricky]

Whoopsie, I posted that topic a bit too fast.. I wanted to add this last question regarding the optical output:

4) A red light from the SPDIF output shines all across my room, is there any way to turn that light off? I have nothing to connect this output to right now, so other than with duct tape I can't think of anything to cover it up.

[/b]

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tricky /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi everyone, I have a few basic questions about the Asus Essence ST soundcard, I've decided to purchase that model after reading some of the reviews and comments here on these forums - thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences by the way, I found many of the postings here to be very useful and would have ended up buying some low-budget soundblaster card without them - but now that I do have a good soundcard, I'm actually scared to use it. So, here are my questions/problems.. 1) The card produces strange "clicking" sounds when switching certain options - are those normal, or a sign of trouble? ..After the installation I briefly wanted to check what kind of features the included software package offered, so I went into the control panel and switched a few options here and there. I noticed that, whenever the recording source is changed (i.e. from "Line-In" to "Mic"), the card itself produces a noticable "clicking" sound. I've never noticed any other card to generate such sounds and I can't find the cause, so I'm a bit worried? (...yes I am aware a soundcard is *supposed* to produce sound, but I don't know how else to describe this effect.. )

Perfectly normal as that is the internal relays routing the I/O signals.
Nothing to worry about at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tricky /img/forum/go_quote.gif 2) The soundcard's system requirements include "high-quality headphones". If you use low-quality ones, can they be damaged (or damage the card) in any way? I would like to use the Asus "H6 expansion board" for audio output in the future, but until it can be purchased, I am stuck with a pair of lower-budget Sennheiser "HDR 140" headphones. I am unsure about their ohm impendance and if I can safely use them (..or any other low-budget headphones for that matter) ?

You can use whatever you want for headphoens of course higher quality phones mean better sound quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tricky /img/forum/go_quote.gif 3) Is there any information available on how much power the Essence ST requires, or a way to measure its power consumption? ...Until I bought the Essence ST I was under the impression that soundcards do not need more than 15-20 Watts under full load, but this card apparently requires a dedicated power connection from the PSU and turned out to be quite power hungry. I use a 650 Watts PSU myself, which I figured would suffice for anything and everything, but after adding the Essence ST, I actually had to remove my TV tuner card from another slot just to get the PC to boot up. Now I'm scared to try out any audio applications or even 3D games, seeing how much power seems to be required, just to boot things up. Do you guys have any info regarding the ST's consumption levels? Any help or advice would be welcome, and thanks for taking the time to read my questions! Kind Regards, Tricky

The card isn't anymore power hungry then others. The molex connector allows the card to get power for the amplification section directly from the PSU. The idea is that the power is cleaner this way without going through all the traces on the board. The cards only takes low power logic signals from the bus and all the amplifiers power comes from the molex.
If you had a issue with your TV tuners and this card chances are it was a bus conflict not a power issue.

 

[cladisch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tricky /img/forum/go_quote.gif 2) The soundcard's system requirements include "high-quality headphones".

They require "high-quality headphones" just because you won't be able to hear a difference to your mainboard audio if you use $10 ones.

Quote:

If you use low-quality ones, can they be damaged (or damage the card) in any way?

High-quality headphones usually have higher impedance, and headphones with higher impedance need a more powerful amplifier to produce the same volume.

The ST driver has an impedance setting that adjusts the volume accordingly.

In theory, it could be possible to fry low-impedance headphones by setting the driver to high impedance, raising the volume to maximum, and playing something very loud.

Quote:

A red light from the SPDIF output shines all across my room, is there any way to turn that light off?

No.

Quote:

I have nothing to connect this output to right now, so other than with duct tape I can't think of anything to cover it up.

Duct tape: $.10
Optical cable and A/V receiver: $500
Burning a hole through the wall into your neighbour's living room: priceless

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif The molex connector allows the card to get power for the amplification section directly from the PSU. The idea is that the power is cleaner this way without going through all the traces on the board. The cards only takes low power logic signals from the bus and all the amplifiers power comes from the molex.

If the idea were to get cleaner power, Asus would have used separate power connectors in their PCI cards, too.
The PCI-E cards require a power connector because PCI cards are allowed to draw up to 25 watts while desktop/low-profile PCI-E x1 cards are limited to 10W.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cladisch /img/forum/go_quote.gif If the idea were to get cleaner power, Asus would have used separate power connectors in their PCI cards, too. The PCI-E cards require a power connector because PCI cards are allowed to draw up to 25 watts while desktop/low-profile PCI-E x1 cards are limited to 10W.

Yes, The ST IS a PCI card and does have a seperate Molex connector.
The information that was relayed to me stated the idea behind the molex is for cleaner power, not because the card needs more power then can be provided from the slot. I have other soundcards both PCI-E and PCI that do not have seperate power inputs. I understand what your saying, I am just explaining it as I understand it.

 

[cladisch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX Yes, The ST IS a PCI card and does have a seperate Molex connector.

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that; I assumed the ST/STX were to be powered like the D1/DX and D2/D2X models.

 

[tricky]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

I've tested the soundcard meanwhile in combination with several low-cost headphones...My recommendation: "Don't try this at home".

The Sennheiser HD-140 headphones began to sound distorted at around 50% volume, while they worked fine with an onboard sound chip up to around 90% volume. With another Model (Sharkoon Cosmic 5.1, connected via adapter) I couldn't make out any sound details in music or 3D Games, more specifically you could barely understand voices, while some environmental effects were much too dominant.

Apparently the soundcard is too "strong" for low quality / low impendance headphones. The manual's recommendation to use high-quality ones is justified, to say the least.


@ROBSCIX
A bus conflict sounds possible, but so far my mainboard never had problems in that direction, hmm... At least I hope that's not the issue, the mainboard assigns IRQ's etc automatically to avoid conflicts.

I was leaning towards a power-consumption related problem, because the PSU "only" supports up to 19 ampere (on each 12V rail) and my current hardware most likely exceeds ~16 Ampere per rail, or around ~450 Watts in total.

For calculation purposes I used PSU Calc. A decent online calculator by the way, in case anyone's in need of one.

Depending on the soundcard's power requirements, theoretically that could bring it close to the limit. I've emailed Asus support this morning, hopefully they are able to shed some light on its power consumption.

I also remember for a split second a red light flashed up on my graphics card or the motherboard when I tried booting everything up the first time...I'd have to test the initial setup to find out, but I'm not eager to try that again, for obvious reasons.

 

[sw98]

I am not sure about #2 or #3, but yes #1 is normal, mine does the same when switching signals. For #4, I actually took a TOSLINK cap from one of my old receivers and just plugged it into the back to block the signal. If you don't have a cap, I'm sure you could stop by Radioshack (depending on your location).

 

[ROBSCIX]

@Tricky, did you set the onboard amplifer gian properly for the impedance of those heapdhones? 
Sounds like the gain was set too high.

 

[sw98]

I feel like the 1/4" plug is heavy and getting stressed when it's plugged into the ST's jack. Has anyone's ST jack or plug gotten damaged by this?