Chuckiefresh
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2010
- Posts
- 20
- Likes
- 0
I just received my Asus Xonar Essence ST today and while I notice an upgrade in clarity over my old Creative X-fi xtreme music card, I can't help but feel like bass took a noticable hit. I'm just an audio noob at this point and I'm not familiar with the terminology but I do know what I like and I miss the level of bass I was getting before. I also feel like the highs are bit harsh but I can live with that.
Just to give more background information, I have the sound card set to headphone, using the headphone out, 44.1 sample rate, and I also increased the decibels on the two lowest frequencies, probably to about 8 dbs on the 30 frequency and 4 on the 60 frequency. I tried to keep the equalizer flat and just use the hi-fi processing but then the bass is pretty weak, even with using the equalizer on the external music software I'm using.
I'm using ATH-A900's which aren't bass heavy headphones to begin with but after messing with the equalizer on my old Creative X-fi xtreme music card it actually put out some pretty decent bass imo. I feel like the bass is lower and more satisfying on the xtreme music card.
Anyway, I'm wondering if I missed some settings on the Asus ST card to bring out the bass or if it generally has reduced bass compared to other sources. I'm considering returning the card to go back to my old set up or there is also the more expensive option of buying a different higher impedence headphone around $200 that would synergize well with the Asus ST, bringing out solid bass coupled with decent mids/highs. I'd appreciate any guidance you can give me, thanks.
Just to give more background information, I have the sound card set to headphone, using the headphone out, 44.1 sample rate, and I also increased the decibels on the two lowest frequencies, probably to about 8 dbs on the 30 frequency and 4 on the 60 frequency. I tried to keep the equalizer flat and just use the hi-fi processing but then the bass is pretty weak, even with using the equalizer on the external music software I'm using.
I'm using ATH-A900's which aren't bass heavy headphones to begin with but after messing with the equalizer on my old Creative X-fi xtreme music card it actually put out some pretty decent bass imo. I feel like the bass is lower and more satisfying on the xtreme music card.
Anyway, I'm wondering if I missed some settings on the Asus ST card to bring out the bass or if it generally has reduced bass compared to other sources. I'm considering returning the card to go back to my old set up or there is also the more expensive option of buying a different higher impedence headphone around $200 that would synergize well with the Asus ST, bringing out solid bass coupled with decent mids/highs. I'd appreciate any guidance you can give me, thanks.