[panda187]

Just got the Essence STX II 7.1 yesterday and the  Razer Tiamats 7.1 ( looking past the negative reviews because people have said that its awesome with a good sound card. 
 
Now I just unboxed it, noticing that it has many more sockets than the headphones needed for the mobo connection. Big problem now, hopefully no splitters required!
 
 
The headphones are 7.1 but they have jacks for only one per channel ( one for front, side, etc ). The Essence STX II 7.1 ask for L/R inputs ( Left Front, Right Front, Left Rear, Right Rear, etc).
 
 
 
I was hoping to find an answer on youtube as to how someone would connect their 5.1 or 7.1 sound system to the Essence but alas none I could find.

 

[Luckbad]

Just got the Essence STX II 7.1 yesterday and the  Razer Tiamats 7.1 ( looking past the negative reviews because people have said that its awesome with a good sound card. 

Now I just unboxed it, noticing that it has many more sockets than the headphones needed for the mobo connection. Big problem now, hopefully no splitters required!

The headphones are 7.1 but they have jacks for only one per channel ( one for front, side, etc ). The Essence STX II 7.1 ask for L/R inputs ( Left Front, Right Front, Left Rear, Right Rear, etc).

I was hoping to find an answer on youtube as to how someone would connect their 5.1 or 7.1 sound system to the Essence but alas none I could find.

Download the manual from their website. I'm pretty sure it shows you how in there.

 

[paulguru]

  There are 3 Different Dolby Headphone modes which you can select on the STX/2, DH1 is Ref and has nearly nil amount of echo, DH2 has Moderate Echo, while DH3 has Massive amount of echo, I used DH1 mode during my time with it for that reason.

DH1 ?
Ok but the surround effect is good like other mode ?
 
and you are using headphone or speakers for echo comparison  ?

 

[genclaymore]

  DH1 ?
Ok but the surround effect is good like other mode ?
 
and you are using headphone or speakers for echo comparison  ?

I used headphones when I made the comparison between the modes, I didn't have all of the headphones at once, But I had them during the time that I had a wide range of Asus Xonar cards that had Dolby headphone either using them directly or sending dolby headphone thru optical to a external dac. But clearly I remembered which DH modes I used with which headphones do to the result I had. Which I enjoyed with them.
 
I found Dolby Headphone mode setting depends on which headphones you have and then your ears of course, I can't tell you if your gonna enjoy Dolby Headphone mode 1 because you still might not like it and DH just might not be for you. you just wont know til you try it.
 
In my opinion i found it to work just as good as the other modes just without the echo on a pair of Audio-Technica A900X's which what I have used with the option. While I used Dolby headphone mode 2 with a pair of DT880 premium 600's which it worked nicely for me on those. While I enjoyed the AKG K702 with Dolby headphone DH2 but the most with DH3. So it really depends as each mode work differently with difference pairs of headphones.

 

[R-You Kidding]

Hey everyone, I'm new here, so hello. I'm having a problem with my current setup. I just went out and bought a Asus Essence STX II, have it installed and everything. My computer is hooked up to my main home stereo (5.1) via optical. I have all the drivers and software installed, and have tried most of the different wiring configurations I can think of. My problem is that when I plug my headphones into either the front (the front panel PC case plugs, which are wired into the sound card) or the back of the sound card my main speakers aren't muting. Does anyone have a suggestion? Has anyone experienced this sort of problem? I'm really at a loss, and am getting pretty frustrated. I'll try anything. Thanks!.

 

[bcschmerker4]

The no-mute behavior is normal for the Asus® XONAR® Series; all internal sound card models use relays to select the outputs.  Under Microsoft® Windows® 6-up, both the Asus® XONAR® Audio Center™ for Essence™ STX II™ and the MaxedTech® UNi™ XONAR® Audio Software™ have an Output Select function to switch between "2 Speakers" (white and red RCA jacks on the ST/STX/STX II) and "Headphone" (6.3mm output jack on the ST/STX/STX II).  In most LinUX distributions, Advanced LinUX Sound Architecture 1.0.24-up has the same function in the Driver snd-virtuoso, accessible via the ALSA Mixer curses app (/usr/bin/alsamixer).

 

[paulguru]

  I used headphones when I made the comparison between the modes, I didn't have all of the headphones at once, But I had them during the time that I had a wide range of Asus Xonar cards that had Dolby headphone either using them directly or sending dolby headphone thru optical to a external dac. But clearly I remembered which DH modes I used with which headphones do to the result I had. Which I enjoyed with them.
 
I found Dolby Headphone mode setting depends on which headphones you have and then your ears of course, I can't tell you if your gonna enjoy Dolby Headphone mode 1 because you still might not like it and DH just might not be for you. you just wont know til you try it.
 
In my opinion i found it to work just as good as the other modes just without the echo on a pair of Audio-Technica A900X's which what I have used with the option. While I used Dolby headphone mode 2 with a pair of DT880 premium 600's which it worked nicely for me on those. While I enjoyed the AKG K702 with Dolby headphone DH2 but the most with DH3. So it really depends as each mode work differently with difference pairs of headphones.

Ok but the surround effect is there ?
run greatly or is crap ?

 

[genclaymore]

Yea it worked very well for me and the surround effect is only there when you config the windows audio panel to 5.1,Asus speaker input settings to 5.1 as well as games if they have the setting if not they will detect what windows audio panel is using and use that. Of course set the asus output setting to headphones which you already know. If you do not do these steps then Dolby Headphone wont work correctly and down-mixing the 5.1 signals to headphones so it work correctly.
 
A lot of people skip this step and don't realize how important role it plays for Dolby Headphone or any other VSS Tech. As long you have it set like I mention the surround effect will be there and for me it worked wonderful for me. It only work crappy if you leave every thing to Stereo as it wont be down-mixing any thing and won't do a good job at all when set on stereo.

 

[paulguru]

  Yea it worked very well for me and the surround effect is only there when you config the windows audio panel to 5.1,Asus speaker input settings to 5.1 as well as games if they have the setting if not they will detect what windows audio panel is using and use that. Of course set the asus output setting to headphones which you already know. If you do not do these steps then Dolby Headphone wont work correctly and down-mixing the 5.1 signals to headphones so it work correctly.
 
A lot of people skip this step and don't realize how important role it plays for Dolby Headphone or any other VSS Tech. As long you have it set like I mention the surround effect will be there and for me it worked wonderful for me. It only work crappy if you leave every thing to Stereo as it wont be down-mixing any thing and won't do a good job at all when set on stereo.

5.1 ? Asus is not 7.1 ?
 
I want use Essence for gaming ( also for music but major part for gaming )

 

[genclaymore]

I should had said 5.1 or 7.1 but the card is 7.1. When it comes to music I would just use basic stereo with the effects off, Unless you happen to have 5.1 or 7.1 recorded music, other wise stereo for music and the settings i mentioned for games and movies.

 

[mindbomb]

You also can't use crossfeed with dolby headphone (since crossfeed is a subset of what dolby headphone already does). So, that's important for CSGO since the headphone mode is crossfeed. Or else you would get horrible echoes I imagine. The game has to be set up for 5.1 anyway for dolby headphone to work well.

 

[paulguru]

  I should had said 5.1 or 7.1 but the card is 7.1. When it comes to music I would just use basic stereo with the effects off, Unless you happen to have 5.1 or 7.1 recorded music, other wise stereo for music and the settings i mentioned for games and movies.

STX II for you is great for gaming ? Or you have to endure some compromise ?

 

[Luckbad]

The STX II is quite good for gaming. My only problem with the card is that the drivers are horrible. It's tragic how bad they are, honestly. Incredible hardware and quite excellent sound that can be completely destroyed by bad drivers. Clicking, popping, and dropouts, all because of bad drivers.
 
I've tried half a dozen Asus sound cards and it's always the same story. Awesome hardware, terrible software. Even the Uni Xonar Drivers don't fix the STX II completely in Windows 10 right now (nor in Windows 8 or 8.1, which I also tried).
 
I got the STX II a week ago to try to be a better budget option for music and gaming combined at home, and I returned it yesterday. The Sound Blaster ZxR doesn't sound as good for music as the Essence STX II, but it has no clicking, popping, or dropout issues with its drivers.

 

[paulguru]

  The STX II is quite good for gaming. My only problem with the card is that the drivers are horrible. It's tragic how bad they are, honestly. Incredible hardware and quite excellent sound that can be completely destroyed by bad drivers. Clicking, popping, and dropouts, all because of bad drivers.
 
I've tried half a dozen Asus sound cards and it's always the same story. Awesome hardware, terrible software. Even the Uni Xonar Drivers don't fix the STX II completely in Windows 10 right now (nor in Windows 8 or 8.1, which I also tried).
 
I got the STX II a week ago to try to be a better budget option for music and gaming combined at home, and I returned it yesterday. The Sound Blaster ZxR doesn't sound as good for music as the Essence STX II, but it has no clicking, popping, or dropout issues with its drivers.

when the card do clicking, popping or dropout ?
 
You are speaking about the last version of driver ?
i dont understand ..... with Windows 10 you have problems but with Windows 8/8.1 ???

 

[paulguru]

  I should had said 5.1 or 7.1 but the card is 7.1. When it comes to music I would just use basic stereo with the effects off, Unless you happen to have 5.1 or 7.1 recorded music, other wise stereo for music and the settings i mentioned for games and movies.

have you clicking, popping, or dropout issues ?