hi, all. i've had a titanium hd since 2013. i am looking to buy the stx 2. back then i had looked at the original stx but was a soundblaster fan at the time. had a few cards from them before getting the titanium hd. i decided to upgrade the soundcard or see if there was anything better. i don't game at all really which seems to be the thing for creative cards. at the time i was a heavy gamer on pc but was also becoming a music lover. So i am looking to get it mainly for music playback. i also don't know and have not read much into upgrading the components on the card. my titanium hd is just the stock card. It seems spec wise the stx 2 is definitely better than the titanium hd and if the stx original was considered better for music i'm thinking the stx 2 would be a good investment. i may look into upgrading parts on the stx 2 if i buy it but would read into it a bunch before ever trying it out. Please let me know what your guys thoughts are for a titanium hd to stx 2 upgrade specifically for music playing. i've recently gone to windows 10 and the titanium hd works just as good as it did on windows 7.
Thanks all
I was a heavy game myself until around 2012 when started losing interest in gaming and eventually stopped playing completely early 2015 when became devoted to music listening and bought the STX II. Before that I was using the SB XtremeGamer for both gaming and music which was much better than the onboard audio. With the stock STX II, I was stunned by the performance improvement. If you ever have the chance to try some very expensive external DAC/amps (up to 2000 Euros I can comment) you'll realize that the STX II sets the stage for the "audiophile" experience. From there on, by spending more and more for external high-end stuff you'll get better sound quality but the same music concept. It is the same as Playstation 1. It was a massive improvement back then and a new "picture" in gaming over the previous consoles. With the PS2 and until this moment we have the same 3D concept but with better graphics, sound, realism etc...So, consider the STX II as the PS2 (Not the PS1!), and you get the picture.
And like Webber1 said above, the Burson op amps is the luxury upgrade for this card which almost doubles the cost but....Once you put on that card 3 dual channel towers you'll say goodbye to the Titanium HD without remorse and possibly with a smile on your face.
From my experience, I'll tell you that the weak point of this card compared to external stuff is the amplifier. You should expect to hear some resonances/sibilance with heavy/crowded vocals and instruments at higher volumes occasionally but this is normal for a 200 Euro DAC/amp sound card. With a decent desktop amp these small problems go away.
Despite I own the Burson Conductor V2+ which produces much cleaner audio across the board I sometimes find myself switching to the STX II DAC-out for its slightly different sound signature and I enjoy it too, this says a lot for the DAC performance of this card.
Lastly, don't forget that migrating from Creative to Asus means new DNA of audio. Different dac chips, codecs etc. You may like the change, you may not! But from a performance stand point, switching from the TiHD to the upgraded STX II will be a big jump ahead.
Hope that helps
