ASUS Xonar Essence STX II
Sep 13, 2014 at 1:13 AM Post #122 of 888
  Hi all,

I've been milling around audio forums trying to find a suitable sound card for my PC.  I was hoping some enterprising bunch had built a DSD card, but the closest I've got so far is, well, here...
 
I notice that the Essence ST & STX use a DSD capable chip.  Can the DSD functions be enabled?

Try the Schiit Loki?
 
Sep 14, 2014 at 10:09 AM Post #123 of 888
Wow.  So little talk on STX 2  so far, perhaps due the price?
 
http://www.amazon.com/Essence-Express-PCI-E-High-Fidelity-Audio/dp/B00LWFLHDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410703709&sr=8-1
 
Too expensive compared with STX.
 
Sep 14, 2014 at 11:27 AM Post #124 of 888
  Wow.  So little talk on STX 2  so far, perhaps due the price?
 
http://www.amazon.com/Essence-Express-PCI-E-High-Fidelity-Audio/dp/B00LWFLHDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410703709&sr=8-1
 
Too expensive compared with STX.

I believe PC audio card reached the end point in term of sound quality/cost. With this sort of price, you may just well go buy dedicated components, like Schiit DAC and Amp, or even those ASUS external DAC Amp.
 
People say external power circuitry is much better for sound quality, so going away from sound card seems to be the better choice. IDK?
 
I'm still trying to tell my STX II apart from my Schiit Stack, but It's hard. Training my ear now lol.
 
Hopefully the STX I/II can redeem the price tag some how. And I'm a pure objectivist, so yeah.
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 4:37 PM Post #128 of 888
It took this long for US market to get them? I bought mine ages ago in europe. :O Sadly while pretty okay sounding, mine ended up on my bookshelf, might have tried to sell it if I had known it wasn't available in US. 

The spare set of opamps were quite useless, the installed muse ones were a night and day improvement over those, was like listening to 1-3 tracks. OK, muse going back.
 
Nov 3, 2014 at 5:09 PM Post #129 of 888
All right, I had enough of the noise in the mic so i ordered some copper EMI tape and went ahead and cloaked the whole soundcard in it.
Of course not directly on the card but on tissue/tape. Cant test it right now because my motherboard is in RMA and it might take like another 2 weeks or so for it to come back.
Here is a photo so you get a general idea.
Or a link, because apparently I can't post photos.
i.imgur.com/zrgSXPD.jpg
 
Nov 4, 2014 at 8:35 PM Post #130 of 888
Is that copper tape grounded to anything? If it isn't grounded, it cant block anything.

I've done my own DIY EMI shields for soundcards before. Made a pad of electrical tape the same size as my soundcard, placed a same size sheet of thick aluminum foil over that, and then arranged pennies in an overlapping fashion, another sheet of foil, placed on a grounding strap, then wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. Was like a black sheet of foil and copper scale armour, then I ran the grounding strap to my computer case. Probably much more effective and cheaper then tape.

Ideally the best would be a grounded copper plate. Really provides little in the term of benefits though. And the source of your problem more likely lies within your powersupply.
 
Nov 6, 2014 at 8:27 AM Post #131 of 888
  Is that copper tape grounded to anything? If it isn't grounded, it cant block anything.

I've done my own DIY EMI shields for soundcards before. Made a pad of electrical tape the same size as my soundcard, placed a same size sheet of thick aluminum foil over that, and then arranged pennies in an overlapping fashion, another sheet of foil, placed on a grounding strap, then wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. Was like a black sheet of foil and copper scale armour, then I ran the grounding strap to my computer case. Probably much more effective and cheaper then tape.

Ideally the best would be a grounded copper plate. Really provides little in the term of benefits though. And the source of your problem more likely lies within your powersupply.

I tested it grounded/not grounded and it didnt do much. The problem doesn't lie within the power supply as people with the same problem already exchanged those and it didn't change anything. The only measures that helped have been moving dac further away from gpu and/or placing some peripheral card in-between dac and gpu.
With ASUS - all I do is run into problems. 
Sent them my mobo for RMA repairs, it came back with the same issue 6 weeks later. I paid like 250$ for this board and it didn't even last a year. Very disappointing.
 
What's even worse is that I can't find a decent replacement from another brand.
 
mad.gif

 
Nov 9, 2014 at 4:59 AM Post #133 of 888
Can anyone tell me why my coax cable won't work on my Asus Phoebus card. I can see the S/PDIF connectors on the other Asus cards stick out where as on the Phoebus it is flat. The cable fits but is very loose, requires no force to pull out. As far as I could see S/PDIF and coax are identical - the cable I bought says both in the description, I'm at a loss.
 
I have just spent a hundred quid on a card for the sole purpose of connecting my PC directly to my Audiolab MDAC, as it was I was using one of those Toslink to Coax adaptors with the separate power supply with my Audigy X-Fi which has Toslinks only.
 
Any of you guys use your S/PDIF/COAX out on your cards. I did check the right box in the software. Might return this card and get another Asus one if you can help with the details. Don't want another disappointment.   
 
Thanks
 
 
Finally figured out what a 'combo' is so it's all packed up and ready to go back, that'll cost me a few quid. An Optical Toslink connector in disguise - well done Asus, whoever thought of that should get a thick ear. I'd still like anyone with a better Asus card to let me know if they have a proper Coax connector on it, one I can hook up to my DAC directly.
 
A couple of their cards are around two hundred quid, not sure I want to spend that much.
 
Thanks again.
 

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