[verde57]

I just got today my Xonar ST, what tweaks would you advise me to do for the best headphone listening?
Whats the thing with WASAPI? and D.C coupling???

 

[Mad Max]

 
Quote:

I just got today my Xonar ST, what tweaks would you advise me to do for the best headphone listening?
Whats the thing with WASAPI? and D.C coupling???

Wrong thread.  Click here for the thread you want.

 

[kite7]

Quote:

Thanks for researching it.   Its amazing how much improvement has occurred in onboard sound,  It used to to pretty bad.  Now its hi-fi.

I don't know about that, SNR isn't the only thing to look at. My onboard realtek HD audio has a theoretical SNR of 105 and I still prefer my zune over it.
 
 

 

[Crazy*Carl]

Hi-fi is a relative term of course.  But considering I cant tell the difference between a pretty high end pc soundcard and stock motherboard sound, I would call that hi-fi together with my HD580.

 

[Waqar]

And also use this drivers (at your own risk) they worked nice for me, they also changed the sound too in a positiv way.
 
Link:
http://brainbit.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

 

[Sammiches]

This is the same dilema I am currently in. My return window for my Xonar STX is fast approaching and I'm really struggling to find reasons for spend $200 for a sound card. I can't tell the difference between the card and the onboard from my P8P67 Pro Intel motherboard. The best thing by far is Dolby Headphone, but I can get dolby headphone with a much cheaper card. Also, almost every thread I read recommends buying an additional headphone amp to use good headphones. Ok, well then what's the point in spending the extra money for this card with built in amp?
 

 

[germanium]

 
Quote:

I just got today my Xonar ST, what tweaks would you advise me to do for the best headphone listening?
Whats the thing with WASAPI? and D.C coupling???

WASAPI is Microsofts version of ASIO that works with Windows Seven & Vista.
 
The headphone amp on this card is already D.C. coupled but not the line-out. I went in & modded the line out for D.C. coupling on my card. The sound when D.C. coupled is more transperant than original from line out. It is also less colored & smoother sounding at the topend without sounding rolled off. Just more of the low level detail comes through filling out the spaces between the spikes that you get with instruments like cymbles. Without D.C. coupling you miss the lower level detail at the high frequencies especially. This makes the high frequencies sound coarse like this card sounds stock from the lineout as you hear mostly the spiky nature & not the lower level body of the cymbles Bass even though more solid & extended is also more detailed which can make it seem leaner when D.C.coupled. The power of the bass is there though & in some cases can be quite startling especially if you have speakers that can go very low with power. The attack is definately more solid.
 
As a side note I would like to say that all amps in my sound system are modded for D.C. coupling including my subwoofer amps which before this mod output went bye bye any lower than 25 Hz while now I do truely get usable output to 16 Hz & can shake everything in the house before you even hear anything from the woofer itself at that frequency so is definately pretty low in distortion at that low frequency. Distortion at that low of frequency tends to be more easily heard due to the ears low sensitivity to the fundemental frequency.

 

[matthewh133]

Quote:

Thanks for researching it.   Its amazing how much improvement has occurred in onboard sound,  It used to to pretty bad.  Now its hi-fi.

Lol. It's clear you haven't heard anything "hi-fi", or if you have, you have terrible ears.
 

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Lol. It's clear you haven't heard anything "hi-fi", or if you have, you have terrible ears.
 

It may not be his ears . Maybe he just doesn't know what to listen for. In some cases at least with some headphones it may be dificult to hear it. I have some that the difference is clear & some you really have to listen close to. Some low quality ones you may not hear the difference at all. Lets not go attacking someone just because they may not know what to listen for yet saying they have bad hearing.
 

 

[matchuk28]

i sold my xonar to fund my fun and downsized to the auzentech studio and it doenst compete to the essence stx
 
its such a good card, wish i didnt sell

 

[Sammiches]

Quote:

i sold my xonar to fund my fun and downsized to the auzentech studio and it doenst compete to the essence stx
 
its such a good card, wish i didnt sell

Can you go into anymore detail about how the Xonar Stx was better?

 

[matchuk28]

Quote:

Can you go into anymore detail about how the Xonar Stx was better?

im comparing with my speakers only i never bothered to use my auzentech studio for my hd 650 as i haev a better dac/amp ie the fun
 
but the xonar was crystal clear vocals were abit more aggressive to me (dunno if i should use aggressive sounds bad) and soundstage wider
 
more importantly i miss the convenience of such a good package, having a 600ohm amp having dedicated rca outputs and the quality of the whole package

 

[beowulf]

What is the current opinion on this card? I lost one on an auction about a year ago but am now thinking about it again.
 
Never had decent audio using my PCs as a source... they always sound like a nasty storm of electrical interference. Silence that isnt' really flat black silence but a hissy mess... hearing the hard drives spin up and down and so on.
 
I'm once again wondering if I should try yet-one-more card now that the STX is a bit cheaper... but it is still around 170 Euros. So, is it worth it?
 
I'm looking for decent sound, but it is essencial that the card has good isolation from external interference, ie, not hearing HDs seek, cdroms rev up and having flat dead silence when expected. In other words, is this card properly shielded and isolated from the EMF chaos that the average PC desktop case generates?
 
My current setup is:
 
-Desktop PC (obviously) with a fairly decent PSU (Seasonic-built) and otherwise mainstream motherboard (Asus with Intel 2500K CPU).
-Several headphones but all low-impedance. The ones used more often are the Sony MDR-CD3000, Koss PortaPro, Fischer Audio Eterna and Mylar X3. All are 60 Ohm or less.
-I also have a Meier Corda Move DAC+AMP but don't think it will be necessary for such impedance headphones.
 
My main worry about the STX is really on having proper shielding and being able to pump out a clean sound that never reveals interference from other components on the PC, even with very revealing low impedance headphones.
 
Any feedback on this is wecome. Thanks.
 
 
PS: If there are better cards for this in the market now, other suggestions are welcome. But I only care about normal stereo sound for 2-channel headphone usage, so paying a lot for features I will not use (7+ channels, DTS, etc, etc) is not an option.
 

 

[olegausany]

Essence STX has metal shielding which covers OPAMPs but still it's recommended mot to install the card into the slot closest to video card

 

[nordan]

Hey beowulf,
 
I actually got the STX because though my onboard + Asgard sounded fine, there was a lot of weird pops/squeals/whining noises in the back that were really annoying to listen to when there wasn't actually anything playing or when it got to a quiet part in a song. I suspect the noise is coming from my power supply or video card but never bothered to troubleshoot it further. Everything in my room is plugged into a power filter.
 
In any case, the 1/4" out on the STX had no noise as far as I could tell even at the loudest volumes, but the noise problem persisted on the RCA outputs. Sound wise, I think the bass sounded a little more powerful on the STX over the Asgard but nothing to rave about. Considering the Asgard was $250 and the STX was $180, I would say that the STX was the better buy, but only because I don't really take my headphones out of my house. Schiit's Bifrost looks pretty interesting though for $350 and would definitely have waited for that instead if portability was something I was looking for. My computer is rather heavy so I don't take it anywhere.
 
I have the 650's which are 300 ohm impedance if I remember right. Not entirely sure how much the impedance effects the amount of noise that comes through... but like I said, even at very high volumes I don't pick up any noise on the 1/4" out. Hope this post helps even if it was a little late.