[zogo13]

Hello, I am shopping for a sound card and have narrowed it down to the Asus Xonar Essence STX or Asus Xonar Phoebus, I will not be purchasing anything other than one of these two cards, and I am not sure which is better for my needs. I only game on my PC and I use an Astro A40 with MixAmp and I ALWAYS use 7.1 with the Astro (so good 7.1 support is very important ), or a Sennheiser HD 598 so good stereo audio quality is very important, I also occasionally use a razer kraken pro, so I need a mic port, like I said I use the PC only for gaming and only use those three headsets/headphones, which of the two sound cards should I get?

Thanks in advance for any replays

 

[PurpleAngel]

Here is a forum dedicated to the Asus Phoebus, you can see what their opinion is on the STX vs Phoebus.
http://rog.asus.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?136-Xonar-Phoebus-Sound-Cards

 

[zogo13]

I can't seem to find anything about that from the link you posted, do you mind helping me out based on the info I provided above? Thanks

 

[Rhamnetin]

You might want to consider the Creative Sound Blaster Z or a used Titanium HD.  Many games are built to support Creative technologies and offer better surround support with them.  But between the two you listed, I don't know much about the Phoebus but it's worth noting that I see the Essence STX recommended far more often on every site I go to (which doesn't include the ASUS forums though).

 

[zogo13]

I understand that many people recommend sound blaster cards, but it's down to either of these two cards, I'm just not sure how I would connect my astro mixamp to it, as the ports are 6.3 not 3.5, and it doesn't appear to have a mic port, how do I connect my things?

 

[Rhamnetin]

You can get a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter on somewhere like amazon.  I doubt it costs much.

 

[zogo13]

This is another big concern of mine with my Astros I use 7.1 sound which is created by the Astro MixAmp, can I still use the 7.1 sound with the STX?