[TheCool]

Hi, everyone. I'm a long time-lurker, short-time poster and firstly, I'd like to curse you all for this insufferable malady which I've been stricken with as a result of frequenting this site so often over the last few months

. Well, I guess curse is a little too strong of a word, but this constant urge to spend money is something that I'm having a fair amount of difficulty keeping in check

.

Anyway, I've sort of given in to my temptation and I'll be steadily building a moderately respectable audio setup over the next few months. I currently have some jvc ha-rx700s and an asus xonar dx. Ultimately my plan is to connect whatever dac I end up getting to a kicas caliente and then to a pair of sennheiser hd-580/600 or some grado sr-225s (or both). I've actually heard both of these phones and I like them very much.

I do game on my pc but it is sporadically at most. What I care about most is the sound-quality of my music. That being said, between the Asus Xonar Essence STX and the Emu 0404 usb device, which will suit my needs best? Has anyone heard both? How did they sound to your ears?

 

[royalcrown]

If you decide against the Xonar, get the EMU 0404 PCI version - it's the same thing for half the price. You miss out on a lot of the features on the USB version, but they're strictly for recording, so unless you need those features the PCI version is audibly identical to the USB version.

As far as your choices, I would get the 0404 PCI because of its performance - it's transparent in every respect, and it's a lot cheaper than the Xonar. Since the Xonar can't be better than the 0404 (the 0404 PCI far surpasses the limit of audibility), you'll save a lot of cash and have amazing sound.

 

[euphoracle]

--Eh, nevermind, not important--

 

[Shahrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by royalcrown /img/forum/go_quote.gif As far as your choices, I would get the 0404 PCI because of its performance - it's transparent in every respect, and it's a lot cheaper than the Xonar. Since the Xonar can't be better than the 0404 (the 0404 PCI far surpasses the limit of audibility), you'll save a lot of cash and have amazing sound.

I respectfully disagree. I recommend the OP to go for the STX if he/she can do with an internal card.

 

[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by royalcrown /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you decide against the Xonar, get the EMU 0404 PCI version - it's the same thing for half the price. You miss out on a lot of the features on the USB version, but they're strictly for recording, so unless you need those features the PCI version is audibly identical to the USB version. As far as your choices, I would get the 0404 PCI because of its performance - it's transparent in every respect, and it's a lot cheaper than the Xonar. Since the Xonar can't be better than the 0404 (the 0404 PCI far surpasses the limit of audibility), you'll save a lot of cash and have amazing sound.

Have you compared the sound cards he has talked about, or even heard the Essence yet? If you have compared them please let us know your impressions since AFAIK nobody else has posted any comparisons between the STX and either 0404 (PCI or USB) yet. If not, please don't dismiss the sound quality of the STX and claim that it "can't be better" without actually listening to one first... You might offend us STX fanbo-- er, supporters...

@TheCool, dunno if this'll help or not, but so far every person who has compared the STX to another sound card in the Essence STX Sneak Peak Thread has found the STX to be the better sounding card, except for pompon, who preferred his X-Meridian since he found the STX to be "too detailed."

Off the top of my head, from a pure sound-quality standpoint people who have posted there have found the STX superior to the following:

Creative X-Fi xtrememusic
Xonar DX
Xonar D2
Xonar D2X
Xonar HDAV 1.3
Auzentech Prelude
Auzentech Forte
HT Omega Claro
HT Omega Claro +
Emu 1212m

Zero DAC w/ OPA-Earth HDAM
iBasso D2 DAC

I would suggest spending a *cough* little time *cough* browsing the STX Sneak Peak thread (I mean cmon, it's only what, 82 pages now? Piece o' cake!) and read the comparisons in there, and then doing some forum searches on how either 0404 compares to the sound cards/DACs listed above. That'd give you at least an indirect impression of how the two might compare, anyway.

 

[TheCool]

Thanks so much for the replies, guys. As far as price goes, the two units are very similar in price which is what's making the choice somewhat difficult. I don't need any of the connection or recording options on the emu 0404 at all. My only concern is sound quality. I've read about 15 pages or so of the essence stx thread and the card seems very well received. I really like the idea of being able to change out opamps to customize the sound.

 

[royalcrown]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alydon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you compared the sound cards he has talked about, or even heard the Essence yet? If you have compared them please let us know your impressions since AFAIK nobody else has posted any comparisons between the STX and either 0404 (PCI or USB) yet. If not, please don't dismiss the sound quality of the STX and claim that it "can't be better" without actually listening to one first... You might offend us STX fanbo-- er, supporters...

My friend has the STX (he's a gamer... interestingly enough he thought it would help his frames per second), and I borrowed it for a couple of days to run measurements and test them out. Measurement-wise (I wish I saved the rmaa result but I chucked it in haste and couldn't be bothered to re-borrow the card to re-test) it performed about the same, very slightly worse than the emu 0404 but not appreciably different. It's a good card, just expensive for what it does considering the 0404 is 100 dollars shipped. In blind testing with level matching, I couldn't tell any difference whatsoever - I doubt that in a controlled setting that they could be distinguished from each other. I could be wrong, but I'd rather have the extra 75 bucks in my pocket.