[suica]

Hey, I'm new to Head-Fi and the whole audiophile scene in general so I was planning to actually make use of my lossless audio files that aren't being done justice by the stock computer I have. But I have a few questions before I start investing in this rather pricy hobby. I'm sorry if this was the wrong forum to post it on, but I'm mainly going to be listening to music on my computer.
 

1. I'm planning to upgrade my soundcard to the Xonar Essence ST(X).

However, I'm a little confused with the divide between the ST and the STX. I've already read a couple of threads regarding it and although the general consensus is that they both have their own traits, I've been hearing that the ST is better than the STX but I don't understand why. It'd be great if you could clear this one up for me.
 

1. Will the Sennheiser HD598 be a good choice with the ST(X)?

I've actually heard that these headphones might not be that great of a choice because of some slight audio distortion (or something along the lines of that). Could someone confirm this for me?
 
I'm also accepting any other alternatives that you guys may think be good for me, with my budget going to about $300-400 max each component (headphones, sound card, etc). I'll be getting a part time job for this so if it's slightly more expensive, it'll serve as a good motivational goal -- as long as it's not too pricy.
 
Thanks for any advice.

 

[chewy4]

The ST is said to be better because it has a jitter clock which probably doesn't actually make an audible difference.
 
I would go with the STX. It's cheaper and uses PCI-E rather than PCI which is being phased out.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Hey, I'm new to Head-Fi and the whole audiophile scene in general so I was planning to actually make use of my lossless audio files that aren't being done justice by the stock computer I have. But I have a few questions before I start investing in this rather pricy hobby. I'm sorry if this was the wrong forum to post it on, but I'm mainly going to be listening to music on my computer.
 

1. I'm planning to upgrade my soundcard to the Xonar Essence ST(X).

However, I'm a little confused with the divide between the ST and the STX. I've already read a couple of threads regarding it and although the general consensus is that they both have their own traits, I've been hearing that the ST is better than the STX but I don't understand why. It'd be great if you could clear this one up for me.
 

1. Will the Sennheiser HD598 be a good choice with the ST(X)?

I've actually heard that these headphones might not be that great of a choice because of some slight audio distortion (or something along the lines of that). Could someone confirm this for me?
 
I'm also accepting any other alternatives that you guys may think be good for me, with my budget going to about $300-400 max each component (headphones, sound card, etc). I'll be getting a part time job for this so if it's slightly more expensive, it'll serve as a good motivational goal -- as long as it's not too pricy.
 
Thanks for any advice.

The Essence ST uses the older PCI slot connection,
Comes with a clock feature that I believes help audio quality for digital audio (music) output (?), not used for (analog) headphone or RCA (analog) output.
You can also hook up an add-on Asus H6 card ($65) which turns the ST from 2-channel (2.0 & 2.1) analog speaker output to 8-channel (7.1) analog speaker output.
 
The Essence STX is PCI-E slot connection (more future proof) and is cheaper.
 
Otherwise they are the same card.
 
I believe what your talking about is impedance (resistance, which is measured in Ohms), it's preferred to have the Ohms of the headphones to be at least 8 times (or more) then the Ohm rating of the output at the headphone output jack (like the STX or ST)
So the HD598, 50-Ohm, is only 5 times more then the Ohm rating of the Essence ST(X) headphone output jack, which is 10-Ohm.
I plug my HD558s (50-Ohm) headphones into my Essence STX and it sounds fine to me.

 

[suica]

Ah, thanks for the responses.
 
I'll get the STX instead and I'll check out the impedance before I buy any headphones then.