[goodsguys]

Hi And thanks for reading this post.
 
My asus d2x sound card is six feet under and snuffed it, and i am looking at the essence stx 7.1 with daughter board as a replacement.
 
1. In sq terms are there any improvements between the two cards, is the difference slight or substantial.
 
2. I had the analogue outs of the d2x running into 3 power amps to produce 5.1 sound, can i continue to do this with the stx.
 
3. Most of my stuff is bluray dts hd ma 7.1 , or stereo, can the stx downmix the 7.1 into 5.1, and upmix the 2 channel stereo into 5.1
 
4. i heard the surround from the stx is only virtual surround, not true dedicated / discrete channels, is this correct
 
5. Is the stx 7.1 the way to go or are there better cards.
 
Many thanks in advance. John.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  My Asus D2X sound card is six feet under and snuffed it, and i am looking at the essence stx 7.1 with daughter board as a replacement.
1. In sq terms are there any improvements between the two cards, is the difference slight or substantial.
2. I had the analogue outs of the d2x running into 3 power amps to produce 5.1 sound, can i continue to do this with the stx.
3. Most of my stuff is bluray dts hd ma 7.1 , or stereo, can the STX downmix the 7.1 into 5.1, and upmix the 2 channel stereo into 5.1
4. i heard the surround from the stx is only virtual surround, not true dedicated / discrete channels, is this correct
5. Is the STX 7.1 the way to go or are there better cards.

 
The original STX only has a 2-channel analog output, so it can not be directly connected to the 3 power amps,
So I'm assuming your asking about the Essence STX II, with daughter card?
 
I'm fairly sure the STX II offers some degree of improvement, in 5.1 or 7.1 analog output, over the D2X
I would guess the Sound Blaster ZxR is roughly in the same ball park as the STX II
 
I use the program Cyperlinks Power DVD 11 Ultra for Blu-ray disks, I let it do the audio processing, not the sound card.
If your sending a 5.1 (6-channel) signal from a blu-ray disk, thru the sound card (like the D2X or STX II) to the three amps, the sound card is not doing any surround sound audio processing anyway.
 
Not really sure how the cards handle 7.1 to 5.1 conversion.
Upmixing from a 2-channel (stereo) to a 5.1 or 7.1 is easy for just about any sound card to do.
 
An Asus Xonar DX or D1 sound card will do the same functions as the (original) STX (they both use the same C-Media CM8788 audio processor).
Not sure how close the Xonar DX/D1 is in analog audio quality, to the D2X.

 

[goodsguys]

Hi. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
 
That's the thing we have in common, our set up is very similar, i also found powerdvd to be the best choice for audio/video playback quality, sometimes i use windvd, that's very close to powerdvd quality in most respects.
 
For playing 7.1 blurays i have to set powerdvd to 8-channel in the options menu, for stereo i have to go back in to powerdvd and set to 2 channel, that's the one annoying thing about it, having to go into the options everytime i want to play something.
 
Can you expand a little on what you mean by "i let powerdvd do all the processing".
 
The way i do it is to play the bluray in powerdvd and set the audio to 8 channel, then set the asus soundcard to 5.1, and it seems to work ok, each speaker channel sounds as it should, i'm not sure how to downmix 7.1 to 5.1 with the sound card.
 
For stereo sources, i set powerdvd to 2 channel, then set the soundcard to 5.1 and also enable dolby prologic IIx, which upmixes the stereo to 5.1.
 
What do you think i should do about purchasing the asus stx 7.1 with daughter board, or should i stick with the d2x,
 
it all depends if there is a lot of difference in sound quality between the two.
 
I can picked up a used d2x for just a few bucks, but the stx is over 200 dollars at the moment, is it worth the additional expenditure.
 
Many thaks. John.

 

[goodsguys]

Sorry, typo at the end.
 
Many thanks.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  That's the thing we have in common, our set up is very similar, i also found powerdvd to be the best choice for audio/video playback quality, sometimes i use windvd, that's very close to powerdvd quality in most respects.
For playing 7.1 blurays i have to set powerdvd to 8-channel in the options menu, for stereo i have to go back in to powerdvd and set to 2 channel, that's the one annoying thing about it, having to go into the options everytime i want to play something.
Can you expand a little on what you mean by "i let powerdvd do all the processing".
The way i do it is to play the Bluray in powerdvd and set the audio to 8 channel, then set the Asus sound card to 5.1, and it seems to work ok, each speaker channel sounds as it should, I'm not sure how to downmix 7.1 to 5.1 with the sound card.
For stereo sources, i set Powerdvd to 2 channel, then set the sound card to 5.1 and also enable Dolby Pro Logic IIx, which upmixes the stereo to 5.1.
What do you think i should do about purchasing the Asus STX 7.1 with daughter board, or should i stick with the d2x,
it all depends if there is a lot of difference in sound quality between the two.
I can picked up a used d2x for just a few bucks, but the STX is over 200 dollars at the moment, is it worth the additional expenditure.

 
PowerDVD can work with DTS-Master Audio or Dolby TryueHD sound tracks.
I can't find anything that says the Essence STX II can directly support DTS-Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD
I normally use headphones, to watch a Blu-ray (5.1) movie.
So i use to set my PowerDVD to headphone output, so the PowerDVD should be output just 2-channels of headphone surround sound.
This way the PowerDVD does it headphone surround sound processing
I set the Asus's Audio Channel to 2-channel speaker and Audio Output to 2-speaker,
So the 2-channels from the PowerDVD would pass right thru the Asus
I would enable the Asus optical output, which would send the signal straight to my external DAC/Headphone amp.
 
Otherwise if I set PowerDVD for 6-channel (5.1) output, i have to have the Asus card (set it's Audio Channel to 6-channel) to do the headphone surround sound processing.
 
If you can pick up the Xonar D2X, for well under $100 (or maybe for $100?), then go for it.
The D2X was the basis design the STX and STX II took after (more so the original STX).
All of them use the same C-media CM8788 audio processor and same class of DAC chip (PCM17XX).

 

[goodsguys]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.
 
Are blurays 5.1, i thought they were all 7.1  I've ripped a few blurays to hard drive using a program called make mkv and it gives a list of all the audio and video tracks, subtitles etc, ( so you can decide what you want to keep ), and it has always stated the dts-hd-ma track is 7.1, but when i play the ripped file in powerdvd it says 5.1 in the information menu.
 
I did not know that, that powerdvd could downmix, i thought i had to set it to the number of channels of the source, 5.1 for dvd and 7.1 for bluray.  What should i do. My audio set up is 5.1, should i set powerdvd to 5.1 all the time so it downmixes the source. This has got me worried. Does powerdvd even downmix or does it throw away the extra channels.
 
Many thanks. John.

 

[max-bit]

no bad  

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hi. Thanks for the reply.
 
Are Blurays 5.1, i thought they were all 7.1  I've ripped a few blu-rays to hard drive using a program called make mkv and it gives a list of all the audio and video tracks, subtitles etc, ( so you can decide what you want to keep ), and it has always stated the dts-hd-ma track is 7.1, but when i play the ripped file in powerdvd it says 5.1 in the information menu.
I did not know that, that powerdvd could downmix, i thought i had to set it to the number of channels of the source, 5.1 for dvd and 7.1 for bluray.  What should i do. My audio set up is 5.1, should i set powerdvd to 5.1 all the time so it downmixes the source. This has got me worried. Does powerdvd even downmix or does it throw away the extra channels.
Many thanks. John.

 
I'm not really knowledgeable about how PowerDVD changes a 7.1 audio feed, into a 5.1 feed,
figure unless you have a 7.1 speaker setup, it does not really make a difference.
I would assume when PowerDVD takes a 5.1 and makes it into a 2.0 (for stereo speakers or headphones) audio tracks, it combines the 5.1 into the 2.0.
I use PowerDVD 11 Ultra, so yours or other version might do something different.
 
You might try posting your PowerDVD questions to this forum.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/forums/list/ENU.page

 

[goodsguys]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.
 
Well, i picked up the stxII with daughter board and it is quite an improvement over the d2x especially when playing lower quality files like mp3's.
 
I got 3 op amps with the sound card, is it worth swapping these with the stock ones. The ones i got are two x Lm4562 and one muse 2.
 
There is  not much info on opamp rolling the stxII but plenty on the stx. The problem is for every post which states they like the muse op amp, there are an equal number of posts which say they hate it.
 
But the Lm4562 has more positive comments overall than the muse, in fact i can't really find anyone who dislikes the Lm4562.
 
There was a funny post on one of the forums in which someone compared 6 different opamps on the stx, in the end he placed the Lm4562 as the overall winner and the LME49720 in second place.  I didn't have the heart to tell they they are the same op amp, Lm4562 is an older name and was changed a few years  later.
 
Many thanks. John.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Well, i picked up the stxII with daughter board and it is quite an improvement over the d2x especially when playing lower quality files like mp3's.
I got 3 op amps with the sound card, is it worth swapping these with the stock ones. The ones i got are two x Lm4562 and one muse 2.
There is  not much info on opamp rolling the stxII but plenty on the stx. The problem is for every post which states they like the muse op amp, there are an equal number of posts which say they hate it.
But the Lm4562 has more positive comments overall than the muse, in fact i can't really find anyone who dislikes the Lm4562.
There was a funny post on one of the forums in which someone compared 6 different opamps on the stx, in the end he placed the Lm4562 as the overall winner and the LME49720 in second place.  I didn't have the heart to tell they they are the same op amp, Lm4562 is an older name and was changed a few years  later.

 
Guess I would rather have the LM4652/LME49720, over the Muse.
I myself went for three AD797BR op-amps for my STX.

 

[goodsguys]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.
 
What did you feel about the op amp rolling. Asus are saying it gives changes in tone and feel of the music rather than lowering distortion or improving performance. What do you think?
 
Many thanks.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hi. Thanks for the reply.
 
What did you feel about the op amp rolling. Asus are saying it gives changes in tone and feel of the music rather than lowering distortion or improving performance. What do you think?
 
Many thanks.

 
At best i can say is with the lower costing op-amps, you can change the sound,
but if your willing to pay a fair bit more you can improve the audio quality, somwhat.
Like $60 for three LME49990 or three ADA797BR op-amps.

 

[goodsguys]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.
 
I have been googling around and have found the LME49990MA on mouser, but it is labelled " Scheduled for obsolescence and will be discontinued by the manufacturer. " Can't find it anywhere else.
 
And the ada797br i can't find at all, on ebay they have the smd type only.
 
Also, on a side issue, What do you think about my set up of powerdvd software > stxII > 3 power amps.
 
 I am having a heated debate with a guy and he insists my way is rubbish and his way is so much better. He has an external preamp and power amp, rather than soundcard.
 
He's saying :  I doubt your sound is very good but we still have two fundamentally different setups:-

Yours is analog straight out of the PC and therefore the quality of the sound card, cables, software, decoding etc matters completely. The choice of decoding software and features will matter immensely.

Mine is digital to the AV processor and therefore so long as I get the digital audio track out untouched and in sync it doesn't matter what the soundcard is or the fact it could be a very cheap and nasty (but working) HDMI cable.

As I am bitstreaming I am taking whatever the "raw" signal of the media is, not processing any of it, nor adding any noise (as its digital) and passing off to the AV Processor to handle. Therefore so long as the player is capable of outputting the correct digital bitstream (and in sync) it shouldn't matter what player you are using. (For picture that's a whole different matter and relies on a combination of the player, codec and video hardware on your PC\player)   Also the PC environment is particularly noisy which is why the soundcard manufacturers always quote the SNR in their marketing blurb.

By going down the HDMI route you eliminate the need for a dedicated soundcard, driver, OS, application support for said card. You can have all the features of the soundcard on an AV processor but can invest a lot more into this. Equally if you don't want separate power amps then you go down the all in one route.

My personal preference would be AV processor into Power Amps.

The AV Processor will have much control over room acoustics for example. This can improve the sound quality too. Unless I have missed it this isn't a feature you get in most soundcards.

I want to bitstream the sound from my PC so I want it untouched to the processor. "
 
He's got me thinking now that perhaps i made a mistake buying the stxII. Not sure.  Do you have any thoughts on this.
 
Many thanks.
 

 

[goodsguys]

Thanks for the reply.
 
I'm having difficulty purchasing the LME49990 or three ADA797BR op-amps
 
What do you think of the opa627, i've used this before and it is a good opamp.
 
The problem is the pin outs are different from stock, is there an adaptor or something i can buy to fit them in
 
Many thanks.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I'm having difficulty purchasing the LME49990 or three ADA797BR op-amps
What do you think of the opa627, i've used this before and it is a good op-amp.
The problem is the pin outs are different from stock, is there an adapter or something i can buy to fit them in
Many thanks.

 
The OPA627 is single channel and the op-amp slots on the STX are dual channel (DIP-8).
So you need to buy two OPA627 mounted on a dual SOIC to DIP-8 adapter.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Dual-to-Mono-OPA627AU-replace-OPA2604-NE5532-TL072-/322009971077?hash=item4af94a3985mfUx45UrqIzwhIMdY5Do66Q
 
The LME49990
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Dual-to-Mono-LME49990MA-2PCS-installed-on-1pcs-Dual-to-Mono-OPamp-PCB-/272086115306?hash=item3f5998a3ea:g:~l4AAOSw3KFWfAq~
 
This is the seller i bought my AD797BR from.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/mod-1x-AD797BR-Dual-Mono-Op-amp-module-ultralow-noise-replace-dual-op-/261266640288?hash=item3cd4b48da0