[leeperry]

I'd get a NFB-12(the newer version w/ the oversampling jumpers) for this kind of money, much higher bang for bucks ratio than any internal soundcard to my ears...and yes, I've owned the ST/STX 

 
And the Asus drivers are so buggy that it woud be hard to even call them alpha software: http://brainbit.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

 

[Astrozombie]

Has anyone done a comparison with the DG and ST? What i'm wondering right now is should i upgrade the sound card in my main rig or buy a new AVR that i connect it to....

 

[ROBSCIX]

There are many ways you can go here if you have the money.  You just need to decide what features you need and ind a product that gives you the most of not all of them.
 
If you go with the AVR, are you connecting to your rig through S/Pdif or analog?

 

[wushuliu]

Will have to disagree w/ Leeperry here. I've heard Audio-GD DACs and many others. The Essence ST w/ unixonar drivers gives great performance for the money. Replace the clock and get rid of the output caps and you have potential for exceptional performance that is just as good as NFB-3, DAC19s, etc.AND you'll be spared the usb/spdif converter/cable merry go round. However, the rest of the PC has to do its part - cleanest PSU you can get, SSD drives, SOTM filters, playback software, and efficient cpu all play a part in end result.

 

[MikeW]

yeah, that's what the OP wanted, rip out yoru PSU replace it with a 150$ one, and buy a bunch of ridiculously overpriced SOTM filters

, then for good measure get a SSD @ 2$ per GB.
 
So your answer is "yes a 200$ essense STX, combined with 150$ PSU, 200$ SSD, and 200$ worth of filters can compete with an external dac"
 
not to mention it's dumb to store media on an expensive SSD. That's why you set the foobar ram buffer to 300 megs and just buffer everything to ram.
 
or you could just buy an external dac.

 

[wushuliu]

I said if he wants to improve the performance even more. The stock card still sounds great. Save the exaggeration for someone who cares.

 

[MattTCG]

I do already have a high end Corsair PSU, SSD custom built pc. And I ordered the STX from a member here. Will have it today. Hoping for a good improvement over the on board sound.  Will post back with results.

 

[MikeW]

Oh there will definately be an improvement over onboard. That's not saying much though. An ipod is an improvement over onboard, or a 29$ wal-mart special dvd player is even better.