[TsKen]

Is the amp on the Xonar Essence STX strong enough to drive headphones properly compared to a dedicated external amp like the Magni 2?
 
Been having a back and forth conversation over /r/headphones with several people. Wanted to hear your thoughts on it from the people from Head Fi.
 
The general consensus there is that the STX isn't driving my headphones properly and that I should get a dedicated amp like the Magni 2 instead.
 
Trust me, I love my STX And I've been in denial about it.. But I've never owned a dedicated external amp so I can't say for certain that it's strong enough to drive headphones like the HD 600,650,Vibro,MDP,AP and etc.
 
Does anyone know whether the amp on the STX is strong enough? Particularly to drive headphones like the Alpha Prime?
 
Would it be worth it to get a dedicated external amp like the Magni 2, hook it up to the STX with RCA cables and replace the STX as my dedicated amp instead?
 
Thanks!!

 

[rids57]

I've been using an STX for gaming for the last couple of years and it drives my AKG K702s and HD 650s very easily. I have the gain set to High (64~300 ohms) and pushing the volume past 35 gets painful. It does sound good too and in no way is it embarrassed by my Modi / Magni 2 setup that I use for music.

 

[TsKen]

  I've been using an STX for gaming for the last couple of years and it drives my AKG K702s and HD 650s very easily. I have the gain set to High (64~300 ohms) and pushing the volume past 35 gets painful. It does sound good too and in no way is it embarrassed by my Modi / Magni 2 setup that I use for music.

Hi!
 
Thank you for sharing!
 
Would you consider getting the Magni 2 and hooking it up to the STX a waste of money?
 
Reason i ask is that I read that the STX amp isn't very good and even though you can achieve the required volume on headphones, headphones are usually not fully driven properly and thus would sound lack luster.
 
I recently purchased the Magni 2(haven't shipped yet) so I'm not entirely sure whether it's even worth it to get it to upgrade over the STX.
 
Thank you!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Is the amp on the Xonar Essence STX strong enough to drive headphones properly compared to a dedicated external amp like the Magni 2?
Been having a back and forth conversation over /r/headphones with several people. Wanted to hear your thoughts on it from the people from Head Fi.
The general consensus there is that the STX isn't driving my headphones properly and that I should get a dedicated amp like the Magni 2 instead.
Trust me, I love my STX And I've been in denial about it.. But I've never owned a dedicated external amp so I can't say for certain that it's strong enough to drive headphones like the HD 600,650,Vibro,MDP,AP and etc.
Does anyone know whether the amp on the STX is strong enough? Particularly to drive headphones like the Alpha Prime?
Would it be worth it to get a dedicated external amp like the Magni 2, hook it up to the STX with RCA cables and replace the STX as my dedicated amp instead?

 
Hopefully you disabled the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the STX.
Have you tried the Unified Xonar drivers?
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
 
I'm guessing the Magni 2 might be a sightly better headphone amplifier, then the one built into the Essence STX.
But I doubt you would have a noticeable improvement in audio quality, switching to the Magni 2 amp, from the STX's amp.
 
Might be worthwhile it if your will to spend over $200, for a tube (or hybrid) headphone amplifier.

 

[TsKen]

   
Hopefully you disabled the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the STX.
Have you tried the Unified Xonar drivers?
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
 
I'm guessing the Magni 2 might be a sightly better headphone amplifier, then the one built into the Essence STX.
But I doubt you would have a noticeable improvement in audio quality, switching to the Magni 2 amp, from the STX's amp.
 
Might be worthwhile it if your will to spend over $200, for a tube (or hybrid) headphone amplifier.

I've actually been reading a lot of your posts for a while now(lol sorry for stalking, you seem to be the most knowledgeable in the STX).
 
Yep! I've disabled the on-board audio in the bios when I installed the STX.
 
How much of a difference would the unified xonar drivers make? The software itself is already buggy as hell, which is why i'm hesitant on even tampering with it when it's working fine right now.
 
And I see.. I might be tempted to cancel my Magni 2 order then. A lot of people have been telling me that the STX can't power headphones properly and that the Magni 2 would be a significant upgrade.(trying to power the Alpha Primes). One guy on reddit was making the argument that the STX are particularly bad for low-ohm headphones. So for any Fostex T50RP fostex headphones, it would sound particularly ****ty on the STX.It has to do with some kind of voltage change or something.. as to how the STX has a big switch from -12 to +12.
 
Sigh, i'm still so unsure of whether to get the Magni 2 or not. People said they would power just about everything which is why i'm getting it and using the STX as the DAC instead of the modi 2. Why is everyone telling me the STX has a ****ty amp? :S
 
Sorry, i'm fairly new to this amping kind of thing. What tube headphone amplifiers would you recommend? I don't want to spend too much on a amp...

 

[k4rstar]

The Primes have planar magnetic drivers and scale significantly with more power despite their (relatively low) impedance. Maybe it's just me but it seems a little ridiculous to purchase a headphone with a $1000 MSRP and attempt to drive it with a sound card. Don't cancel your Magni order, try it with the Primes vs. the STX and if you still can't tell the difference then return the Magni, Schiit have a 15-day return policy.

 

[TsKen]

  The Primes have planar magnetic drivers and scale significantly with more power despite their (relatively low) impedance. Maybe it's just me but it seems a little ridiculous to purchase a headphone with a $1000 MSRP and attempt to drive it with a sound card. Don't cancel your Magni order, try it with the Primes vs. the STX and if you still can't tell the difference then return the Magni, Schiit have a 15-day return policy.

haha that's what I thought as well.. What am i doing driving these things with a soundcard.
 
Will definitely do that! I actually ordered it through Amazon, so if things go south, it'll be a quick easy return no question asked! =)
 
Thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I've actually been reading a lot of your posts for a while now(lol sorry for stalking, you seem to be the most knowledgeable in the STX).
Yep! I've disabled the on-board audio in the bios when I installed the STX.
How much of a difference would the Unified Xonar Drivers make? The software itself is already buggy as hell, which is why I'm hesitant on even tampering with it when it's working fine right now.
And I see.. I might be tempted to cancel my Magni 2 order then. A lot of people have been telling me that the STX can't power headphones properly and that the Magni 2 would be a significant upgrade.(trying to power the Alpha Primes). One guy on reddit was making the argument that the STX are particularly bad for low-ohm headphones. So for any Fostex T50RP Fostex headphones, it would sound particularly ****ty on the STX.It has to do with some kind of voltage change or something.. as to how the STX has a big switch from -12 to +12.
Sigh, I'm still so unsure of whether to get the Magni 2 or not. People said they would power just about everything which is why I'm getting it and using the STX as the DAC instead of the Modi 2. Why is everyone telling me the STX has a ****ty amp? :S
Sorry, I'm fairly new to this amping kind of thing. What tube headphone amplifiers would you recommend? I don't want to spend too much on a amp...

 
The guy(s) behind Unified Xonar Drivers usually include C-Media updates sooner and can also do more tweaking with the drivers.
Compared to Asus company guys who would be more concerned with stable drivers, so not as free to do the tweaking or experimenting with the drivers.
 
I use to use my O2 head amp ($129) plugged into the STX's RCA jacks and I would assume the O2 is roughly equal to the Magni 2.
And did finally replace my STX with an Audio-GD NFB-15 ($306) external DAC/amp.
I've used headphones from 32-Ohm to 600-Ohms, plugged into my STX & O2 and NFB-15.
Really never heard a big difference between using the STX & O2 & NFB-15.
 
The NFB-15 being fully external (outside of the computer case) did give me a quieter background (slight difference really).
But there was not like a big wow, what a difference, using the NFB-15 or the O2, over the STX.
 
Technically the O2s (or Magni 2) > 1-Ohm headphone jack's output impedance or the NFB-15 >2-Ohm headphone jack's output impedance,
is better for driving headphones under 50-Ohms (damping issues), then the STX's 10-Ohm headphone jack's output impedance.
But in real world use, it's not more then a very minor, if even noticeable difference (for damping).

 

[TsKen]

   
The guy(s) behind Unified Xonar Drivers usually include C-Media updates sooner and can also do more tweaking with the drivers.
Compared to Asus company guys who would be more concerned with stable drivers, so not as free to do the tweaking or experimenting with the drivers.
 
I use to use my O2 head amp ($129) plugged into the STX's RCA jacks and I would assume the O2 is roughly equal to the Magni 2.
And did finally replace my STX with an Audio-GD NFB-15 ($306) external DAC/amp.
I've used headphones from 32-Ohm to 600-Ohms, plugged into my STX & O2 and NFB-15.
Really never heard a big difference between using the STX & O2 & NFB-15.
 
The NFB-15 being fully external (outside of the computer case) did give me a quieter background (slight difference really).
But there was not like a big wow, what a difference, using the NFB-15 or the O2, over the STX.
 
Technically the O2s (or Magni 2) > 1-Ohm headphone jack's output impedance or the NFB-15 >2-Ohm headphone jack's output impedance,
is better for driving headphones under 50-Ohms (damping issues), then the STX's 10-Ohm headphone jack's output impedance.
But in real world use, it's not more then a very minor, if even noticeable difference (for damping).

So I probably wouldn't find any difference connecting the Magni 2 to the Xonar essence stx?

 

[mindbomb]

afaik, for high impedance loads, the essence stx actually has the lower thd. However, there is a bug with it that prevents me from really recommending it - the random full scale noise with certain applications bug.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  So I probably wouldn't find any difference connecting the Magni 2 to the Xonar essence stx?

 
Just does not seem worth it to get the Magni 2 and just plugging it into the STX's RCA jacks.
 
There are some threads on Head-fi dedicated to the Sennheiser HD600 & HD650.
You might want to read up and ask on those thread about what what amplifier would be worth getting that would be a noticeable improvement in audio quality, over the STX's amp.
but really the headphone it's self, rather then the amplifier driving them, that makes the difference, and you already have good headphones.
Maybe a tube headphone amplifier might be something worth looking into?