Need help finding good replacement with lower output impedance for Asus Essence STX sound card
Sep 17, 2019 at 2:17 PM Post #16 of 16
I have finally got the FiiO because it is much cheaper than the HifimeDIY. And it turns out that using an external DAC it is not a solution either in my case (at least it is not with the FiiO D03K, perhaps with other models it is; I do not know for sure).

Remember I enjoy turning the DSP on from Xonar Audio Center (XAC) when gaming or watching movies. Not for stereo music though, then I prefer high fidelity and do not use DSP, but other than the latter case I enjoy using DSP. Well, letting the D03K be the DAC prevents me from using the DSP on the Xonar. I can turn it on in XAC, but as the STX is not the actual DAC, it means nothing. The same can be said about volume normalization (SVN, Smart Volume Normalization, as it is called in XAC). It stops doing anything from the very same moment I use the external DAC.

The "solution" I have found is using two headphones the following way. Firstly, I have removed the external DAC. Now, on the one hand, from the line out of the STX, I am sending sound to my FiiO E12, which is where I plan to connect my low impedance cans from now on because of its minimal output impedance (less than 0.3 Ohms according to specs). Currently I have my Takstar HF 580 planar magnetic plugged into the E12. On the other hand, I have my only high impedance cans (Superlux HD330) plugged directly into the headphone output of the STX. For listening to music, I will select line out in Xonar Audio Center to listen from the Fiio E12 with low impedance headphones. When gaming or watching movies, I will select headphones in XAC and then will use the HD330 or whatever high impedance cans are plugged directly into the STX (Currently I have only the Superlux HD330, but I plan to grow my collection in the future).
 
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