[germanium]

There are some new Asus Strix cards out that utilize the ESS high performance DAC's. Has anyone tried them yet? One of them utilizes the 9016 chip which in 8 channel configuation has 124 db snr. This same chip when used as a sterep chip has a 132db snr though not utilised that way in these cards.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Can we assume your looking at getting a new sound card?
What are you currently using?
Budget for new sound card (or audio upgrade)?
Is your setup more for music or movies or FPS gaming?
 
I guess for the right price the newer Asus Strix card(s) seem to be decent.

 

[germanium]

  Can we assume your looking at getting a new sound card?
What are you currently using?
Budget for new sound card (or audio upgrade)?
Is your setup more for music or movies or FPS gaming?
 
I guess for the right price the newer Asus Strix card(s) seem to be decent.

Was thinking of a new project is all. One utilizing the new ESS. DAC. See if I can get comparable results as I did with the ZXR card.

 

[germanium]

Hi there. I'm back. I just bought the Asus Strix DLX card saterday & installed it. Initial impressions were not real good but that was before I disabled all the DSP functions. Those made the sound very unpleasant to say the least. The high frequencies especially were very thin & strident. I disabled all the DSP & things improved radically. Now the sound is much better balanced. The sound compared to the modified ZXR is a little lighter body wise but a little more detailed. Reminds me of the Asus Xonar D2PM which I liked very much. The D2PM sounded better overall to me out of the box than the STX card did out of the box but the STX had more potential than the D2PM. The Strix DLX also has more potential & I like it's sound signature better than the ZXR or the STX. A little more detailed than either & not excessively warm but has excellent bass.
 
I have done one modification already. I direct coupled the output. Not much change in sound. Perhaps a little more detailed. Will be doing power supply mods next.With those I expect a little more detail along with a good helping of sweetness at the top octaves.

 

[germanium]

D*d the power supply mods yesterday & oooo laaalaaa is about all I can say. Blows me away how exceptional this card sounds now. Sweeter highs, more detailed & much easier to listen to all at the same time. These are the same mods I did with the STX & ZXR cards. Now better to me than either of the others. In the next couple weeks a friend that has a Mytec Brookland DAC may bring that over so we can compare. That is a 2,000 dollar DAC. I think is should compare very favorably.

Will be posting more in the near future. Ron B..

 

[germanium]

This week end will take some pictures of both the stock card & the modified card. I have two such cards so I could demo the changes the the mods make.

 

[germanium]

D*d the power supply mods yesterday & oooo laaalaaa is about all I can say. Blows me away how exceptional this card sounds now. Sweeter highs, more detailed & much easier to listen to all at the same time. These are the same mods I did with the STX & ZXR cards. Now better to me than either of the others. In the next couple weeks a friend that has a Mytec Brookland DAC may bring that over so we can compare. That is a 2,000 dollar DAC. I think is should compare very favorably.

Will be posting more in the near future. Ron B..

Had a chance now to compare the sound of both the modified card & stock card to the near 2,000.00 dollar Mytek Brooklyn DAC & the results are impressive to say the least. The Brooklyn DAC looses handily to the modified Asus card &  the Brooklyn DAC is equivalent sonically to the stock Asus Strix Raid DLX card. The clarity of the modified card at all levels is far superior to either the stock card or the Brooklyn DAC, this is in all frequency ranges but particularly between the mid/upper bass region to the lower midrange transition. Vocals sound much more clear without loosing body on the modified card than either the stock Asus card or the Brooklyn DAC. The whole bass region is much more clearly defined than in both the Stock or the Brooklyn DAC yet not lacking in body. Bass extends just as low as either stock card or the external DAC with full body intact. Room acoustics of the recording venue are superior to either as well especially of the lower midrange frequency reflections of the recording venue. 
 
In terms of imaging & soundstage both are superior in the modified card. The modified card is better able to project a sound in front of the speakers as well as behind the speakers. Stage width is also superior to either DAC or stock card. Energy from high energy instruments such as electric guitars & some electronic keyboard sounds are also projected with considerably more energy than either stock card or DAC. Combine that with a more textured sound as well. This is truly the cats meow of modification that I have done so far. This is all at matched volume levels

 

[germanium]

 
The Capacitors in the blue squares are shorted underneath & the capacitors in the red rectangle are bypassed with metal film capacitors underneath as shown in the top picture. The capacitors I used were old caps that had very short leads so had to solder on some longer leads so doesn't look pretty but sure does work & the card sounds much better.

 

[bavarianblessed]

So for the power supply section you bypassed, what was there? Will the increased ripple voltage from those huge caps harm the amp section or am I off base here?

 

[germanium]

  So for the power supply section you bypassed, what was there? Will the increased ripple voltage from those huge caps harm the amp section or am I off base here?

Yes you are off base but that is ok. The total capacitance is increased & the impedance of the power supply is reduced due to the nature of the caps that I used for bypassing thus it is able to better shunt noise to ground. They also provide A better ground path for the returning signal with is what gives this mod it's improved sound. Measured noise is actually marginally reduced by 2-3 db.

 

[bavarianblessed]

I see, very cool. So for the power supply filtering caps I want the lowest ESR and highest ripple I can fit there providing capacitance and voltage are acceptible? Sorry for the questions. I posted a question exactly like this a few days ago and no one has replied

 

[germanium]

I see, very cool. So for the power supply filtering caps I want the lowest ESR and highest ripple I can fit there providing capacitance and voltage are acceptible? Sorry for the questions. I posted a question exactly like this a few days ago and no one has replied

I see your looking for caps with the highest ripple capacity for a given capacity that has sufficient capacitance to do the job. Metalized films are a very good choice for this as they have low ESR for a capacitance. much lower than electrolytic caps for the same capacitance. They also sound better than electrolytic caps in the circuit.  

 

[bavarianblessed]

I'll pick some up and see how they sound. Thank you sir!

 

[germanium]

I've made some additions will post pics & show changes made this weekend. Significantly better still as far as soundstage, imaging & detail. No change in frequency response, signal to noise or distortion readings from stock.

 

[Audiosanity]

No balanced outputs on such an expensive card? Garbage, lol.
Besides that, ASUS/Cmedia almost never updates their drivers even when bugs are present.
 
I've sworn off ASUS as an electronics brand for sooo many reasons, just adding more fuel to the fire.