[kwh1]

Hi there,
 
I have recently purchased a set of the Edifier S730 2.1 speakers. I am currently using an old creative X-FI Xtreme music sound card. However, I am planning to change my sound card to the asus Xonar St after reading lots of good review about it but do have some questions.
 
1) On the edifier manual, it says that "please do no feed powered signal from another amplifier into the input ports of this system", does it mean i can't use the Xonar St with the speakers since the sound card has a built in amp?????? 
 
2) If there is no conflict with using Xonar st with the speakers, can i just use a regular RCA cable instead of the RCA TO 3.5MM cable since both the sound card and speakers uses RCA ports. 
 
3) If i don't use headphones, will I really see a difference in my current Creative X-FI Xtreme Music sound card compared to the Xonar ST since a lot of the reviews i read online is all about how it will boost headphone performance.
 
I do not know too much about speakers and sound card but just always wanted to get the best sound possible out of my computer system. Thanks a lot !!!!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Run an RCA cable from the Essence ST's RCA outputs to the RCA inputs on the Edifier S730.
The RCA outputs on the Essence ST are not "amplifiered", only the Essence ST's headphone jack is amplified (for headphones).
Plug headphones into the Essence ST, better then plugging the headphone into the Edifier.
Running RCA to RCA, uses the DAC in the Essence ST, chances are it's better then the DAC in the Edifier.
 
You could also plug the Edifiers S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) inputs to the motherboard's S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) outputs.
You would not need the XtremeMusic or Essence ST with this connection, as it would be function with the motherboard's built in sound card.
 
The Asus Xonar DX sound card ($70) should provide better audio quality (CS4398 DAC chip), over the XtremeMusic, for use with the Edifiers.
The Schiit Modi external USB DAC ($99) should provide great audio quality, hooked up between the motherboard and the Edifiers.

 

[kwh1]

thanks for the reply. anyways, i see how you mention use the DAC in the essence st instead of the DAC in the edifier. How do i do that????

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thanks for the reply. anyways, I see how you mention use the DAC in the Essence ST instead of the DAC in the edifier. How do I do that????

A digital (zeros & ones) audio signal is pre-DAC, an analog audio signal (wave) is post-DAC.
So you want to connect the Essence ST's RCA (analog) output (red/white) to send an analog audio signal to the RCA input jacks on the Edifier.
So just need to use an RCA to RCA cable.

 

[kwh1]

Thanks a lot for your help again. Learned a lot today. Now i m looking forward for my Xonar ST  so i can see the difference between it and my current sound card. Was debating over the creative zxr or the xonar st at first but my motherboard's pci-e slots are blocked by my video card so the Xonar St is my only choice.