[artkin]

Hi,
First post here, long time lurker.

I used to own an asus essence stx sound card before I broke a couple capacitors off. I can send it into asus to have it refurbished.

1. Is it worth having my sound card refurbished or can I expect a lower quality product from what I was used to?
2. Is there a better sound card than the essence stx I or II? I used to look at HT Omegas but wound up not going that route for some reason. I know new cards have been introduced since.
3. Would I be better off with an external dac? I loved the virtual 7.1 that the essence had, it was really good.
4. Are external dacs capable of virtual 7.1? Is this a firmware solution or a windows-based software solution?
5. If I upgraded my essence stx with an aftermarket op-amp from SparkoS labs how would that compare with $200-400 dac?

My primary interest is gaming, I want virtual 7.1. I listen to flac music on the side, maybe more often with a new setup.
I have sennheiser hd650s and a schiit tube amp with plenty of power.

Further questions and concerns...
6. I have Genalex golden lion tubes for my amp, any recommendations on tubes if these aren't great?
7. I would like to avoid schiit dacs
8. Please recommend dacs or dac manufacturers

If I think of anything else I'll follow up later.

I would really appreciate some input,
thanks!

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

This one looks interesting. Ticks your boxes: Creative SB AE-9

 

[artkin]

This one looks interesting. Ticks your boxes: Creative SB AE-9

I read the STX has a better bass. Can you comment on that at all?
Also I think I'm just gonna jump on both a card and a dac.

How is Burson for their dacs? What would be my choices as a headphone user? I'll probably eventually upgrade my cans to the sennheiser HD800 level.
Should I settle for a noob dac <$1300 from Burson? I guess the higher prices ones have more studio-esque features.

 

[dunring]

Ive bought and sold every gaming sound card on them market. The Soundblaster AE-9 has a 9038Pro DAC and 5.1 surround, but needs it's own six pin molex since the amp in the audio control module draws 80 watts. It's enough for the HD800s which is a kingpin combination for gaming, I was blown away on it in Destiny 2. The Soundblaster AE-7 is a great value, but even better is the G6 refurbished for $79 with free shipping, no tax the last time I got one, and 3 month warranty. You can line it out to a more powerful amp, but if you keep the volume under 85 percent (or under 2 volts) it scores a 112 SINAD. ASR did a review and it's the best if you're determined to have 7.1 surround. The best upgrade is using a 3.5mm male to male cable and line it out directly into a JDS Atom amplifier which has a 3.5mm input connector along with the RCA ones. Simple and as much clean power as an AE-9.

 

[artkin]

I actually settled for the STX II again. I know its a great card and I plan on swapping the opamps with sparkos opamps.
I read the ae-9 did not have as tight of a bass as the stx. I also did not know of its modability.

I already have a headphone amp so power isnt really a concern.

Do you think the Ae-9 is that much better than the stx? Creative really didnt make anything competitive previously

 

[soundyseb]

I currently own ae-9 for a 3 months now and it sounds 9/10 to my preferences. Look up reviews and issues people have with it though, its not perfect. My Xamp didnt work for whatever reason even if it had PSU power connected to the card (card can run off pcie power btw unless you WANT to use the xamp). The op amps on the card are swappable so big plus if you fall deeper in audio rabbit hole.

IMO for the price of ae -9 you can get a decent external DAC or AMP to connect to your pc.