[Phiton]

Hi,
Recently bought one to experiment with streaming to my hifi setup. I am thoroughly impressed with the initial setup. Have compared some 16-bit wav/flac rips with different players (Foobar + ASIO/Wasapi, Pureplayer +Wasapi, CPlay, Stealthplayer +Wasapi). By a landslide the Stealtplayer setup was my winner.

I only use the Asus with line-out. My pre-amp is a Balanced Line stage + Buffer from Nelson Pass. I have read that the there is only 1 opamp in the analog line-out. Does anybody know if the designation buffer in this case really means 'unity gain'?
If so, then a simple bypass of the opamp in the line-out (or removal and passthrough cabling) would be a major improvement, i guess. I can then make a Nelson Pass buffer as a replacement on the pre-map input side.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[ZorgDK]

Quote:

I does play sometimes, but with terrible artifacts or refuses to play at all. I hear the clicks, pops  etc. when browsing thru playlists for instance. All other types of files(inc. 24/96) play just fine thru Wasapi. This Asio thing on foobar drives me crazy.

 
I did a google search and it looks like the Essence can't play 88.2 and 176.4 bit-perfect, below is a quote from a Stereophile.com review:

The other issue that raised its head during setup was not a problem as such, but the fact that the STX and ST can't play files with 88.2 or 176.4kHz sample rates in a bit-transparent manner, which they will do with 96 and 192kHz data. The cards will indeed play 88.2 and 176.4 files, but will convert their sample rate on the fly to whatever rate has been set with the Xonar Audio Center. ASUS claims that the Essence cards' built-in sample-rate converter is of very high quality, but there will still be a loss of ultimate sound quality with 88.2 and 176.4kHz files.
 
 

 

[giedrys]

Right, but like you said in previous post, latest driver supposedly has native ASIO support. I can select it from output options, but it produces terrible artifacts(unlike Wasapi).
 
Can someone else with ST(X) check 88.2/176.4 files with foobar/asio?

 

[matbhuvi]

Quote:

Yep the two on the right. The left is buffer for line out. I put in 3 of them myself:
 

Is it a must to solder them with the adapters? I got the samples that i ordered. Looking @ these DIP 8  in ebay which say solder type and some like these are called adapter type. Does that mean i can buy the adapter type and avoid soldering?
 

 

[RiceEatin2010GT]

Hey everyone new user here.  Im a little late to the STX club but better late then never i suppose.  I actually read this whole thread and just wanted to clarify some things.  Right now i have a very medicore set up of hd 555's being plugged into the headphone amp port which for now is fine.  Soon i want to order a pair of HD 650's and potentially down the road get a external headphone amp for it.  Saw here most people say to use RCA outs to the amp and enjoy.  My question is with volume settings should i have windows volume(mixer volume from asus program) at 100% and control the volume with the amp?   Thank you in advance this thread has helped a ton with some other questions

 

[matbhuvi]

Quote:

Hey everyone new user here.  Im a little late to the STX club but better late then never i suppose.  I actually read this whole thread and just wanted to clarify some things.  Right now i have a very medicore set up of hd 555's being plugged into the headphone amp port which for now is fine.  Soon i want to order a pair of HD 650's and potentially down the road get a external headphone amp for it.  Saw here most people say to use RCA outs to the amp and enjoy.  My question is with volume settings should i have windows volume(mixer volume from asus program) at 100% and control the volume with the amp?   Thank you in advance this thread has helped a ton with some other questions

Make sure the volume at the player is at 100%. If you use the headphone out, then control the volume through stx control panel volume knob. If you use line out, then keep the stx volume to 100% and control volume through the amp.
 

 

[RiceEatin2010GT]

Quote:

Make sure the volume at the player is at 100%. If you use the headphone out, then control the volume through stx control panel volume knob. If you use line out, then keep the stx volume to 100% and control volume through the amp.
 

Thank you! what i figured.  Im guessing its the same when im doing bit perfect playback through foobar?  Just max the foobar volume control?

 

[audiofreak81]

Here is my settings I have under the Xonar Audio Center that I think sound the best.
 
Audio channel- 8 channels
Sample Rate- PCM 192 khz
Analog Out- Headphone
SPDIF Out- Check on headphone
 
EQ mode- Soft Rock
LFE crossover mode- 250 hz
HP- Large
Environment- Padded Cell
Dsp mode-none
 
Any type of music sounds great with these settings and you definitely don't want to turn up the volume past 30 with these setting, it'll blow your ear drums out.

 

[ROBSCIX]

 
Quote:

 
I did a google search and it looks like the Essence can't play 88.2 and 176.4 bit-perfect, below is a quote from a Stereophile.com review:

The other issue that raised its head during setup was not a problem as such, but the fact that the STX and ST can't play files with 88.2 or 176.4kHz sample rates in a bit-transparent manner, which they will do with 96 and 192kHz data. The cards will indeed play 88.2 and 176.4 files, but will convert their sample rate on the fly to whatever rate has been set with the Xonar Audio Center. ASUS claims that the Essence cards' built-in sample-rate converter is of very high quality, but there will still be a loss of ultimate sound quality with 88.2 and 176.4kHz files.
 
 

The Stereophile review was released when the card was still using the original drivers that did not automatically change the sampling rate nor support the mentioned sampling rates.
The drivers were updated since the release of this review and IIRC now allow both auto sample rate adjustment through ASIO aswell
as support for 88.2 and 176.4.

 

[Gradius]

Quote:

No problem, I don't believe burn in makes any difference. The sound seems more clear and detailed than the JRC opamps. 
 
 
 

The burn in won't works on those regular (low quality) ICs, just trust me. 

 

[Gradius]

Quote:

OK.  I recieved and have now installed 3 burson opamps into the Xonar Essence ST card.  All I can say is the level of detail I am hearing now is unbelievable.  Songs I have listened to literally 100s of times I can hear more layers of music, the bass is very present without dominating the sound.
 
I seriously can't believe the difference in sound.
 
The setup ...
 
Xonar Essence ST ---> 3 Burson Opamps ----> Windows 7 -----> J River Music 16.0 ------> flac/alac albums ----> HD650s

Don't forget the burn in, I recommend at last 150h or more for it!   PPL don't believe it until they try it for yourself.
 
I just use Winamp here (last version), and everything at 192kHz@24-bit on output, and Dolby Home Theater as EQ.   Drivers are those unified ones.
 
Anyway, did you changed the crystal as well?  If not, DO IT!  You will get 20%~25% more of it!

 

[Gradius]

Quote:

I have read that the there is only 1 opamp in the analog line-out. Does anybody know if the designation buffer in this case really means 'unity gain'?
If so, then a simple bypass of the opamp in the line-out (or removal and passthrough cabling) would be a major improvement, i guess. I can then make a Nelson Pass buffer as a replacement on the pre-map input side.

Not true at all!  Those two OPAmps are for Left & Right on line out (should be the same on headphones), the other one is for amp alone.   I tested by turning (one of those) OFF on-the-fly (by a switcher) to try it myself this is how I know.

 

[Gradius]

NEW Unified drivers are out:
http://brainbit.wordpress.com/category/uni-xonar/

 

[Bigbuddha]

I was considering upgrading the crystal using the burson clock, probably will at some point as folks like yourself have reported very nice improvements.
 
 
cheers
 
Quote:

Don't forget the burn in, I recommend at last 150h or more for it!   PPL don't believe it until they try it for yourself.
 
I just use Winamp here (last version), and everything at 192kHz@24-bit on output, and Dolby Home Theater as EQ.   Drivers are those unified ones.
 
Anyway, did you changed the crystal as well?  If not, DO IT!  You will get 20%~25% more of it!

 

 

[RiceEatin2010GT]

Quote:

Thank you! what i figured.  Im guessing its the same when im doing bit perfect playback through foobar?  Just max the foobar volume control?

anyone? =(