[geoxile]

Quote:

If you hooked up an external headphone amplifier to the green 3.5mm (1/8" mini-jack), you could still use the 7.1 Dolby Virtual Headphone.
Personally I would replace the ATH-AD700 with headphones that have more bass.
You really in general do not need an amplifier for then ATH-AD700, but the Xonar DX is just not that great for driving any headphones.
The price I quoted ($75) was a for a no-name DAC made in China, I'm sure a name brand would cost $150.
The STX also comes with a dedicated headphone amplifier, Dolby Digital 7.1, replaceable op-amps, which is a lot more features then a ($75) no-name DAC comes with.
For around $60 you could add a no-name DAC with digital optical input, for using with speakers, but I doubt you would hear any noticable improvement in the (2.0 or 2.1) speaker sound.

 
I primarily use my AD700s for gaming, I listen to music on my speakers or just use my Cowon J3 and FX700. Honestly, the AD700s don't sound that good for music, they sound very distant/hollow and I'd argue that it sounds better with the emulated surround sound, simply because it makes the audio sound slightly fuller. but I don't use the AD700s for music listening so it's irrelevant.
 
Wait... So are you saying the $75 no-name DAC would have the same hardware as a more expensive name brand? And how much of a difference does swapping op-amps make?

 

[bcschmerker4]

Quote:

I'm looking at replacing my soundcard, too. If I don't drive my headphones directly off the soundcard, is there any reason to spend the extra money on an ST or STX over a DX?
 

Indeed there is, if the computer system already has other known or potentially RFI-heavy expansion cards.  Some computers are hamstrung internally with RFI in the vicinity of the expansion slot where the audio card is to reside:  My Asus® CM1630-06, for instance, had been previously fitted with an EAH6850 DirectCU® video card in the middle of the expansions section of its stock M4A78-EM motherboard (two PCI 2.2, one PCI-Express x16 and one PCI-Express x1); the XONAR® D2X, ST, STX and Xense are all outfitted with radio-grade shielding for the analog output section, unlike most of the other audio cards from all other manufacturers on the market.  (Creative Laboratories® uses similar shielding only on the SB0886 Titanium Fatal1ty®, SB1270 Titanium HD, and SB1354/SB1356 Recon3D® Fatal1ty®.)
 
The XONAR® Essence ST and STX can drive any external headphone amplifier from the dual-RCA analog output jacks ("2 Speakers").  Although it ships stock with two JRC2114D's in the I-V and one National Semiconductor® LM4562N in the line-level buffer, upgrades are available for all three positions from Texas Instruments® (e.g. the Brown-Burr® OPA-series, National Semiconductor® LME41985FA and/or LME41986NA, &c.) and some other manufacturers.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 
I primarily use my AD700s for gaming, I listen to music on my speakers or just use my Cowon J3 and FX700. Honestly, the AD700s don't sound that good for music, they sound very distant/hollow and I'd argue that it sounds better with the emulated surround sound, simply because it makes the audio sound slightly fuller. but I don't use the AD700s for music listening so it's irrelevant.
 
Wait... So are you saying the $75 no-name DAC would have the same hardware as a more expensive name brand? And how much of a difference does swapping op-amps make?

Well stuff from China may not use high quality support parts as a more name brand device might.
A $10 DAC chip can be used in a no-name or name brand hardware.
Op-amps is more about changing the sound, I believe stock op-amps on the STX are more neutral.
Some op-amps are better at bass or treble, sound stage. smoothness, etc.
I'm currently using AD797BR op-amps, I like to think the AD797BR enhances the sound.

 

[geoxile]

Quote:

Well stuff from China may not use high quality support parts as a more name brand device might.
A $10 DAC chip can be used in a no-name or name brand hardware.
Op-amps is more about changing the sound, I believe stock op-amps on the STX are more neutral.
Some op-amps are better at bass or treble, sound stage. smoothness, etc.
I'm currently using AD797BR op-amps, I like to think the AD797BR enhances the sound.

 
Alright, enough with the no-name DAC stuff, every time you speak of it it seems like the quality of the Xonar STX gets worse.
 
I'll probably just skip the upgrade for now.

 

[FieldEffect]

Something to think about. I was looking at the SB1356 just yesterday as Best Buy had them on sale for $99, but the S/N ratio was at 102 whereas the Asus Xonar D1/DX is at 116. So how do you compare 116 unshielded to 102 with a big fancy black shield?
Quote:

Indeed there is, if the computer system already has other known or potentially RFI-heavy expansion cards.  Some computers are hamstrung internally with RFI in the vicinity of the expansion slot where the audio card is to reside:  My Asus® CM1630-06, for instance, had been previously fitted with an EAH6850 DirectCU® video card in the middle of the expansions section of its stock M4A78-EM motherboard (two PCI 2.2, one PCI-Express x16 and one PCI-Express x1); the XONAR® D2X, ST, STX and Xense are all outfitted with radio-grade shielding for the analog output section, unlike most of the other audio cards from all other manufacturers on the market.  (Creative Laboratories® uses similar shielding only on the SB0886 Titanium Fatal1ty®, SB1270 Titanium HD, and SB1354/SB1356 Recon3D® Fatal1ty®.)

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Something to think about. I was looking at the SB1356 just yesterday as Best Buy had them on sale for $99, but the S/N ratio was at 102 whereas the Asus Xonar D1/DX is at 116. So how do you compare 116 unshielded to 102 with a big fancy black shield?

Depends on your pc...., I have a meaty gfx card, meaty Psu, 8x 2000rpm fans, so I need the shielding

 

[geoxile]

So how many PCI-E spaces does the STX take up? By that I mean is it thin enough to fit in between two other devices

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

So how many PCI-E spaces does the STX take up? By that I mean is it thin enough to fit in between two other devices

Yes.

 

[-shu]

Question: when you use the Essence STX for Dolby Headphone gaming, what settings do you use in the main panel? Specifically: should the audio channel setting be set to 2 channels, 6 channels, 8 channels? :S And what should the in-game settings be set to?
 
Running this with a Q701 btw, if anyone has any other suggestions to improve Dolby Headphone experience or even general sound quality (EQ settings, special effects, etc.) then please do
Also, is Dolby Headphone even worth it? How much of a difference does it really make for one's gaming experience? In terms of single player "fun" factor that is, I don't really play competitive games often.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Question: when you use the Essence STX for Dolby Headphone gaming, what settings do you use in the main panel? Specifically: should the audio channel setting be set to 2 channels, 6 channels, 8 channels? :S And what should the in-game settings be set to?
 
Running this with a Q701 btw, if anyone has any other suggestions to improve Dolby Headphone experience or even general sound quality (EQ settings, special effects, etc.) then please do
Also, is Dolby Headphone even worth it? How much of a difference does it really make for one's gaming experience? In terms of single player "fun" factor that is, I don't really play competitive games often.

its definitely worth it!!! Definitely put it on.
 
output 8ch if the  game supports it, otherwise 6ch, turn on dolby headphone. Set windows audio to 24bit(for everything not just games) and set the windows out to 48kHz (doesn't matter in games really) and for music set your audio player (MusicBee and foobar are the best) to resample to 48khz with a proper plugin (musicbee's built in is quite good.)
 
also in BF3 TURN OFF ENHANCED STEREO!!!! and the same for any other game, and set it to home cinema or 7.1/5.1.
 
i hate Origin, but BF3 is amazing with dolby headphone

 

[jdip]

Quote:

its definitely worth it!!! Definitely put it on.
 
output 8ch if the  game supports it, otherwise 6ch, turn on dolby headphone. Set windows audio to 24bit(for everything not just games) and set the windows out to 48kHz (doesn't matter in games really) and for music set your audio player (MusicBee and foobar are the best) to resample to 48khz with a proper plugin (musicbee's built in is quite good.)
 
also in BF3 TURN OFF ENHANCED STEREO!!!! and the same for any other game, and set it to home cinema or 7.1/5.1.
 
i hate Origin, but BF3 is amazing with dolby headphone

 
Will try this out.  How many channels does BF3 support?

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

 
Will try this out.  How many channels does BF3 support?

7.1

 

[FieldEffect]

You can run 6, 7, or 8 channels into headphones? Never heard of this. I always thought headphones with strictly 2 channel.
 

 

[stv014]

Quote:

You can run 6, 7, or 8 channels into headphones? Never heard of this. I always thought headphones with strictly 2 channel.

 
Dolby Headphone simulates a virtual multichannel speaker setup, the 8-channel audio is converted to stereo using the HRTF from each speaker position.

 

[FieldEffect]

Quote:

 
Dolby Headphone simulates a virtual multichannel speaker setup, the 8-channel audio is converted to stereo using the HRTF from each speaker position.

Wild