[foreign]

My stx sounded great straight away versus the onboard Realtek. The senns on the Asus stx has a nice soundstage, neutral bass, detail and mids are upfront and centre. Versus realtek which made the senns sound like a cheap $100 set of cans.

 

[foreign]

Can anyone help me I'm wanting to use an external amp paired with the stx. I have hd650's set of cans Im just unsure as to what settings need to be used to run the external amp and still use the Dolby settings on the dac.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Can anyone help me I'm wanting to use an external amp paired with the STX. I have HD650's set of cans I'm just unsure as to what settings need to be used to run the external amp and still use the Dolby settings on the DAC.

You can't send Dolby Headphone surround sound thru the STX's RCA's, just basic stereo.
 
When using the line-out (RCA), you would need to set the STX's Audio Output to "Speaker".
And set Audio Channel to "2-Channel".

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

My stx sounded great straight away versus the onboard Realtek. The senns on the Asus stx has a nice soundstage, neutral bass, detail and mids are upfront and centre. Versus realtek which made the senns sound like a cheap $100 set of cans.

When you installed the STX, did you "Disable" on-board audio, in the BIOS?

 

[foreign]

You can't send Dolby Headphone surround sound thru the STX's RCA's, just basic stereo.

When using the line-out (RCA), you would need to set the STX's Audio Output to "Speaker".
And set Audio Channel to "2-Channel".

Thank you that cleared up a few things for me and yes I did disable onboard audio.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thank you that cleared up a few things for me and yes I did disable on-board audio.

Have you tried plugging the HD650s straight into the STX's Headphone jack?
(Try setting the gain on both medium gain and high gain)
How did they sound?

 

[foreign]

The stx sounds pretty good no complaints just wanted to try an external amp with it. I think you've misunderstood my previous post I was just saying that the onboard is sub par compared to the stx. As for $165 the stx was a good investment. I've just got a tube amp coming shortly and was worried about double amping and not connecting it to the stx properly. Thanks for the reply.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

The stx sounds pretty good no complaints just wanted to try an external amp with it. I think you've misunderstood my previous post I was just saying that the onboard is sub par compared to the stx. As for $165 the stx was a good investment. I've just got a tube amp coming shortly and was worried about double amping and not connecting it to the stx properly. Thanks for the reply.

You can always try with the external headphone amplifier connected to the STX's headphone jack.
Just put the gain on it's lowest setting and the STX's volume on high, see how it sounds.

 

[foreign]

Just worried about blowing something up lol but if I get adventurous I might give it a shot. Cheers

 

[jincuteguy]

So does the STX still sound better than the new Sound Blaster ZxR? Or is the new ZxR just win over it?I haven't found any post that can compare the 2 cards. I know in the past that Creative cards have ****ty sound quality, but their new Z series line ups are a lot better. So if anyone has 2 cards that can share some thought.

 

[bruiselee]

Hi guys,
thinking of changing the opamps on my STX.
 
Came to a few that im considering, but im not too sure if they are useable in the 3 slots.
 
 
[size=x-small]Burr Brown OPA627BP.[/size] (the ones i managed to find on sale are BP, are the AP better? or the BP are just as good and will work as well?)
 
LM6172.
 
 
What do I need to take note when I'm buying them to be sure that i'm buying the right ones? Is there a specific name for the pin legs that i need to look - i only know it look like 8 spider legs going straight down.
 
And about the configurations, is it possible to just put all 3 OPA627 in? I have read some post saysing not all opamps work in the buffer slot or something..

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 
Thinking of changing the op-amps on my STX.
Came to a few that I'm considering, but I'm not too sure if they are useable in the 3 slots.
[size=x-small]Burr Brown OPA627BP.[/size] (the ones i managed to find on sale are BP, are the AP better? or the BP are just as good and will work as well?)
LM6172.
What do I need to take note when I'm buying them to be sure that I'm buying the right ones? Is there a specific name for the pin legs that i need to look - i only know it look like 8 spider legs going straight down.
And about the configurations, is it possible to just put all 3 OPA627 in? I have read some post saying not all op-amps work in the buffer slot or something..

The slots on the STX and the type of chips that fit into those slots are called DIP-8.
Each of those three slots are dual channel, so you want to use dual channel op-amps.
There are single channel op-amps, so you would need to mount two (single channel) chips on to an adapter before using them on the STX.

 

[bruiselee]

Quote:

The slots on the STX and the type of chips that fit into those slots are called DIP-8.
Each of those three slots are dual channel, so you want to use dual channel op-amps.
There are single channel op-amps, so you would need to mount two (single channel) chips on to an adapter before using them on the STX.

Oh. So the OPA627 and LM6172 i mentioned are single versions only? Will I have any issues covering back to the EMI shield after I have the opa627 dual mounted? It seems, logically, it will take up more height, or is there enough clearance?
 
And can I use all of the same OpA627 dual mounted in the 3 slots? or only in the I/V slots, and the buffer i have to use soimething different?
 
edit: i have found some already mounted and soldered opamps, but their legs look like this instead

will they still fit in the STX?

 

[tamski]

Hi guys! I have Sennheiser HD 595 and I'm looking for opamps for it. I've read the first post and there is a quote from post by Funky-kun:
 
Quote:

JRC2114 (default) : I actually think the default opamp for the card is a really good choice. Had it not been for the bassy and dark signature of my cans, I would have kept these. They actually sound the best with my HD595s. Bass is very deep, with perfect extension, just a bit too much in quality for the HD650s.

I definitly don't think that bass is deep on my HD595s. For me the sound is flat, precious and unemotional. It may be fine for electronic things but when it comes to rock, I expect more drive.
Any recommendations from HD595 owners?

Also in the title post I've read that it is preferable to control volume by Xonar Audio Center (actually backed by windows mixer) while player volume set to 100%. Why? What I do, I set windows volume to max and control volume in foobar2000, so I by-pass any post-processing by mixer.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Oh. So the OPA627 and LM6172 i mentioned are single versions only? Will I have any issues covering back to the EMI shield after I have the opa627 dual mounted? It seems, logically, it will take up more height, or is there enough clearance?
 
And can I use all of the same OpA627 dual mounted in the 3 slots? or only in the I/V slots, and the buffer i have to use some thing different?
 
edit: i have found some already mounted and soldered op-amps, but their legs look like this instead

will they still fit in the STX?

That looks like the correct part for being used with the STX's DIP-8 slot.
 
Looks like the OPA627 is a single channel op-amp and the LM6172 is a dual channel.
The SOIC is the op-amps that needs to be soldered, the DIP-8 op-amps are just pressed into the DIP-8 slot.
So you would need to have two OPA627 SOIC op-amps soldered to a DUAL SOIC to DIP-8 adapter.
 
On eBay, the seller audjade_chn will take used SOIC op-amps and solder them on to an adapter.
Audjade chn is were I bought my AD797BR (pre-soldered) op-amps for my STX.