[PurpleAngel]

  hey guys, I was wondering if the RCA output still worked if you set analog output to headphone in the driver control panel? So that you could get the headphone specific effects with a different headphone amplifier.

 
Nope, the Essence STX can not send it's Dolby Headphone surround sound thru the RCA outputs.
If you were using a third party software like Razor, which would process the headphone surround sound, before the audio is sent to the sound card, then maybe you could route that audio out the RCA jacks.

 

[mindbomb]

okay, thanks. Also, in terms of voltages, what is the difference between the different gain settings? High gain is 7v rms I presume, but what are the others?
 
edit - it's .9v, 3.5v, and 7v according to the stereophile review.

 

[bcschmerker4]

  Guys, I really need some help, I think I fried my xonar stx.
 
tl;dr plugged 4 pin into pci/cpu instead of sata
 
 
I was upgrading my power supply, and I guess I got tired and plugged in the 4-pin peripheral power cable into the power supply's CPU/PCIE output instead of sata/peripheral. Now, windows reports the card working, it clicks as it should, and the xonar control center even shows waveforms being generated. However, there is no sound at all from the card. If I max out the gain/impedance, I get barely audible distorted sound, but other than that, it's quiet.
 
I plugged it into the yellow, I was supposed to plug it into the green
https://i.imgur.com/41bUTVj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KsS7ka3.jpg
 
 
Did I fry it? Can it be repaired?

 
 

 
You're card is dead most likely.

The STX draws both 12v and 5v from the molex connector. You connected your molex connector to a header for PCI-E video cards, they ONLY output 12v.

So your STX likely received 12v through sections designed for 5v. Over twice the designed voltage. It is likely dead. Parts do not have to show physical signs of damage to be destroyed.

Next time, do not get fully modular power supplies, the fully modular system has no advantages. Also, don't buy cheap power supplies from what is probably an off-brand power supply. They have dirty power, tend to fail more often, and, which has turned out to be a costly lesson for you, they don't change their pin shapes for different connectors. Better brands change their connectors so that it is physically impossible for you to insert them into the wrong one.

Sorry to hear man.

Concerning power supplies, when I corrected my Asus® CM1630-06 for a no-SATA-3.3VDC issue (the stock 300W LiteOn® was mis-built), I went with an Antec® TruePower® New™ 750 Blue™, one of the smartest designs in its capacity class.  This semi-modular packs four permanent harnesses:  One 20+4-pin ATX motherboard harness, one 4+4-pin CPU-power harness, and two 6+2-pin PCIe auxiliary video power harnesses (each with its own +12VDC rail!).  Additionally, color-coded 2x4-pin jacks are on the body for connecting additional harnesses, e.g. a quad SATA power harness for hard drives and/or SSD's, at need.  The XONAR® audio cards take a 4-pin Molex® harness wired consistently with disquette and tape transports and pre-SATA hard and optical drives:  One +5VDC and one +12VDC pins, plus two grounds.
 
As of November 2014, the closest model to the discontinued TPN-750 in production is the Antec® High Current Pro™ 1000 Platinum™, which has 30maxA load capacity for each of its four +12VDC rails and a combined +3.3/+5VDC rating of 130W.

 

[grinny]

-

 

[cladisch]

 

How bad does it look?  
http://imgur.com/a/997BS

 
All the magic smoke got let out of that chip.
 
Good news: you get to buy yourself a christmas present, a shiny new sound card!

 

[grinny]

-

 

[bcschmerker4]

  How bad does it look?
 
http://imgur.com/a/997BS
 
P.S: First photo is mine, second is what it should look like.

  Oye!  Ye lost Integrated Circuit U35 ("EZ=AJ / 11K"; may be a Texas Instruments® TPS63700 DC-DC Converter used to generate the -Vss for the headphone and buffer amplifiers and I-V op amps).  Additionally, some of the traces going to the fried IC are also damaged; suspect thermal damage to traces betwixt the circuit-board layers resulting in multiple open circuits that cannot be reached.  Better off getting a replacement card (e.g., the Asus® XONAR® STX II, which packs expansion provisions for an H6 daughtercard) than attempting to repair this ruined STX.

 

[grinny]

-

 

[vvilliamm]

I finally got everything! Thanks PurpleAngel you've been extremely helpful
$100 dollar sound card - Asus xonar essence stx
$50 dollar op-amp x3 chips - LME49990
$170 headphones - hd 598
$54 antlion mod mic
$20 dollar ear muff -Brainwavz HM5 Velor Memory Foam Replacements Earpads 
 
Question now:
 
I tried both Normal and high gain settings and it does seem like the 64>300 ohms sound a bit better. Any one have similar experiences with that?
 
When i have it as normal gain <64ohms only when im at 100 volume things sound good. When i set it to high gain 64-300 ohms i have to set the volume to 50%.
Will using the setting high gain 64-300 ohms fk up my headphones if i leave it at that settings? Only if I have it max at 100% volume on high gain 64-300ohms right? because it will be powering my headphones at 300ohms?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I finally got everything! Thanks PurpleAngel you've been extremely helpful
$100 dollar sound card - Asus Xonar Essence STX.
$50 dollar op-amp x3 chips - LME49990
$170 headphones - hd 598
$54 antlion mod mic
$20 dollar ear muff -Brainwavz HM5 Velor Memory Foam Replacements Earpads 
 
Question now:
 
I tried both Normal and high gain settings and it does seem like the 64>300 ohms sound a bit better. Any one have similar experiences with that?
 
When i have it as normal gain <64ohms only when im at 100 volume things sound good. When i set it to high gain 64-300 ohms i have to set the volume to 50%.
Will using the setting high gain 64-300 ohms fk up my headphones if i leave it at that settings? Only if I have it max at 100% volume on high gain 64-300ohms right? because it will be powering my headphones at 300ohms?

 
From my understanding, the higher gain settings just starts off the voltage at a higher setting.
So for a given volume level, all three gain setting would be feeding the same amount of voltage, for the same volume level.
The 50-Ohm Senn HD5XX series are very easy to drive, but also seem to improve with more voltage.
 
Ohms is impedance, not power (voltage, current, watts, etc)
The higher the Ohms (impedance), the more power it takes to send a signal.
One school of though is the more voltage is used, the better the control over the diaphragm (speaker).
I guess impedance helps tam the signal?
 
I say just to use the 64-300 gain setting.

 

[vvilliamm]

thanks! for your explanation things sound much better with 64-300 settings

 

[mimart7]

I'm looking for recommendations for opamps for this card.  I'm currently using pwered studio monitors KRK Rokit 5's, and using V Moda M-80s.  My music tastes are varied, but I generally listen to classic rock, blues, bossa noa, some metal.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[xeizo]

  I'm looking for recommendations for opamps for this card.  I'm currently using pwered studio monitors KRK Rokit 5's, and using V Moda M-80s.  My music tastes are varied, but I generally listen to classic rock, blues, bossa noa, some metal.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

 
I ended up with a cheap modification I'm happy with, it made the RCA:s sound a little more exciting. On an Essence ST it is(PCI), which has the jitter-reducing circuit missing on the STX(STXII has a better clock-chip instead).
 
I changed the I/V from 2xJRC2114DD, which is standard, to 2xLM4562NA which results in very good resolution and troublefree sound on the HP-out. LM4562NA has much higher specs than the 2114DD and that seems to work out nice on th I/V-stage. Also, LM4562NA are not very expensive.
 
After that I removed the standard 1x LM4562NA from the RCA-buffer and replaced it with one of the leftover 2114DD:s from the I/V. The 2114DD does a much better job on the buffer imho as it is more "musical" and full sounding in that position. The LM4562NA sounds sort of sterile, dry and a little lifeless - while reasonably correct.
 
It can be that it is de facto better to have a little lower specced OP on the buffer-position, as that position also functions as an lowpass-filter and too good specs may render the actual intended filtering worse. On the HP-out so does the HP-amp chip do the lowpass filtering instead, which means the LM4562NA:s or better does fine in that position(I/V).
 
Also, 2114DD is very proven as an output buffer chip for digital audio on merits of it's sound rather than it's specs, it is used on some vintage high-end CD-players in the same position. 2114DD is a development of the NE5532 which is a super standard chip but very proven and appreciated, 2114DD is sort of a NE5532 on steroids.
 
Anyway, this simple swapping of positions, at low cost, made my card sound considerably more nice and lifelike on both outputs.

 

[bcschmerker4]

   
I ended up with a cheap modification I'm happy with, it made the RCA:s sound a little more exciting. On an Essence ST it is(PCI), which has the jitter-reducing circuit missing on the STX(STXII has a better clock-chip instead).
 
I changed the I/V from 2xJRC2114DD, which is standard, to 2xLM4562NA which results in very good resolution and troublefree sound on the HP-out. LM4562NA has much higher specs than the 2114DD and that seems to work out nice on th I/V-stage. Also, LM4562NA are not very expensive.
 
After that I removed the standard 1x LM4562NA from the RCA-buffer and replaced it with one of the leftover 2114DD:s from the I/V. The 2114DD does a much better job on the buffer imho as it is more "musical" and full sounding in that position. The LM4562NA sounds sort of sterile, dry and a little lifeless - while reasonably correct.
 
It can be that it is de facto better to have a little lower specced OP on the buffer-position, as that position also functions as an lowpass-filter and too good specs may render the actual intended filtering worse. On the HP-out so does the HP-amp chip do the lowpass filtering instead, which means the LM4562NA:s or better does fine in that position(I/V).
 
Also, 2114DD is very proven as an output buffer chip for digital audio on merits of it's sound rather than it's specs, it is used on some vintage high-end CD-players in the same position. 2114DD is a development of the NE5532 which is a super standard chip but very proven and appreciated, 2114DD is sort of a NE5532 on steroids.
 
Anyway, this simple swapping of positions, at low cost, made my card sound considerably more nice and lifelike on both outputs.

Thanks for a budget-friendly approach that apparently works; I might test it out on my own STX, should I land a quartet of NSC/TI LME-49720NA's or LME-49860NA's (with four JRC-2114D's, I've more than enough for the experiment).

 

[paulguru]

Anyone know the specific of amplification of this card ? 
 
The STX II around 32ohm how many mW can give ? 
Creative ZXR give 80mW to 32ohm for example.