[Griffinhart]

Holy gods.
 
So, when I first got my Xonar Essence ST, I was still using a pair of ATH-AD700 headphones. I turned on the Dolby Headphone DSP. (Was this dumb of me then? I dunno, but I liked the sound.)
 
Today, I looked at this thread's first post and decided "hey, let's try out their settings!"
 
So the first thing I did was click the little "HF" button in the bottom-right corner, while I'm listening to music. (I'm always listening to music when I'm at my computer. Heck, even when I'm not at my computer - I believe in burn-in, so I always have music playing through my headphones.)
 
At first I was "man, this sounds weird..."
 
After about thirty seconds of listening though, I noticed - I wasn't in a cavern anymore. The vocalist sounded like he was singing right there before me.
 
I clicked the HF button again. Now I was in a big ol' room and there was this echo every time he made a noise.
 
Clicked HF again. Cocked my eyebrow. Sat through the song. Next song had a noticeable bassline and really good treb-
 
Wait, that bass. I can hear the- no, I can feel the bass. Toggled HF off. Nope, no bass, just treble and an echo-y vocal. Toggled on. BASS. CLEAR TREBLE. CLEAN VOCALS.
 
My mind was blown. Is blown. It's like I bought a new pair of headphones. It's like I bought a new pair of closed headphones. I didn't even know open cans were capable of bass! Like, actual thump! I am listening to "Higan Retour ~ Riverside View" right now (from Touhou 09 - Phantasmagoria of Flower View) and I have to stop every so often just so I can pay attention to the sounds that I didn't know existed. Not just the bass, but the grainy aftertaste that one of the horns in the track leaves, a sound that I couldn't hear - wasn't even aware of - before. Not only can I hear hear it, I can also tell that I can only hear it from the right, that the position of the specific horn with that specific effect is on the right, opposed by the bullet graze sound effect on the left side of the stage (my left, that is).
 
I don't... I don't think I'm going to sell my Essence ST like I was planning to. >_>
 
I need to go back to some of my favorite songs and see what I've missed out on.
 
-- Griffinhart

 

[[OverDrive]]

 UNi Xonar 1792 1.25 drivers released.
 
 
- Updated ASIO Bit-perfect from 2.0.0.1 to 2.0.0.2 (special thanks to bullseye)

-  Fixed C-Media Audio Panel not auto-starting on Windows 7 x86.

 

http://brainbit.wordpress.com/category/uni-xonar/

 

[recorder]

Quote:

You gotta us UNI Asio patch for the drivers because they uses 2.0 ASio which why Asio dont work right. that ASio patch uni have installs ASIO 1.0.

r u saying to apply the UNI ASIO patch to the official Asus drivers? I didn't even try.
I uninstalled the ASUS drivers, and reinstalled the latest UNI drivers, and life is good, again!!

 

[yoyo59]

in the new asus st driver update is there a change in the SQ?
also should i uninstall the current drivers then install this one?

 

[walsh]

Well the new driver is about 1mb bigger than the last one so there must have been some significant changes.

 

[yoyo59]

is there any way to increase  the soundcard to its full ability?
like better power supply & move it to a better pci slot etc?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

is there any way to increase  the soundcard to its full ability?
like better power supply & move it to a better pci slot etc?

There are always modification that can be made to almost any source that will increase the quality.  However, you also need the gear to hear the differences.
Many around here have been doing various mods on these cards, such as removing the coupling caps, changing the opamps and other more difficult mods.

 

[yoyo59]

is there any easy mods i can do to significantly improve my overall SQ?

 

[genclaymore]

Quote:

r u saying to apply the UNI ASIO patch to the official Asus drivers? I didn't even try.
I uninstalled the ASUS drivers, and reinstalled the latest UNI drivers, and life is good, again!!

Yea I was, But now its not needed any more since uni released drivers based on the new 1792s.
 
@yoyo go op-amp rolling, Dip-8 op-amps you just gotta make there pins straight so they go into the socket.

 

[drez]

back to discrete opamps, page 39 posts an article (albeit one sourced from burson's website) which places Burson discrete opamps ahead of audiogd.  

This and the more straightforward installation due to smaller footprint might offset the price difference, if we can trust the above comparison.
 
Has anyone reliable directly compared Burson to audiogd, seeing as we probably cant trust the above article?

 

[germanium]

 
Quote:

is there any easy mods i can do to significantly improve my overall SQ?

 hmm none of my typing took on the original post & I have to go to work now, will repost when I get home.
 
Heres my second attempt at making this post. The simplest is opamp swapping. There are many good opamps that have a slightly different charachter than the stock ones. I myself have found the stock ones quite good enough for me. however you may find differently for your situation. My system is quite nuetral & transparent as is. The second & only slightly more dificult is removing & replacing the coupling caps labeled CE8 & CE14 with plain old wire, one could also just bypass them on the bottom side of the board with wire as this makes it easier to return to stock in case you decide you don't like the sound though everyone here who has actually done this has liked the result. This second mod does require a small amount of soldering & to be somewhat handy with a multimeter (at least understanding what the readings mean). Also care must be taken in soldering on these boards as the traces are extremely delicate. If you have no experience with soldering try practicing on something else first that is no longer in use till you perfect it then move to this card.

 

[Demi9OD]

I've just recently purchased a pair of Beyerdynamic DT990s, in the 32ohm flavor.  I went with the easier to drive 32ohm so I'd have no trouble with volume from my Creative X-Fi or portable device.  I've now decided these cans are home bound permanently, they are just too bulky for the iPod, I'll stick with my IEMs for that.  I also decided I was unsatisfied with the output from my X-Fi, and have an Essence STX on order as a replacement, along with two LME49720's.  The question at hand; my Beyer's are still within 30 days of the original purchase, and I will no longer have the original power restrictions imposed by my weak sources.  Should I attempt a trade up to the 250 or 600ohm version of these cans for use with the Essence STX?  I am very pleased with their sonic signature, but fear I may be losing some transparency with the 32ohm version now that I will be capable of driving the more power hungry versions.

 

[genclaymore]

I would say yea, as the 250ohm and 600 ver has different sound signatures then the 32ohm ver.

 

[s0kkiplast]

I bought this card today, and I must say I´m amazed! But:
How high risk would you say there is to damage your headphones with the high gain alternative? I was eager to test settings and for a very short moment (max 1 sec) used high gain with my Alessandro MS-1 (32 ohm). I had the volume at 50% and the volume became really high when I changed the gain. I don´t know if it´s my imagination or if I hear a slight hissing sound in certain parts of songs and I definitely hear some cracking (the most apparent example I found was with Mellisa Walker - A Time For Love) On most songs I can´t identify any faults at all. But if the headphones are damaged maybe the faults are beyond my experience.
 
Is it paranoia or have I forever damaged my Alessandro´s?
How big is the risk?
 
I´m sorry but, since I´m a noob I can´t discuss in advanced technical - and soundscape words.

 

[WrxSTI]

Something similar happened to me, take a look: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/522717/volume-damage#post_7054657
I don't think you have a reason to worry.