[theShaz]

I wish I can just shell out cash for headphones but I know that after this project is done they'll get thrown away. I simply can't wear headphones. It bothers the living hell out of me. I can't stand anything anywhere near my ear or inside of it. Yes call me a weirdo, that's just the way I am. That being said, I have a Bose Around-Ear set that I use for extreme situations like when I'm on an airplane, etc., but I'm not sure what its specs are or how decent they are. They sound great as far Mids and Highs, but damn they're weak on the Bass.. and to a sad level.
 
On another note, the Essence ST was delivered today. I got it all installed and setup. And can I just say that this has been probably the easiest driver installation I've ever experienced in my 15+ years with computers? It's unbelievable. I can't believe I tolerated Creative's shoddy drivers for so long. I mean we had to go out of our way downloading some russian guy's modded stuff to make them work right. What now widely known as PAX. It's a terrible experience as much as it is a sad one. I'm so glad ASUS worked hard on this. I literally had no other choice but this card and I'm very happy so far.
 
I'm hoping my Z-5500's will be here by the end of the week. It looks like I am going to have to go with the TOSLINK route for the time being until my H6 Daughter Board arrives all the way from the UK, I hope it won't take a month >.<
 
Still waiting to hear back from OpAmp guy..

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Keep us posted, that was my second master list. I haven't bought all of those yet, but i want to.
My previous list was:

1. AD797BR
2. LT1057ANC
3. OPA827ANC8
4. 2xLME49710HA
5. THS4032
6. OPA2134 (I made a mistake when I ordered it, I meant to Order the OPA2132, but it never arrived anyway lol.)

btw you should really get a set headphones. AKG K242HD or AKG K240 studio / MKII really show the differences in the opamps clearly, they also scale well with good equipment, and are dirt cheap nowadays. 

I do like the sound of my AKG K242HD.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

I wish I can just shell out cash for headphones but I know that after this project is done they'll get thrown away. I simply can't wear headphones. It bothers the living hell out of me. I can't stand anything anywhere near my ear or inside of it. Yes call me a weirdo, that's just the way I am. That being said, I have a Bose Around-Ear set that I use for extreme situations like when I'm on an airplane, etc., but I'm not sure what its specs are or how decent they are. They sound great as far Mids and Highs, but damn they're weak on the Bass.. and to a sad level.
 
On another note, the Essence ST was delivered today. I got it all installed and setup. And can I just say that this has been probably the easiest driver installation I've ever experienced in my 15+ years with computers? It's unbelievable. I can't believe I tolerated Creative's shoddy drivers for so long. I mean we had to go out of our way downloading some russian guy's modded stuff to make them work right. What now widely known as PAX. It's a terrible experience as much as it is a sad one. I'm so glad ASUS worked hard on this. I literally had no other choice but this card and I'm very happy so far.
 
I'm hoping my Z-5500's will be here by the end of the week. It looks like I am going to have to go with the TOSLINK route for the time being until my H6 Daughter Board arrives all the way from the UK, I hope it won't take a month >.<
 
Still waiting to hear back from OpAmp guy..

Lol well they may look ok, but underneath they are just about as screwed up. get the UNi Xonar drivers, you can still use the same front end, it just sorts out the background stuff, especially the latency issues.
 
$65~80 for a pair of $220 headphones but its ok its your call.

 

[WiR3D]

@theShaz
 
OH CRAP! I made a mistake, its not goodtronic, its "hifiic"
 
whoops! sorry man.

 

[peck1234]

Just bought this card guys, intailly (Xonar was way to bright for my liking)  Hope the blaster delivers. 
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102033

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Xonar was way to bright for my liking

 

 

[theShaz]

Quote:

Lol well they may look ok, but underneath they are just about as screwed up. get the UNi Xonar drivers, you can still use the same front end, it just sorts out the background stuff, especially the latency issues.

 
I went to the UNi Xonar page and after 30 minutes of attempting to find a download link I gave up. Maybe you can point me to the right place since I'm blind apparently.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by WiR3D /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
$65~80 for a pair of $220 headphones but its ok its your call.

 
Where the heck can I buy em for $80? lol If they are that cheap I wouldn't mind. But where I was looking it listed them for $350...
 
 
Quote:

@theShaz
 
OH CRAP! I made a mistake, its not goodtronic, its "hifiic"
 
whoops! sorry man.

 
Haha its ok, I bet that other guy went What!? I'm going to copy my message and send it to hifiic...
 
No wonder dood man hadn't responded to me yet.. xD

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I went to the UNi Xonar page and after 30 minutes of attempting to find a download link I gave up. Maybe you can point me to the right place since I'm blind apparently.

So you went to the Brainbit website, scrolled half-way down the page, where the box labeled "Download Latest Driver Here", click on that box and were not offered the download for the "Unified Xonar Drivers" 1.61?

 

[theShaz]

I'm blind, I didn't scroll all the way to the bottom.. >.<
 
So.. I'm guessing I'm going to need to wipe my windows clean off of the current drivers, and install this guy.
 
I hear a lot of issues with the Audio Center like features not working and what have you..
 
Also whats the Front Panel Switcher?
 
So many questions to ask, so little time haha. I also wanted to ask about ASIO.. but I'll have to leave that for later.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

I'm blind, I didn't scroll all the way to the bottom.. >.<
 
So.. I'm guessing I'm going to need to wipe my windows clean off of the current drivers, and install this guy.
 
I hear a lot of issues with the Audio Center like features not working and what have you..
 
Also whats the Front Panel Switcher?
 
So many questions to ask, so little time haha. I also wanted to ask about ASIO.. but I'll have to leave that for later.

Dont worry took me a good hour to find that link.
Lol they sold out on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/AKG-Acoustics-K-240-Studio-Headphones/dp/B0001ARCFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340333916&sr=8-1&keywords=AKG+K240
its pretty much the same.
 
and if you are in the EU, go to thomann.de

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I'm blind, I didn't scroll all the way to the bottom.. >.<
So.. I'm guessing I'm going to need to wipe my windows clean off of the current drivers, and install this guy.
I hear a lot of issues with the Audio Center like features not working and what have you..
Also whats the Front Panel Switcher?
So many questions to ask, so little time haha. I also wanted to ask about ASIO.. but I'll have to leave that for later.

I usually install the Unified Xonar Drivers over the Asus drivers.
 
Front Panel Switcher?
There is the front panel headphone jack.
In the Xonar control panel you can switchthe front panel from headphone to line-out.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

I usually install the Unified Xonar Drivers over the Asus drivers.
 
Front Panel Switcher?
There is the front panel headphone jack.
In the Xonar control panel you can switchthe front panel from headphone to line-out.

in the asus centre you can chose between back panel (directly out of the soundcard) to front panel jacks (like on-top or infront of your case) you cant do that in the C-media centre, but I prefer the Asus one anyway. 

 

[theShaz]

I just bought the AKG, it came back on sale, for $88. Thanks for linking me
 
So should I just install the the Uni Xonar on top of the current ASUS drivers and thats it?
 
What's this C-Media CP everyone is talking about?
 
Also, if someone can possibly explain these options I highlighted in red:
 

 
Much appreciated.
 
EDIT: I said screw it and installed everything as default. Didn't play with any settings.
 
Here's what I got so far..
 
I no longer see sound activity in the main asus panel. And turning on Dolby Pro Logic IIx does not do anything, neither does changning the Wide/Narrow effects.
 
Granted, I'm listening through Foobar and WASAPI, could WASAPI be the cause?
 

 
EDIT2: Wow, it was WASAPI, that means before I used the Uni XONAR drivers WASAPI wasn't actually working. Because I was seeing activity and the Dolby effects worked.
 
Would my assumptions be correct? Since WASAPI talks directly to the card without any interference.
 
Holy ****.. listening to The Rat Cage in 24-bit 96kHz is like listening to the song for the first time.. apparently there were a whole bunch of instruments that I never heard before til today..
 

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

I just bought the AKG, it came back on sale, for $88. Thanks for linking me
 
So should I just install the the Uni Xonar on top of the current ASUS drivers and thats it?
 
What's this C-Media CP everyone is talking about?
 
Also, if someone can possibly explain these options I highlighted in red:
 

 
Much appreciated.
 
EDIT: I said screw it and installed everything as default. Didn't play with any settings.
 
Here's what I got so far..
 
I no longer see sound activity in the main asus panel. And turning on Dolby Pro Logic IIx does not do anything, neither does changning the Wide/Narrow effects.
 
Granted, I'm listening through Foobar and WASAPI, could WASAPI be the cause?
 

 
EDIT2: Wow, it was WASAPI, that means before I used the Uni XONAR drivers WASAPI wasn't actually working. Because I was seeing activity and the Dolby effects worked.
 
Would my assumptions be correct? Since WASAPI talks directly to the card without any interference.
 
Holy ****.. listening to The Rat Cage in 24-bit 96kHz is like listening to the song for the first time.. apparently there were a whole bunch of instruments that I never heard before til today..
 
 

it depends on the WASAPI driver, thats what it is supposed to do, but sometimes it doesn't bypass ALL of the windows stuff.
 
I installed the C-media with GX enabled, leave the rest as is.
set windows out to 24bit/48kHz, set Foobar to resample to 48kHz, if you use ASIO (set that to 24bit)
Turn off music mode, turn on hi-fi mode unless u want to use Virtual speaker. 
 
the STX measures best at lower sample rates, you need 24bit for digital volume control. Don't set volume above 76%.
and there is a bug with 24bit@44,1kHz

 

[theShaz]

Am I losing on anything by not going with the C-Media Panel?
 
EDIT: You mentioned WASAPI driver, I am using the DLL that comes for Foobar. Are there any others?
 
EDIT2: I guess WASAPI is not working correctly in my computer. And searching all over google has not helped me resolve it one bit. ASIO seems to be a pain in the ass to setup. If anyone here can chime in one an easy way to setup Bit-matched playback with this card, it would be awesome.