[PurpleAngel]

Newegg is out of stock on the Essence STX and has it listed as DISCONTINUED.
Maybe Asus has decided to stop making the Essence STX in favor of the Phoebus.

 

[chewy4]

I would hope not... I've heard Xear surround is terrible in comparison to Dolby Headphone.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I would hope not... I've heard Xear surround is terrible in comparison to Dolby Headphone.

I believe the Phoebus comes with the latest version of Dolby Headphone (whatever that might be).

 

[cel4145]

Quote:

Newegg is out of stock on the Essence STX and has it listed as DISCONTINUED.
Maybe Asus has decided to stop making the Essence STX in favor of the Phoebus.

 
That would be pretty sad if Asus discontinued the STX without a new model that is similarly priced and performs better. Doesn't seem to make sense. 
 
I just revived a thread on the ASUSTek forums where a discontinued notice from vendors was discussed a long time ago. Let's see if we get an answer. 

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

I believe the Phoebus comes with the latest version of Dolby Headphone (whatever that might be).

It comes with Dolby Home Theater,  not Dolby Headphone.
 
Which maybe works just as good, but I'm not sure. It's not specifically designed for headphones but speakers as well so I can't see it working as good but maybe I'm wrong.
 
At any rate, the specs for the Phoebus aren't as good so discontinuing the STX would make no sense from Asus's perspective. It's a very well selling card. It's also in stock at Amazon now and it wasn't a few weeks ago.
 
Most likely just a mistake from Newegg...

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

It comes with Dolby Home Theater,  not Dolby Headphone.
Which maybe works just as good, but I'm not sure. It's not specifically designed for headphones but speakers as well so I can't see it working as good but maybe I'm wrong.
At any rate, the specs for the Phoebus aren't as good so discontinuing the STX would make no sense from Asus's perspective. It's a very well selling card. It's also in stock at Amazon now and it wasn't a few weeks ago.
Most likely just a mistake from Newegg...

I think the name "Dolby Home Theater" is to make the same old Dolby features sound new, with a newly designed Asus control panel.
The spec for the Phoebus are not as good as the STX's, but which leads me to guess the Phoebus is cheaper to make.
Which means Asus can drop the price of the Phoebus and sell more cards.
People always talk about quality, but end up going for the best price.
Look at Creative labs, they have removed hardware features on their newer sound cards audio processor (Recon3D) to get the price down.

 

[bcschmerker4]

Quote:

Newegg is out of stock on the Essence STX and has it listed as DISCONTINUED.
Maybe Asus has decided to stop making the Essence STX in favor of the Phoebus.

This is a very open question, as Asus® USA has the XONAR® Essence™ One, ST, and STX all available, but not the ROG™ XONAR® Phoebus™.  Neither Asus® nor Creative® has mention of the new Game Blaster® on a Website, even though it was both companies' co-development.

 

[KonaBear]

Not sure if you have already or not, but ebay still has some STX on sale

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

It comes with Dolby Home Theater,  not Dolby Headphone.

Dolby Home Theater is a collective term, instead of flooding the front of amps with 40 different Dolby stickers its just one, which incorporates all the tech in different tiers (v3, v4) 
 
I actually like that way of doing things.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

I think the name "Dolby Home Theater" is to make the same old Dolby features sound new, with a newly designed Asus control panel.
The spec for the Phoebus are not as good as the STX's, but which leads me to guess the Phoebus is cheaper to make.
Which means Asus can drop the price of the Phoebus and sell more cards.
People always talk about quality, but end up going for the best price.
Look at Creative labs, they have removed hardware features on their newer sound cards audio processor (Recon3D) to get the price down.

 
 
Quote:

Dolby Home Theater is a collective term, instead of flooding the front of amps with 40 different Dolby stickers its just one, which incorporates all the tech in different tiers (v3, v4) 
 
I actually like that way of doing things.

 
That would make sense that it's something that includes DH.
 
I dunno though, STX still seems like too popular and good of a product to discontinue out of nowhere, regardless of how cheap the Phoebus is to make.
 
 

Anyways, to drag back an earlier conversation here about the HE-400's and the STX... Asgard does blow away the STX with those cans according to my ears. In a lot of the ways I said it wouldn't make a lot of sense for amps to do. 
 
While the HE-400's do still sound great on the STX, and completely unamped for that matter, I feel like the Asgard brings them up to high end, and for some reason kills the fatigue almost completely for me. So thanks for pushing me in that direction.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Anyways, to drag back an earlier conversation here about the HE-400's and the STX... Asgard does blow away the STX with those cans according to my ears. In a lot of the ways I said it wouldn't make a lot of sense for amps to do. 
 
While the HE-400's do still sound great on the STX, and completely unamped for that matter, I feel like the Asgard brings them up to high end, and for some reason kills the fatigue almost completely for me. So thanks for pushing me in that direction.

Ever play with the opamps, I never liked the stock ones, too harsh in the treble and too bloated bass? And the reason the Asgard does better is because the STX is designed for higher ohm loads, it struggles a bit with low impedance cans. It does not play will with my Denons for multiple reasons. 

 

[crompers]

Hi all, new here
 
I have this soundcard and have been looking for a good pair of cans to go with it, dont want to spend more than £100. I game a lot, listen to a wide variety of music but mainly rock/metal and some hip hop. I currently have a set of Steelseries Siberia which are just not cutting it. I have been looking at the Sennheiser 518's which seem good value for money but will they go well with this card? Definitely want an open set of circumaural cans, noise leakage is not a problem and I appreciate a wide soundstage. 

 

[Kjeldsen]

Hi Crompers,
 
Welcome. Here's a huge thread about headphones for gaming (primarily), with tons of awesome reviews. You may find some tips inthere.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-updated-9-29-2012-he-400-edited

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

Ever play with the opamps, I never liked the stock ones, too harsh in the treble and too bloated bass? And the reason the Asgard does better is because the STX is designed for higher ohm loads, it struggles a bit with low impedance cans. It does not play will with my Denons for multiple reasons. 

Nah  I never really played around with opamps, I didn't mind the sound signature so I decided not to mess with it.
 
But yeah I think the STX and Asgard do actually have the same output power when the STX is set to very high gain, but the Asgard does it at less than an ohm impedence, and 4db less gain. Makes a big difference apparently.

 

[crompers]

Thanks for the guide, do you think the card would drive some DT770 80 ohms ok?