The Xonar Essence STX Q/A, tweaking, impressions thread

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Asio has issues with resampling.

What?  ASIO is meant to bypass and DSP or resampling.  Maybe that is the reaon it is having issues...who knows.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Doesnt anybody know how they should be seated ? or if it makes a difference ?

Yes, push tme all the way down, gently.  Provided the contacts are connected, they can be sitting up a bit but most push the flush with teh socket.

 

[mrlimbo]

Quote:

Yes, push tme all the way down, gently.  Provided the contacts are connected, they can be sitting up a bit but most push the flush with teh socket.

Thank you , i did think that but when one of the stock amps wasnt , i did wonder , thanks again
They do take quite a bit of force to fully seat them though , was rather surprised !!

 

[foreign]

Thank you , i did think that but when one of the stock amps wasnt , i did wonder , thanks again
They do take quite a bit of force to fully seat them though , was rather surprised !!

Which amps did you get ?? How does it sound in comparison to the stock OP Amps.

 

[Magiv9]

What?  ASIO is meant to bypass and DSP or resampling.  Maybe that is the reaon it is having issues...who knows.

In Foobar, I can play all 41.1khz files fine, but if I'd I decide to listen to a 48khz file it'll just go super slow motion, or just hear little clicks and don't play at all.
It works if you reopen Foobar but if you want to listen to 41.1khz file again you gotta reopen it.
Technically it's not resampling but you gotta keep reopening it Everytime you play different sampling rates.

I'm pretty sure asio dosn't bypass the dsp settings of the music player but just the OS portion, I remember having 2 Foobar installs, 1 with dolby headphone and 1 without and the difference was night and day, will check it again after I jump on a pc to make sure.

Yeah even with ASIO, the default and dolby headphones sound different in foobar.

 

[mrlimbo]

Quote:

Which amps did you get ?? How does it sound in comparison to the stock OP Amps.

Hi , i used 2 x LME49860NA & replace the buffer with LM4562NA (the same chip as stock) havent put it back in yet , im still trying to decide between the STX & my old card DGX , so im in no rush , but my DGX to my ears is just so much easier to listen to and seems much more musical than the stock STX ? doesnt make sense i know ???
 
Hope i can eventually get the STX to sound how i want with different opamps , ie less harsh & analytical !
Wonder what opamps the DGX uses ?
If i cant get the STX to work with my ears/setup , i want to try out the D2 / DX2

 

[jamessmith]

Hi, friends.
 
I got the Xonar Essence ST a while back and I'm pretty much happy with it. I normally go ASIO+Foobar+Sennheiser cans with no major issues, using appropiate gain setting for my cans and controlling volume with Foobar, since ASIO bypass the Essence driver UI control.
 
Recently, using other hardware and software (Galaxy S phone with Voodoo Sound hack), a developer wrote that the best solution is to set digitial amplification (software) to its maximum and use analog gain in DAC to achieve desired volume while listening to the content. In the moment I thought about how to do that with the Xonar, given that analog gain isn't adjustable as a regular volume level and I'm actually using software (Foobar) digital amplification.
 
So, my question is... How to adjust analog gain as volume level? Any software or driver?
 
Excuse me if this has been covered but this thread is really huge and every search try gave me hundreds of posts... 

 
EDIT: I got from the previous page that ASIO v2 wich I have with the ASUS drivers wont let me adjust volume from pc, assuming we are talking "volume" as "analog gain", that it is always at 100% and therefore I need to set the volume with software. So, do I need th UNI drivers to get ASIO v1? 

 

[Gustav Mahler]

Hi , i used 2 x LME49860NA & replace the buffer with LM4562NA (the same chip as stock) havent put it back in yet , im still trying to decide between the STX & my old card DGX , so im in no rush , but my DGX to my ears is just so much easier to listen to and seems much more musical than the stock STX ? doesnt make sense i know ???

Hope i can eventually get the STX to sound how i want with different opamps , ie less harsh & analytical !
Wonder what opamps the DGX uses ?
If i cant get the STX to work with my ears/setup , i want to try out the D2 / DX2

You might try Muses 1s.....I installed them a couple of months ago and they had that effect.

Cheers!

Gus

 

[mrlimbo]

Quote:

You might try Muses 1s.....I installed them a couple of months ago and they had that effect.

Cheers!

Gus

Thanks , but LOL 2 of those would cost me more than the card did )
 
Hmm i wonder what the cheaper MUSES8920 is like ???

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrlimbo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Hope i can eventually get the STX to sound how i want with different opamps , ie less harsh & analytical !

 
If you find the sound too harsh, try different headphones, or equalize down the treble. Unlike "rolling" op amps, these can actually make a real, useful difference.

 

[mrlimbo]

Quote:

 
If you find the sound too harsh, try different headphones, or equalize down the treble. Unlike "rolling" op amps, these can actually make a real, useful difference.

Hi thanks , id rather change the the sound card than my headphones , i dont like to use equalizers really , but could try as a last resort , i suppose !

 

[mrlimbo]

Quote:

Has any of you put MUSES01 or MUSES8920 op amps on your Xonar Essence STX?

It sounds wonderful.

Too bad they're $50 each.

How was the MUSES8920 ? as there only about £10 each !

 

[Gustav Mahler]

Quote:

Has any of you put MUSES01 or MUSES8920 op amps on your Xonar Essence STX?

It sounds wonderful.

Too bad they're $50 each.

A mere $20 from Ali Express.
 
Cheers!
 
Gus

 

[mrlimbo]

Quote:

A mere $20 from Ali Express.
 
Cheers!
 
Gus

Nice one , good find , but i do wonder if there genuine though , at least one feedback for one of the dealers , states there re badged fakes ??

 

[foreign]

Mr Limbo I'm wondering if your Stx is faulty. The DG is ok but in comparison to the STX there is quite a bit of difference. The DG just isn't in the same ballpark I've gotx2 pc's one with Stx my main rig and a backup with the DG. I can notice a bit of a difference between the two.
Ignore that just realised you were talking about d2x. Lol