[Cloud Spark]

Hi,
Earlier this month I bought an Xonar STX from eBay from fp-outlet. Price was about $160 which was the cheapest price I could find for an STX, I swore that I wouldn't buy the soundcard from hong kong to avoid a counterfeit, but since i could get them for $30 cheaper there than anywhere else, i went ahead and bought it anyway seeing that the seller had many people that left positive feedback. When the card arrived, I took out my Xonar DG which I previously was using and set the card up. I installed the latest Xonar unified drivers and tested it with my m50's. It sounded a lot worse than my Xonar dg, and the whole midrange and the highs sounded really recessed and sort of "dull", i'm not too sure how to explain it but my Xonar dg sounded a lot better. The seller claimed the card to be genuine, but now that i hear it i'm almost certain that there's something wrong with it. Can someone help me determine if the cards fake or not? I'll post a few pics of the card below:
 
 
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a625/Eagle1123/IMG_1089_zps843305d9.jpg
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a625/Eagle1123/IMG_1088_zpsc0e7ca4c.jpg
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a625/Eagle1123/IMG_1087_zps06c1a973.jpg
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a625/Eagle1123/IMG_1084_zpsb47541ae.jpg
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a625/Eagle1123/IMG_1085_zps21464167.jpg
 
What also caught my attention was the copper plate and the gold PCI bracket, all the images iv seen on the web have had a gloss finish to them, but mine has a matt finish to it. Is this normal or do you think the cards a fake?

 

[extrabigmehdi]

I  suggest you do a loopback rmaa test, and compare with these results:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=95781&view=findpost&p=800717
 
If you get good numbers, you  should have peace of mind.

 

[cladisch]

This sounds as if the amplifier does not get enough power.
Check the power connection.

 

[mich41]

It seems that somebody harvested stock opamps and replaced them with some incompatible ones. Also, I'm sure that my STX had few capacitors which were solid violet, but yours has none.

The rest is probably genuine. Look for component lists or photos of other cards and compare.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

It seems that somebody harvested stock opamps and replaced them with some incompatible ones. Also, I'm sure that my STX had few capacitors which were solid violet, but yours has none.
 

 
But how much an opamp cost, it's a bit silly.

 

[mich41]

But how much an opamp cost, it's a bit silly.

1% of their avg monthly salary per card. Decent compensation for 5 minutes of work IMO.

And this isn't even the craziest thing that happens in China. You may be interested in pages 5-7 (20-22 in the pdf) of this US Senate report:
http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/Publications/Counterfeit%20Electronic%20Parts.pdf

@OP: Nybody sane would bother counterfeiting the rest of the card with such detail so it's likely genuine (the mate finish of the bracket is normal as well). I'd replace these crap opamps, run RMAA and keep the card if it measures like other people's cards as this would mean that the rest is genuine or at least counterfeited with equal quality as the original, at which point I don't care anymore . And then try to get a partial refund and leave some nice feedback.

 

[Cloud Spark]

Quote:

I  suggest you do a loopback rmaa test, and compare with these results:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=95781&view=findpost&p=800717
 
If you get good numbers, you  should have peace of mind.

Thanks, I'll try buying a 3.5 to 3.5mm male cable to do the test and see if the numbers are close enough.
 
Quote:

It seems that somebody harvested stock opamps and replaced them with some incompatible ones. Also, I'm sure that my STX had few capacitors which were solid violet, but yours has none.

The rest is probably genuine. Look for component lists or photos of other cards and compare.

 
They're actually different op amps that i put in to test, they had the original JRC's in there before, sry about that confusion. I noticed the different colored capacitors too, iv seen a few stx images online that have my capacitors so I don't think that has anything to do with it being genuine.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

Thanks, I'll try buying a 3.5 to 3.5mm male cable to do the test and see if the numbers are close enough.

Use  the "line in" recording device as suggested later on the thread.