[reachpattabi]

Hi ppl,
 
I hav a pair of KRK Rokit 6 G2 studio monitors....
 
I hav a macbook pro 2011, 13 inches...
 
I've recently setup a rig with the following config...
 
Intel i7 3770K Processor,
Asus Maximus V Gene Motherboard,
Corsair Vengence 16 GB DDR3 RAM....
 
I've connnected my macbook pro to the KRK rokits using ProfiGold RCA Cables.... I wz really  impressed with the sound from KRKs.... very impressed....
 
For some time, I've been reading great reviews abt Xonar essence STX sound card.... So, I decided to go for one and I finally got one yesterday.... I wz very excited.... I connected the sound card to my PC and connected my rokits to the RCA outputs from the sound card.... I wz very eagerly waiting to notice any improvement in the audio quality over that of my macbook pro.....
 
But, I could hardly notice any difference in sound quality........ ofcourse the xonar stx wz easily able to achieve higher volume levels than my macbook pro onboard audio..... but, apart from that there wz hardly any noticable improvement in the audio quality.... I've even tried uninstalling the asus official drivers and  installing the uni xonar drivers... but still not a noticable improvement...... may be very very very very barely......
 
I'm very very disappointed and at the same time confused.....
 
My speakers are really good ones - krk rokit 6 g2's
My system is free from any signal interference.... I ensured that..
I use a very high quality Profigold RCA cables for connections.....
Xonar essence STX has really got rave reviews.....
 
I don't know hw essence STX  has got rave reviews....... In the web, many hv recommended that xonar essence stx be paired with really good speakers to notice the difference... But, I 'm sure many would agree that KRK rokits are very good speakers/monitors....
 
Pls help.... any others havin the same pbm.... or any solutions...... I'm just confused.....

 

[reachpattabi]

ppl.... plz help me out......... Is there a solution to my pbm?.... or .....

 

[laon]

sell your stx

 

[nagual]

I´m no expert,  but I think your macbook pro is complient to hdaudio specs, wich  already must be above human listening capabilities.  So, even if the Xonar have better specs, it may not be audible.  The bad reputation of onboard sound relies on poor implementation of hdaudio, what not seems to be the case.

 

[cel4145]

I´m no expert,  but I think your macbook pro is complient to hdaudio specs, wich  already must be above human listening capabilities.  So, even if the Xonar have better specs, it may not be audible.  The bad reputation of onboard sound relies on poor implementation of hdaudio, what not seems to be the case.

That, and the KRK Rokkit 6 are not audiophile grade speakers. You might hear more of a difference if you were running better speakers/amp, although the difference probably won't be dramatic.

 

[XVampireX]

Hey, I've got a similar spec comp, but this has nothing to do with specs.
 
I've recently purchased this card I was also expecting a very different sound, and to be honest, I really got it.
The biggest difference is now you can really feel the difference between the lossy formats and the lossless formats.
 
Difference in sound is not the same as in visual difference also every person has different hearing, and some things you need to train for in terms of hearing
 
What people say about onboard getting so awesome that a discreet card doesn't matter anymore, well, ********, I've used onboard for as much as I remember, and I've got a kick ass computer now with an ALC898 codec on my board that has 110db SNR. Well the difference is still there.
 
One other suggestion - give the card some time, like a week or two, it will burn in nicely.
If you want something just for listening to music and SNR is nothing something you care for you might try some of the other music productions cards, audiophile 2496 is something I still have and it really rocks in terms of sound quality (Not worse than the STX) though the sound is quite a bit different here actually.
 
But biggest tip really, give the card some time you'll feel bigger more pronounced difference in a bit

 

[astrallite]

Or maybe OP's hearing isn't that good? The main difference between a high end sound card like the STX is linear frequency response, most onboard solutions start rolling off at around 13KHz. That said, if you can't hear the difference and the card isn't providing extra features you need, sell or return the STX.
 
Also, with competently built electronics it will be hard to tell the difference in normal use (although AC97 onboard sound's analog output stage is clearly flawed). There was a blind test back in the 90s where the listeners couldn't tell the difference between a $200 Pioneer receiver and a $10,000 dual mono Class A amp setup, but could easily tell the difference between speakers.

 

[cel4145]

Nah, some 700 USD studio monitors are still not eligible for being audiophile, they are teh sucks.

 Get a grip on yourself, don't take guesses what might have went wrong. This card is great, KRK are some of the best monitors in the business, and you're just a JA. (Yes, that's what you think it is)

I used to own the STX. I'm perfectly familiar with its sound. I've demoed the Rokkit 6. They are very good monitors in that <$500 price range. Better powered monitors (e.g. Adam 5x/7x) or a passive speaker/amp setup that is more resolving could easily reveal more of a difference. Although, as I said, the difference might not be dramatic. Just because people find that Macs benefit from headphone amps to drive their headphones does not mean that the line level output is that bad, or a poor match for the Rokkits.