[ROBSCIX]

They are out, just a matter of time before they make it everywhere.

 

[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams /img/forum/go_quote.gif Question for you Alydon. Are your DT990's recabled for an RCA connection, or are you using the 1/4" jack on the STX when you connect directly to it? Also, I'm curious to hear your thoughts with the LT1361 installed in the STX.

My DT990's (2005 edition btw) have the stock cable. The RCA's on the card are line-out only, and the 1/4" is amped headphone out only, so I use the 1/4" out when the DT990's are plugged directly into the card and the RCA's when I want to use line-out to my Corda Blue.

I'm not going to try out the LT1361 yet until I give the card a little more time to burn-in so I can better judge its full potential with the LM4562. I'll probably give it a shot this weekend though. If it helps, the LT1361 gave the Prelude/D2/HDAV all slgihtly better bass texture and control and removed the flat and "digital" nature of the highs. It also made the soundstage a little more open and increased its depth.


Quote:

Originally Posted by viscosity /img/forum/go_quote.gif someone needs to try a discrete opamp in one of these. hopefully it has enough power for one, I know some who have used them in Auzentech cards and loved the sound. works wonders in the ZeroDAC aswell

I'm gonna wait until I give the card a week or so to fully burn in and then I'll probably order the Sun from the link you provided. I've never tried a discrete opamp before so now I'm curious.

And $30 seems like a decent price.

Incidentally, if I got one where would I attach the grounding wire? Somewhere on my PC case, or on the card's EMI shield maybe? Or would I not use the grounding wire at all? The site you linked says, "User can choose to decide his own, but we recommend to connect the earth wire to ground. Do not connect OPAs earth wire to AC power socket ground."


Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thnx, now I have another who can backup what I have been saying although I haven't said all that much about the overall signature of the card. Sounds good doesn't it? I have had the card for a bit longer and there is a burn-in. This card still amazes me when I listen to my music collection. Enjoy.

I too am quite surprised at what this thing can do given that it hasn't burned in yet.

I was expecting there to be a period of adjustment like there was for the D2/HDAV/Prelude, but the STX is shining right out of the box.

What impresses me the most is how well-textured and "full" the sound is. My setup has always sounded a little thinner than I'd liked, and I attributed it to the fact that I've always used solid state instead of tubes. But with the STX I no longer notice any thinness or lack of body to the music. Perhaps a better way to put it is I don't find myself longing for more fullness in the music like I used to.

-----

I let the STX burnin overnight so now it's got about 12 hrs on it. From the RCA out's the sound seems to have opened up just a hair from last night. The soundstage feels about the same size, but there's a little more air present. Instruments are breathing just a little better than they were last night.

The bass has significantly improved, though. There is definitely more bass presence, texture, resolution and a little more extension from last night. It's now noticeably better than the HDAV, whereas last night the two cards were pretty even in the bass department.

As for the card itself, it is almost identical to the Engineering sample Hardware Canucks received (see link in the OP of this thread). The only two changes are the bright blue cap in the center-right side of the card above the AV100 DSP was replaced with a gold cap, and the microchip directly above that cap is missing (there are 2 chips on the engineering sample, but I only have the top one).

I'll post pics of my card tonight.

 

[ROBSCIX]

@Alydon, I found the STX to have a "tube" type sonic signature, or less digital sounding then some cards as you said, very full presence.

 

[ooeric]

newegg has them. but they are 199$ ouch.

 

[finaxe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zimmzio /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually NCIX.com has them stock now... Just ordered one. *UPDATE* - I don't know for sure now, maybe its just on order with the supplier... Anyway says ships in 2-5 business day, we'll see.

Thanks for the info... Finally, I was able to ordered one...

 

[Auidodude34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by finaxe /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the info... Finally, I was able to ordered one...

lucky you

I'm still waiting for them to hit the US site I know it will be cheaper than newegg and best of all no TAX

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooeric /img/forum/go_quote.gif newegg has them. but they are 199$ ouch.

That is reasonable and on par with any other "premium" soundcard that has been released in the last few years. $200 is alot lower then many of us thought it would be, especially when considering the sound quality and feature set avialable from this card.

 

[hohum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alydon My DT990's (2005 edition btw) have the stock cable. The RCA's on the card are line-out only, and the 1/4" is amped headphone out only, so I use the 1/4" out when the DT990's are plugged directly into the card and the RCA's when I want to use line-out to my Corda Blue.

According to the manual you're supposed to connect your headphones using the included RCA splitter - so I guess the RCA outputs are amped aswell, which is an odd design decision. Also, the 1/4 jack for headphone out on the card only gives 110dB SNR, compared to the RCA outputs which are (supposedly) 124dB. I did bring this up a couple of pages back in this thread, but nobody commented on it.

Overall I think it's a little odd that they release a card suited for headphone use... which has reduced sound quality when using the actual headphone jack on the card.

 

[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hohum /img/forum/go_quote.gif According to the manual you're supposed to connect your headphones using the included RCA splitter - so I guess the RCA outputs are amped aswell, which is an odd design decision. Also, the 1/4 jack for headphone out on the card only gives 110dB SNR, compared to the RCA outputs which are (supposedly) 124dB. I did bring this up a couple of pages back in this thread, but nobody commented on it. Overall I think it's a little odd that they release a card suited for headphone use... which has reduced sound quality when using the actual headphone jack on the card.

Yes that's very odd, actually. I suspect their headphone connect diagram is a typo since none of their diagrams show using the 1/4” output jack at all. And they show 2/2.1 speakers using the RCA out’s via the 3.5mm-to-RCA adapter as well. I’m guessing the people who wrote the manual just made a mistake.

I’m at work atm so I can’t verify this, but IIRC the RCA jacks have no output signal at all if you select "headphones" from the output selection dropdown box in the STX control panel. If you select "2 speakers" then the RCA's get a signal and the 1/4" output gets no signal. I don't know if the RCA output is amped or not though.

I guess I just assumed that the RCA's would be line-out, since I figured they would know that people would want to use the RCA out to plug into an external amp/preamp or use the RCA-to-mini adapter and plug powered speakers into that, all of which would want a line-out signal. I'll verify all of this when I get home from work tonight.

I also wouldn’t worry about the SNR of the 1/4" jack (which is listed as 117dB at maximum gain on their website and 110dB in the manual) as compared to the Front out. I’m no audio engineer, but my understanding is the SNR is lower because when you amplify a signal, you also amplify the noise floor by a similar amount. And since SNR is not an absolute measured value, but rather a ratio of the noise floor to a static (non-changing) industry-standard reference signal level, the SNR will naturally and inevitably get smaller as the total signal gets stronger and the noise floor starts to approach the static reference signal level.

But that doesn’t mean that the sound quality is at all diminished since SNR doesn’t take into account the maximum signal strength, which in the case of an amplified signal is also increased. So having a lower SNR on the amped 1/4" jack than the (presumably unamped) front-out is mathematically unavoidable but not at all indicative of a reduction in sound quality. A better measurement would be Dynamic Range, which is a ratio of the maximum signal strength to the noise floor. Unfortunately they haven’t provided that to us.


Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is reasonable and on par with any other "premium" soundcard that has been released in the last few years. $200 is alot lower then many of us thought it would be, especially when considering the sound quality and feature set avialable from this card.

Yes, $200 is quite reasonable considering the Xonar D2, D2x, and Auzentech Prelude were all $200+ when released. The STX sounds better than all three of them, and you get a built-in high-quality headphone amp on top of it.

 

[ROBSCIX]

@hohum, the 1/4" RCA outputs are normal Line-level outputs and cannot drive high impedance headphones. If you have Headphones which require a amplifier then use the headphone output on the rear of the card.
The headphone amp is measured for 117db SNR. which can easily surpass many soundcards for SNR. The actual TI chip is a 120dB amplifier chip but that is max ratings.
The line Level outputs are 124db, according to the AP test found on the net. The actual DAC spec for the card is 127dB but that is maximum ratings and normal measured rating using a high quality analyzer would yield 124db as released in the AP report.
To note, ASUS uses measured values in their specs as opposed to other soundcard companies which use maximum Spec values which the card will never hit when measured.

 

[Auidodude34]

@Alydon does it have a MIC in?

looks like it sold out already at newegg.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Yes, the card has line-in and mic in. Both share the same jack.

I figured they would sell out rather quick.

 

[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, the card has line-in and mic in. Both share the same jack. I figured they would sell out rather quick.

^^^ This. ^^^

In any case, more updates.... I played around more with the STX’s amped 1/4" output last night and did some comparisons to both my Corda Blue and Corda Opera plugged into the STX's RCA output. After about 15hrs of burning the amp section in, so far I'd say it falls somewhere in between the two Corda’s, both in terms of sound quality and overall sonic signature.

The STX’s amp drives my DT990’s quite well. It produces a very clear and open sound that has a lot of fullness/body to it, and overall sounds quite similar to the Opera. The sound is somewhat darker/fuller than the Blue, but then the Blue is known for it’s beautifully airy if-slightly-bright presentation.

The bass produced by the STX’s amp is fuller and has better resolution and texture/3-Dimensionality than the Blue (which can become somewhat indistinct at times in the bass region), but slightly less than the Opera in all 3 respects (though not by much). Bass extension seems pretty similar on all three.

Mids on both the Opera and STX feel about the same and are a slightly forward of neutral, which contributes to the fullness. On the Blue they are slightly “less forward” (I hesitate to say recessed cuz they’re not). Mids texture and detail are about the same on all three amps, with the Opera again in the lead by a small amount.

Highs are beautiful on all three amps, but the Blue outshines the other two here by a little bit. There is more air and ambience on the Blue then the other two. Upper/mid Treble is also more forward on the Blue, though it’s hard to say if it’s any more detailed than either the Opera or STX. None of these amps sound piercing or sibilant in any respect, however.

Instrument decay is also more natural/extended on the Blue, although neither the Opera nor the STX amp sound truncated here – which shows how good of a match the STX is for the Opera, since the decay on the Opera has sounded slightly congested, rounded-off, and truncated when I’ve used it with other soundcards.

The STX’s amp also has a large 3D soundstage that is somewhat smaller than the Blue (which has a quite large and open soundstage – one of its strengths) but about the same size (WxDxH) as the Opera. On both the Opera and the STX you’re sitting up with the band with instruments playing around you at different distances in a well-defined 3D space, both in front of you and on either side. With the Blue you are in a larger room, and 1 or 2 rows back from the music.

One thing that struck me about all three amps/amp sections is the additional sense of depth the STX provides. With the other sound cards I’ve used, the soundstage on both the Opera and the Blue have been fairly wide and tall, but not as deep, leading to a “flattened sphere-shaped” room, like an M&M balancing on its edge. When using the STX RCA’s, both Corda’s get a deeper soundstage than I’ve heard with other cards, so the WxDxH dimensions are more proportional to each other, giving you a nice sphere of sound around you. You get the same effect when plugging your headphones directly into the STX's amp as well. Depth perception isn’t as well defined on the Blue is it is with the Opera or STX amps though.

All-in-all, I’m still quite impressed by the STX’s amp. It's not as good as the Opera, but it comes surprisingly close, especially given that it's included on the card and the Opera (analog) sold for $700-$750 new about 4 months ago.

One thing to keep in mind though, I have a very clean and powerful power supply in my PC (Silverstone Zeus ST85ZF 850W). I can't say how well this card's amp will perform in the PC w/ a mediocre power supply like what you might find in your average Dell, for example. A usual YMMV.

 

[Bojamijams]

Thank you for that Alydon. Its all I needed to get rid of my prelude and get the stx instead.

 

[Ziek]

Sigh, wish I had pulled the trigger on this.