[septone]

I hope this post can be helpful in pinpointing the issue.
I've had win7 x64 and the STX for a good ~10 years without a single high-pitched noise issue.

Yesterday, I realized that, all this time, my speaker properties for the STX in windows were set to only 16-bit and 44100 Hz.
So I decided to play around with the settings, testing both different sampling rates in STX Audio Center and the Advanced tab of "Speaker properties".
I ended up settling on 24-bit 41000 Hz in both windows and STX center.

12 hours later, I have a heart- and panic attack due to an inexplicable high-pitched noise screeching all across my room out of nowhere.
I thought my computer's power supply was about to explode (it has terrible coil whine by default, so it didn't seem unreasonable to assume it had stepped up its game a bit).

This issue was immediately resolved by right-clicking the volume icon, going to Playback devices and right clicking my Asus Xonar device.
I'm not even sure if I needed to click "Configure speakers" to make the noise stop. It might be the case. My new-found PTSD is messing with my recollection of events.

Either way, I have reverted my settings to 16-bit 41000 Hz to see if my sudden onset of this particular bug was caused by the switch from 16 to 24-bit.
STX Center has also been reverted to 192KHz.

If anyone is willing to look in their settings and try reverting to 16-bit and see if that solves the issue, that would be my recommendation.

The fix would then be as follows:
Right click your volume icon and click Playback Devices.
Right click your Xonar device and press Properties.
Go to the advanced tab and change your sampling and bit depth to 16-bit/41000 Hz.

Optionally, and perhaps unrelated (?) I would also set my STX center's sampling rate to 192KHz.

That would be a replica of the settings I've had working for years and years on a machine that never sleeps.

This fix seems to be working ...Very happy to have found a fix for this !!

 

[Sanctuary]

I haven't had the problem for about a year now, and it likely has more to do with a Windows update than anything. I'm also not sure why you would set your sample rate to 4100 Hz in Windows, yet change it to a much higher sampling rate through the card itself. That doesn't actually do anything beneficial, but will instead degrade it. Music generally needs to be set to 4100 Hz, and DVD/Blu-ray needs to be set to 4800 Hz. The only time you would raise it higher is when downloading the supposedly superior "HD tracks" that are 24/192 and mostly placebo, or outright cause additional noise.

 

[red75prim]

it likely has more to do with a Windows update than anything.

I don't think so. I've had no problems for a couple of weeks with 16bit/48kHz setting. Then I've got the screech yesterday. I've checked the settings and found that somehow they were 24bit/48kHz. Probably some program changed them or I did it accidentally. I use latest version of Windows 10 with all updates.

 

[ev13wt]

Screech of death after years again and my ears are are still ringing.

Tidal, switching tracks.
I've had it switching from 41 to 48 in the Asus gui, I've haven't tried the above windows settings 16bit.

We should really sue ASUS for bodily harm.

 

[techboy]

Why don’t people just upgrade to a Schiit Stack? Even SQ of STX sucks honestly compared to decent budget stuff.

 

[ev13wt]

Why don’t people just upgrade to a Schiit Stack? Even SQ of STX sucks honestly compared to decent budget stuff.

Ordered a HEL for work yesterday

Can't agree the SQ sucks. Differences in DACs these days are <3% at the most anyhow. YMMV

 

[OpTicaL]

It's 2020 and the problem is still around. Read a lot of the solutions but none of them seem to permanently work. This high pitched sound happens on any platform, whether I'm listening to music or watching a video, doesn't matter if I'm using program or streaming audio/video. However it happens after I pause it a very long time and hit play again and that's how it's always occurs, at least for me.

This isn't really a fix but a quick way to get rid of the high pitch screeching noise when it occurs (instead of rebooting your PC), open your Xonar Essence ST/STX Audio Center, in the analog out box, switch from 2 speakers (or whatever output you're currently on) to another output (doesn't matter which one) that's not in use and then switch it back.

 

[eaglerock]

Upgraded from the STX to Fiio k5 pro and been very happy

 

[beerfesten]

It seems..this bug has been resolved? (i hope i said it right im not english speaking)
I have not had this dead ring in a long time.
After 8-10? years still enjoying my ST.(with roland rh-300 and Yamaha mt5)
Praise the good spirits

 

[Aray]

nah, just happened this morning as my pc booted to desktop.

my next pc build wont have an internal soundcard, can't trust any pc hardware manufacturer to actually support their damn products anymore. some external one connected via usb will be the path i go.