[beowulf]

I'm getting tired of the hissing when listening on my desktop. I bought a Meier Corda Move USB DAC+Amp some time ago and things got better but didn't get perfect.

What annoys me the most is the fact that silent parts in music are not flat, black, fully quiet. There's always a bit of hissing, I can hear it change according to the HD use, etc. Typical EMI issues.

So here comes the question, will the Asus Essence Sonar STX finally solve this? I'm looking for decent stereo sound with no noise.
Do you hear pure silence when pushing the volume way up?

Also, I'd like some opinions on how it might work with my headphones:

-Sony MDR CD-3000
-Mylar X3 (these appear to be low impedance and very sensitive to noise)
-Koss PortaPro

My setup is fairly standard and the power supply is probably not great. It's a BeQuiet! 700W.

The rest of the card features are not important to me (gaming, movies, etc). Only good stereo sound for MP3/Flac/etc with headphones.

Thanks for any comments

 

[leeperry]

hi beowulf, the prob w/ the cd1k/cd3k(same drivers) is the very high sensitivity(104dB)

you could possibly try these to lower the phones sensitivity? ETYMOTIC ER4P TO ER4S RESISTOR ADAPTOR (3.5MM PLUG) - eBay

if you offer 20 EUR shipped for two adapters, he will accept...I asked last week, I think trying 30/75Ω would be a good start.

this might work better on the STX: IMPEDANCE / RESISTANCE ADAPTOR (3.5MM TO 6.35MM PLUG) - eBay

and what's your PSU/mobo?

 

[beowulf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif hi beowulf, the prob w/ the cd1k/cd3k(same drivers) is the very high sensitivity(104dB) I never tried mine on the STX, but they work like a treat on the HD2..or you could possibly try these to lower the phones sensitivity? ETYMOTIC ER4P TO ER4S RESISTOR ADAPTOR (3.5MM PLUG) - eBay if you offer 20 EUR shipped for two adapters, he will accept...I asked last week, I think trying 30/75Ω would be a good start. and what's your PSU/mobo?

I could go with the resistor trick but wouldn't that be just cheating to mask the low quality of the output? The noise would be there anyway.
Plus the cost seems a bit high for a simple plug.

The CD3K do show the noise but the Mylar are even more sensitive to it. I'd say that it's Mylar>CD3K>Koss.

My board is a fairly old (4 years) Asus P5ND2-SLI, in an Antec Three Hundred case and with the BeQuiet! 700W PSU. Other than that I have an ATI 4870 and 2 HDs.
The PC has always been very noisy with headphones so I assume it has to do with the motherboard's builtin audio and shielding.

 

[leeperry]

oh, built-in audio is garbage..that's for sure.

well, search for "impedance adapters" on the forum...it seems to be very effective for uber-sensitive phones.

I know my DT770/600Ω(83dB) was far less sensitive to interferences than my cd1k/cd3k

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beowulf /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm getting tired of the hissing when listening on my desktop. I bought a Meier Corda Move USB DAC+Amp some time ago and things got better but didn't get perfect. What annoys me the most is the fact that silent parts in music are not flat, black, fully quiet. There's always a bit of hissing, I can hear it change according to the HD use, etc. Typical EMI issues. So here comes the question, will the Asus Essence Sonar STX finally solve this? I'm looking for decent stereo sound with no noise. Do you hear pure silence when pushing the volume way up? Also, I'd like some opinions on how it might work with my headphones: -Sony MDR CD-3000 -Mylar X3 (these appear to be low impedance and very sensitive to noise) -Koss PortaPro My setup is fairly standard and the power supply is probably not great. It's a BeQuiet! 700W. The rest of the card features are not important to me (gaming, movies, etc). Only good stereo sound for MP3/Flac/etc with headphones. Thanks for any comments

You would be doing yourself a huge favor with the Essense ST or STX. These are extremely quiet & much better sounding than any onboard audio.

The resistor wires from etymotic would help the situation with noisy onboard sound somewhat but nothing beats the complete silence & overall sound quality of the Essence for the price point of around 200 dollars

 

[oqvist]

he already have a decent dac/amp combo though... It doesn´t have any spdif output only usb?

I got blackness with the X-fi Xtrememusic and Audigy 2 as well in my computers. Guess I am lucky but I have never gone cheap on PSUs either. If you are running onboard that is probably the reason.

I do sometimes get crackles and such with the Essence though when no music is played. But generally it´s silent but my Elite Pro never had these issues. I suspect the drivers are still a bit shoddy. The Bitperfect drivers they aren´t even out yet or?

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif I do sometimes get crackles and such with the Essence though when no music is played. But generally it´s silent but my Elite Pro never had these issues.

on the HP out

I seem to be getting very noisy power from my electricity supplier on daytime(everything's cool from 10PM to 8AM

)...and I've always gotten very low strange noises from time to time, whatever w/ the M-Audio Audiophile USB(w/ external PSU), my current Prodigy HD2 Advance or whatever other card I've tried

I was sometimes getting these stranges noises at boot-up on the STX, but as soon as I was enabling the HP out in the drivers...they would instantly stop! "hyperground" PCB at work

too bad I didn't like the SQ/stereo separation and especially the lousy drivers on the STX/ST...OTOH the Prodigy HD2 Advance has much better SQ to my ears(far less "digital" sounding), much better stereo separation and almost perfect drivers(SRC is forbidden and no resident apps!)...but the PCB is only made of 2 layers and not shielded enough for my uber-sensitive cd1k, plus there's no relay so it's a "pop" feast when turning on/off the computer

anyway, if the OP's interested, next week I'll try the Claro Halo...it's got the AK4396(that sounds better to my ears than the PCM1792A thanks to its mandatory 128X oversampling, they don't call it the "miracle DAC" for no reason), 4 swappable op-amps(that I will fill w/ 2*LT1364/2*OPA-Earth and/or 4*OPA-Earth), 4 layers PCB and a headphones amp(same model as the STX)...too bad it uses the same DSP as the STX, so it'll be a resampling party again :/

ah well, it's a matter of getting great drivers and lousy PCB or great PCB and lousy drivers...why is nothing ever perfect in this world

PS: Apparently the STX is also 4 layers, so the Halo should be in the same ball park: ASUS Xonar - TechFuels Forum

 

[chronomitch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif anyway, if the OP's interested, next week I'll try the Claro Halo...it's got the AK4396(that sounds better to my ears than the PCM1792A, they don't call it the "miracle DAC" for no reason), 4 swappable op-amps(that I will fill w/ 2*LT1364 and 2*OPA-Earth), 4 layers PCB and a headphones amp(same as STX?)...too bad it uses the same DSP as the STX, so it'll be a resampling party again :/ ah well, it's a matter of getting great drivers and lousy PCB or great PCB and lousy drivers...why is nothing ever perfect in this world PS: Apparently the STX is also 4 layers, so the Halo should be in the same ball park: ASUS Xonar - TechFuels Forum

Not sure about OP, but I'm plenty interested in a comparison between the Asus Essence STX and HT Omega Claro Halo. I have tried finding decent reviews for the Claro Halo, but my Google-Fu has failed. I am much more interested in the DAC abilities of these cards, since I plan on skipping the headphone jack and connecting the RCA jacks to a decent external amp.

 

[chronomitch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif anyway, if the OP's interested, next week I'll try the Claro Halo...it's got the AK4396(that sounds better to my ears than the PCM1792A, they don't call it the "miracle DAC" for no reason), 4 swappable op-amps(that I will fill w/ 2*LT1364/2*OPA-Earth and/or 4*OPA-Earth), 4 layers PCB and a headphones amp(same as STX?)...too bad it uses the same DSP as the STX, so it'll be a resampling party again :/

I don't know about OP, but I would really be interested in a comparison between the STX and the Claro Halo, especially the differences between their DACs. I'm not too worried about the headphone jack or opamps, since I plan on using the card simply as a DAC and running the sound via the RCA jacks to a dedicated external amp.

 

[leeperry]

ok no problem, well we've just ordered a whole bunch of OPA-Earth so all the soundcards will be using them exclusively...and op-amps also come in play on line-outs btw

so when the Halo and the Earth's will have burned in, we'll meet and make a big shoot out

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif he already have a decent dac/amp combo though... It doesn´t have any spdif output only usb? I got blackness with the X-fi Xtrememusic and Audigy 2 as well in my computers. Guess I am lucky but I have never gone cheap on PSUs either. If you are running onboard that is probably the reason. I do sometimes get crackles and such with the Essence though when no music is played. But generally it´s silent but my Elite Pro never had these issues. I suspect the drivers are still a bit shoddy. The Bitperfect drivers they aren´t even out yet or?

You may get the crackles if you don't mute the line-in or mic-in. plus you will get his with an unmuted mic. Dead silent here with those 2 items muted on the Essence STX.