Asus Xonar Essence STX Audio Sound Card

which one is the multi-channel?
'wondering if i can arrange some complicated set-up with my 2-channel Metric Halo ULN-2 and a Xonar Essence for the satellite speakers...
i love complicated things...

 

The Xonar ST can be upgraded to 7.1 channels with the Xonar H6 multichannel card. The Xonar STX cannot.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-xonar-essence-st-deluxe-review/4

 

As Billy Budapest said you can upgrade the ST with H6 extension card. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure ASUS have discontinued production on the H6. The STX lacks analog outputs for multichannel audio, though it supports multichannel output via its S/PDIF digital output.

 

Yep. I did a Google search for the H6 and could not find it for sale anywhere. Odd.

 

I got a new computer and I'm interested in the ST with these op amps.Is this still the best setup?Where's the best place place to find it? Thanks.

 

Newegg, Amazon, J&R, Micro Center, and others sell the card. There is an op-amp upgrade kit available for it, too, which I have seen some retailers throw in for free. Just do a Google shopping search.

 

Thanks.

 

From memory the op amp upgrade kit consists of nothing more than 3 pieces of 49720 op amp. So you don't get the 6172 op amps. It might be an idea to check eBay or similar to see if you can get a better deal, though I guess you run the risk then of buying imitation parts. In any event, I suspect it would be possible to purchase the desired (and guaranteed genuine) op amps from many online stores and possibly for a better price than the ASUS kit.

Since this thread has been ressurected, it might be worth pointing out that mainboards with PCI slots are getting ever-thinner on the ground and apparently the latest boards using Intel chipsets no longer even have native PCI support and this has caused a number of reported issues when attempting to use PCI soundcards.

Probably better these days to get the STX version of the Xonar to ensure future compatability.

 

This saddens me. I hunted for this thread as I'm tired of onboard sound. I'm convinced of the PCI version with the extra clock as they're the same price anyway, and my mobo does have a single PCI slot, well away from my graphics card.

Sadly, I'd like to build a fanless shuttle PC in the future for complete integration into my hi-fi system, but if PCI is growing difficult to come by then perhaps the STX model is the way to go.

 

Jon, since you own both cards, can you tell me if there's as much difference between the two at 96kHz as there is at 192? You say the ST sounds even better at higher rates. If I buy the STX and limit my needledrops to 96kHz, in your experience, will I miss much?

Also, the specs say this card is 24-bit. If I capture at 32-bit "float" (why is it called that?) to ensure headroom for post-processing, will it actually produce a worse-sounding signal than if I capture at 24-bit, or will the recording software simply capture a 24-bit signal from the ADC to a 32-bit file container?

Any input is valued

 

Well I've been enjoying this card immensely and can give it a solid recommendation for both playback and capture, 16/44.1 or 24/96 or even 24/192. Right at the stereo RCA outs it offers the solidity, texture, microdynamics etc I missed from the onboard sound.

I have either slot and chose the PCI ST because it is superior for sound, which is the whole purpose in my case. Although I may get many years use of it in the PC I'm using (I run Linux, and yes it works great with Linux) I'm not expecting it to be a component that I'll be using in other PCs - who knows what will be the situation with support for the drivers/hardware or slots in whatever computers are prevalent in another 10 years?

Also be sure you have the connection it requires to the power supply. That is another reason it performs so well: it takes power direct from the power supply instead of sharing it through the motherboard via PCI connection.

 

Thanks for the info Chris. I'm leaning towards the PCI version. I may just have to pay a little extra in the future to get a mobo with PCI if I want to swap it to a shuttle pc.

 

Make sure you buy one that has native PCI support and does not use bridging. The latest intel chipsets are not native PCI whereas the previous generation (i.e X58, P55 Express) are PCI native. There have been a lot of reported issues when using PCI soundcards on the latest generation boards.

I went out two weeks ago and bought myself a spare P55 Express mainboard simply to help ensure I can keep using my Xonar ST soundcards into the future the same way I am using them now.

 

That's helpful, thanks.

 

Hey Billy, what are the specs on this PC you built? I'd like to build my own silent PC to use as a hi-fi component.

 

I am considering the STX. Is there any way to reroute the headphone amp output from the card to a front mounted female jack for headphones?

 

Only thing I can think of would be to remove the adjacent panel at the back of your tower and to run an extension cable from the headphone out through the chassis to the front panel.

 

What CPU does the the P55 Express take? An atom? How am I able to tell if my current AMD motherboard's single PCI port is native or bridged?

 

I'm an idiot. I checked on Newegg and the P55 takes the i3/i5/i7 series. Far cry from an Atom. Clearly I'll need to get a tech-saavy buddy to help me choose the right components for a PC to use with this sound card. I want to go fanless, but not underpowered if at all possible.

 

Hi,

You might want to give more thought to what you really want in your setup and what you need to use it for. I have a lot of experience building PCs for gaming and audio use, and the only time I would contemplate using an Atom machine is if I were going to be using it for (external) USB playback only. In this role they are excellent in my experience - my main loungeroom system uses an ASUS EEE PC netbook connected to a Chordette Gem DAC via USB.

I just think that trying to use a Xonar in a fanless Atom (or indeed any fanless) configuration might be asking for difficulties and entailing risks that I would personally rather avoid. Firstly you have a possible power consumption problem with an Atom machine, with the card taking power from both the PCI/x slot and via molex. Then you have possible heat issues - the machine is fanless to begin with and the Xonar will run very hot in a fanless and small environment. It really needs to be installed in a large ATX sized case with no components - especially graphics cards in the adjacent slots. I learned all this the hard way by having a Xonar blow a surface mount capacitor because it was placed adjacent to the graphics card. I only resolved the heat issues with Xonar cards by going all out and using a high quality case with a lot of fans (Lian Li) and substituting a very low power consumption ATi 6450 GPU. And then there was the expense of having to fit SotM fliters to each of the fan headers to eliminate electrical noise caused by those fans.

Is there any particular reason for wanting the Xonar? If it is just for playback and you want a quiet configuration, why not consider an Atom-powered netbook and external USB DAC? You'd probably end up paying similar amounts of money to building a dedicated machine and you would get a similar result with the netbook in terms of sound quality. Yes, the Xonar does have a nice DAC but from my perspective it's strengths are it's line-in recording capability and mixing / DSP options. And were you contemplating these sorts of things, I would advise using a Core i7 these days (which must be used with a fan).

 

If you want to know why it's called "float", you tread into computer science territory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_point

In my limited understanding, 32-bit float gives extra "word length" (more CS voodoo ), which, if doing any post-processing, is desirable.

 

Hey Jon, thanks for your input, I really appreciate it. Truth is, I was hoping to build a Home Theatre style mini PC the likes that Billy Budapest was talking about, but after further research, I came to the same conclusions as you. For needledropping/capturing audio at high rez, a mini PC just isn't going to cut it for this card.

Rather than paying for a 3rd computer that I don't need, I've decided to buy the PCI model of this card and will install it in my Lian Li ATX mini tower chassis. I'm running an AMD Athlon II x4 3.1gig chip on an ASUS M4A88T-M 880G mobo. 4GB RAM & 600 watt PSU. I do have an ATI Radeon 5670 PCI-E x16 graphics card as I am a gamer, but the PCI slot is the furthest from the dedicated GPU. Hopefully this setup will work for me.

When I want to needledrop, I'll just haul the tower up from the basement and make a weekend out of it every few months. For regular use, I plan on using the sound card with my Sennheiser HD-580 headphones.

At present, my 2nd computer is acutally an Atom netbook, of which I use a 48/24 USB ADC to capture vinyl. It works for the time being, but I hope to make higher resolution drops.

 

Interesting, although the math behind it is way beyond me. So should I be capturing vinyl to a 32-bit float wave container, or is 24-bit high enough for subsequent editing/post-processing?

 

-bump-

Made the Xonar ST purchase. Love it. Sounds great through my Senn HD 580's using the +18dB gain.

Question about the ASUS Audio Center software for those who have experience with this card - does the sampling rate have to be set to the rate of the music being played, or does it serve more as a regulator, allowing true sample rates up to the one listed?

I haven't made any needledrops yet, but so far I'm very impressed.