ASUS PCI-Express x1 Sound Card XONAR ESSENCE STX/90-YAA0C0-0UAN00Z

So far, I definitely notice a better fuller sound versus on board or integrated Realtek ALC898, but this is to be expected with a board with more hardware then a single integrated audio motherboard audio chip. I feel the Realtek ALC898 onboard chip is adequate for most people's needs, so rule of thumb, if you plan on using the sound a lot, than go ahead spend the extra money on this sound card. If you use sound and recording infrequently, than the ALC898 will be fine, including recording voice/microphone. (Installed and works fine on a Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 motherboard.) When playing games, I believe I notice better performance, and better overall sound when using GX. If I'm not mistaken, when installing the Windows driver & software, just download the most recent drivers from the manufacturer's website, and the driver package will contain the additional equalizer and taskbar software as well. (As such, just ignore the packaged CD as it's likely meant for those that have no Internet access.) A quick lspci from Linux shows the device surprisingly identifies itself initially as a "Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio]". # lspci -vv 05:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio] Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Virtuoso 100 (Xonar Essence STX) Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx- Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx- Latency: 32 (500ns min, 6000ns max) Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18 Region 0: I/O ports at c000 [size=256] Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2 Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-) Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME- Kernel driver in use: snd_virtuoso Other chips worthy of noting: Texas Instruments Burr Brown PCM1792A; Asus AV100 Pros: 1) Good clear, more full range of sound can be heard. Including when recording from microphone/line-in. 2) Packaged with a SPDIF Coax to TOSLink adapter. Ability to plug into Digital Optical ports. 3) Windows drivers installed cleanly without any problems, unlike Creative's poorly maintained problematic drivers. 4) Linux uses in-kernel ALSA snd_virtuoso driver. (Unlike Creative or other manufacturers hyping about open source drivers.) 5) The recent ASUS Windows driver I downloaded from ASUS, contained the GUI front-end equalizer application as well. (No need to install the front-end from an out-dated CD.) The application and taskbar icon were also small in file size and installed quickly. No gimmicks, unlike my past experiences buying any Creative stuff. 6) An HDMI connection requires a video feed and if the video DPMS sets the diplay to off, the audio will also be canceled! Hence, use SPDIF/TOSLINK for music! Cons (Mostly Windows Software): 1) Windows ASUS software controls are a little confusing. (ie. No mouse over help and the manual is brief but adequate) 2) Windows ASUS software graphical interface, difficult to navigate and use, but again, adequate for most needs. (Looks like something for kids to use, while older people desire something a little more professional and user intuitive.) 3) Windows ASUS software graphical interface colors not well chosen. (ie. Odd range and red colors.) 4) Windows ASUS software graphical equalizer meters are a little slow when depicting sound level, and only include ten meters, while most other software solutions offer more and are more robust. 5) Windows ASUS software doesn't appear to let users test VoiceFX with Windows Sound Recorder easily. (Since I couldn't do this easily, I avoid using them. Chances are, I wouldn't use them anyways as I'm not much into eye candy. Other users would likely use them, but they'll have a touch time testing them and as such will avoid using VoiceFX.) 6) No default Windows (8 64 bit) generic driver. Must use manufacturers driver. 7) Not really a fan of the designs or posters, but guessing they were added for the younger folks. 8) Linux driver available without Dolby® and DTS ® technologies. (See C-Media CMI8788 Ver. 0.6 chip specs dated 2005/09/12.) Linux ALSA can upmix to 5.1/7.1, and Dolby/DTS is passed through S/PDIF. 9) No Linux ASUS utilities or equalizer profiles for moderating sound input and output. (See C-Media CMI8788 chip specs and ASUS Xonar software.) Although Linux ALSA does a fairly good job on it's own. 10) RealTek's latest chip ALC898 mothoerboard integrated chip, performs fairly close to almost outperforming this piece of hardware. My RMAA SPDIF test comparisons are similar, but the ASUS STX definitely displays more bass or fuller range of frequencies when recording by microphone. I would give the STX at least 5% better performance over the ALC898, due to RCA connectors and microphone sound quality. However, the ALC898 has a standard S/PDIF optical versus the STX's mini port. The analog (not digital) output of this board, will definitely outperform the ALC898, but just looking at the SNR levels. 11) After a while using, I noticed a bug where if you change the default speakers within the Windows' playback properties to the Xonar S/PDIF device, Dolby Digital Live becomes disabled when viewing the audio stream type on the stereo receiver, while the software control panel shows Dolby Digital Live enabled. Work around, do not change the default playback device to the S/PDIF device, and keep the default device as the Speakers. (Changing the default communications device, doesn't seem to be affected.) On the ASUS Windows software application, I'll likely only use the Hi-Fi (recommended for listing to music and automatically disables all other FX) and GX (for accelerated game sounds) quick buttons. I would have preferred a default graphic theme interface versus this customized orange and red stuff. I suspect many others would enjoy a default theme as well as people using these tools need to be able to click GUI buttons quickly and easily, versus hunting for these tiny odd-ball colored GUI buttons. Not only this, but since the ASUS software doesn't have a default GUI, can't easily switch themes to something more eye pleasing as well. (Reason why I just ignore most software and use Linux command line shell!) Glad I didn't get one of them cheap sound cards with only 3.5mm jacks boasting Dolby/DTS output. They say, two speaker sound is better, but if you still want Dolby/DTS, you can use the SPDIF/Optical out on this card. And, I doubt those other manufacturer sound cards with 3.5mm jacks would have provided any better sound over the on-board Realtek ALC898 chip! LINUX ALSA/PULSEAUDIO The following ALSA and MPlayer settings will avoid re-sampling, but will lock the sound device resource and prevent from more than one sound at once. You can also state another rate uncommenting one of the included rates. /home/roger/.asoundrc pcm.!default { type hw card 0 #device 0 #rate 44100 #rate 48000 #rate 96000 #channels 2 } ctl.!default { type hw card 0 } *WARNING: The above $HOME/.asoundrc file will lock the device, and playing from more than one sound player will be blocked. Who wants to really listen from more than one sound source anyways? But sometimes having some applications open at the same time will cause "no sound playing" issues. /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf ao=alsa Here's my 10 band equalizer settings using Audacious. The default settings muffle most of the music using any player. (I'm using audacious-3.2.2-r1 with audacious-plugins, compiled with gtk-3 support, using gtk-3 default theme.) The muffled output might be caused by my +20 year old Carvier TFM-15CB Amp and +20 year old Bose speakers. (I'm playing FLAC files imported from CDROM @ 44100 Hz ~1113 kpbs.;-) Preamp: 0 31Hz: 2 63Hz: 0 125Hz: 2 250Hz: 2 500Hz: 2 1kHz: 0 2kHz: 0 4kHz: 1 8kHz: 0 16kHz: 1 For almost a very similar Windows ASUS application experience or equalizer profile, try reducing the 63 Hz and maybe the 125 Hz frequency bands to reduce some of the louder bass. All I basically did, choose a really rocking full bodied music track (ie. Van Halen Pound Cake) and try to equalize the high points on the visual equalizer back to the normal range by reducing the louder frequencies, and then slightly boost the lower frequencies to again, bring back to the middle or normal range. If somebody has something better, please post your settings. I spent a little more time on this, comparing the post-equalizer sound from the sound analyzers within Windows (ie. Foobar) to Linux (Jamin and/or Audacious), and am still getting two completely different visible results, with slight audible changes. The default sound analyzers within the Linux music players, are pretty basic and only analyze the pre-equalizer output. Finally, I achieved analyzing the post-equalizer output using Jack and Jamin, and playing the music through Audacious or one could have easily used mplayer -ao jack. With Jamin, I was finally able to adjust each frequency band and analyze the sound spectrum, but still the results were completely different compared to what I was seeing in Windows. It almost looks like the spectrum is backwards or upside down. Be careful, can easily blow your speakers using Jamin/Jack! Spent a little more time on this, and found the Jamin HDEQ visual equalizer appears to mimmic the Foobar graphic equalizer. So, appears after all output is similar or the same. I don't know why the visual spectrum on Linux show something different though. (ie. power spectrum vs. log scale in the X direction; See Jamin docs.) NOTE: I find Jamin induces echo. Disabling the "solo" tick box within the high range of "stereo width control" of Jamin which is at the bottom of the HDEQ tab, reduces echo. On the flip, if you prefer the virtual Dolby, you can leave it enabled. ) From what I understand from users' posts, the Hi-Fi mode setting is just a special equalizer profile setting. I haven't ruled-out if they do anything funny with chip settings. It could be, the preferred Hi-Fi music setting is just a special switch within their application that just automatically switches-off all FX and equalizer settings, but from what I can compare with Linux, it may also boost the voice/vocal range for which I've also done within my above equalizer profile setting. *Note: Going too high or too low on many of the equalizer frequencies causes significant distortion of the audio, so I didn't go any higher then two on the channels! (Linux driver source code can be found within /usr/src/linux/sound/pci/oxygen.) Compared to the ASUS Windows application, forcing audio rates is something performed by ALSA configuration files (ie. asoundrc). If you want your audio upsampled, or even downsampled, then add one of the following lines to .asoundrc: rate 44100 rate 48000 rate 96000 (ASUS's default Hz) Thanks to RichA post on head-fi.org forums. (Other similar material for configuring ALSA can be found by searching head-fi.org for "Chaintech AV 710 linux|alsa" on Google.) He also mentioned, "ALSA won't upsample unless it is told to do so - it'll just go with the defaults set by the device, or the programmer who implemented it within ALSA." And, I looked through the, albeit cleanly written code within /usr/src/linux/sound/pci/oxygen, and pretty much saw bland default settings of 48000. (ie. default: /* OXYGEN_RATE_48000 */) Doing further research, the human error can only detect around 48000 Hz, so the ASUS Windows default of 96000 Hz might be a little zealous! Alsa and your media player (ie. mplayer) have resample capabilities. If you force the hardware audio rate, then possibly no other media could be played at the same time. So this setting is probably based on, what you think the rate of the majority of your media, and allow the remainder of your media to be resampled. For Pulseaudio, default is within /etc/pulse/daemon.conf. (ie. See ArchLinux PulseAudio Wiki) NOTE: MPlayer's default resampling is supposedly a fast method or not so great. Should likely use "-af-adv force=2" or "af-adv force=6" for floating point. (/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf:af-adv=force=6) Currently, I'm piping mplayer output to aplay with better results, allowing aplay to perform the resampling with libsamplerate/src. Or, just use your favorite Music player providing better resampling options. I'm pretty sure I notice frequency clipping between default and "-af-adv force=2"/"af-adv force=6". $ mplayer $MediaFileName -ao pcm:file=/dev/stdout -af-adv force=2 -quiet -really-quiet | aplay - (ie. MPlayer "2.3.2 Audio output devices"[...] LINUX DOLBY DIGITAL/DTS The other settings of great possible interest within Linux, would be enabling artificial Dolby Surround and GX (ie. EAX). I think according to the C-Media specs, this is a chip level bit setting/feature. I have grepped the code and found no mention of Dolby or DTS for this chip level feature. I have also yet to check to see if this C-Media chip passes through real Dolby Digital or DTS through SPDIF, even though this previously mentioned Con item states it wasn't implemented within the Linux driver, could be by now working? But again, the Linux chip level code mentions nothing about Dolby or DTS. Users should note, Dolby is best for Movies, whereas DTS is best for Music; and most audiophiles simply use stereo as Dolby/DTS are really tricks to deploy positional sound and only works when a listener is positioned at a specific location for the full duration. However since games have people sitting in one position all the time, games may utilize the rear sound channels with likely better results. Linux Audacious Effects Plug-ins includes an "Extra Stereo" plug-in (providing software adjustable effects similar to virtual/simulated Dolby/Surround), and when compiled with libsamplerate configure option (AKA Secret Rabbit Code), Audacious will also provide a "Resample Rate Converter" Effects Plug-in for resampling audio to 96 kHz, or whatever re-sampling rules you want. Xine and MPlayer (when playing Video or Movies where this effect is likely desired) appear not to have any effects for virtual Surround, with the only possibility of down-mixing 5.1 sound to two channels, or copying two channel audio to rear speakers. It is possible, mplayer has an incantation for this, but I'm not aware of it as of yet. 2013.03.15: As I think about it, the tiny ASUS Windows application should have been designed similar to Windows Media Player. With large generic easy to navigate GUI menus, and then switching to a tiny eye-candy version, since buttons and menus are not easily navigated, shouldn't contain any buttons or menu items and should only display the status or data. Unless another easier method of finding and clicking the tiny buttons is employed. As I stated already earlier, not really a fan of the eye-candy GUI's. Added forcing sound rates using asoundrc. Added notes about Dolby/DTS. Add PCM1792A chip notes. Added Audacious notes. 2013.03.16: Added ALSA asoundrc and MPlayer configuration file settings, forcing ALSA output and preventing re-sampling. Mention using music imported to flac for playback. Added suggestion of adjusting two equalizer bands. Modified asoundrc to show ctl.!default instead of !mixer and commented out the device number. 2013.03.17: Added not the Jamin HDEQ visual spectrum shows something very simmilar to Foobar, while other visual spectrums on Linux show something different. Added mplayer "-af-adv" and pipe resampling notes. Add mplayer.conf "af-adv force=6" option. 2015.02.21: Added mention the Xonar software looks like something more useful for kids, instead of adults. Added mention concerning a S/PDIF bug with Dolby Digital Live, when changing the default playback device to S/PDIF.

Probably the best way to start this review is to say that the sound is superb. I have no qualms about what comes out of the headphones (this is my preferred way to listen to music). Uncompressed files run through the Xonar through a line out to a Schiit Lyr headphone amp and AKG K702 headphones. Soundfield is wide and precise, detail is brilliant. Blah, blah, blah... Sounds like a wine snob describing how he likes his reds "smoky, yet obtuse" but let's just say that for 2-channel sound (where this thing really shines) it's worth the money. Now the cons: Installation on a modern computer with a modern OS (Windows 7, 64-bit). It's horrible. (sorry, don't know about Mac installs) If you're a computer tech, you're probably fine, but I'm just some poor schmuck who wants good music. Several forums have stated that the installation of this thing is buggy at best and forces them to return the card at worst. This is most likely due to the unit being shipped with driver 5.xxx for XP and 6.xxx for Vista. For all I know, they have a lot of those discs sitting around to put in the packaging and expect the consumer to download the latest and greatest version (currently 7.12.8.1793 for Widows 7, 64-bit). We'll get to that update nightmare in a minute. Installing the Vista version of the drivers will most likely mess your 7-64 system up. Gimped all of my software, forced me to do a System Restore just to get back to point A. You must download the current version for your OS to make sure things run smoothly and the hardware installs. This brings up another point for those of use who usually just point and click and wouldn't know a driver from a .dll file. When you download the current driver, it can't be used like it is because it's in a compressed format, kind of like a .zip file, but in this case it's a .rar file. ASUS doesn't bother to tell you that, they apparently expect that you know it already. If you try to update the driver manually from the .rar file, it won't work, because the computer doesn't see it as driver files, just compressed whatever. Download a free .rar extractor on the web. Then download the latest drivers (and maybe manuals, too) from ASUS, and extract them BEFORE YOU INSTALL the card. That way, when you do install it, the computer uses it's own plug'n'play capability and automatically installs the drivers. Bother #2 is when you first install the card, a message pops up reminding you to attach the power cable from your PSU (power supply unit) to the card or it won't work at all. The darned thing looks like an error message telling you the power cable isn't connected!!! If your power cable REALLY IS connected, in addition to plugging into the PCIe slot, then IGNORE this somewhat confusing message. It's the most poorly placed reminder I've ever seen. The driver may then re-install. Let it. It's the same version you just installed and it will safely overwrite itself. DO NOT use the disc!!! Bother #3: the card itself may be PCIe, which is a newer, higher bandwidth of PCI, but the unit is showing it's age by having a MOLEX power connector. This is a 4-pin power cable (white plastic, 4 pins in a straight line about an inch long) that you need to connect to the card from the power supply, in addition to plugging it into the PCIe slot. Problem for me is that I have an HPE-470f computer, which is a pretty new high-end Hewlett Packard model, and the PSU doesn't HAVE any MOLEX plugs, just a bunch of SATA power plugs, which are the flat connectors about 1 1/2" wide, sometimes with 2 or 3 of them along their length. So either find an adapter cable (female MOLEX to SATA, which I'm not sure is doable at all, ask a tech person) or suck it up and replace your power supply with something a little more powerful and flexible (which I did, since I upgraded a lot of things and needed the extra power and plugs, and is surprisingly easy). Bother #4: a small bother, but you MUST go into your BIOS and disable your onboard audio before you install the card. Whatever number your screen likes to flash at you when the computer starts up is how to get there. It will say BIOS, or Setup, or something like that (but NOT safe mode) and F1 to F12. Tap it while starting up, then use the arrow keys to find onboard audio, key down to it and change it to disable, save it, let the computer finish starting up, then shut down. To recap the whole thing... 1. Download current drivers from ASUS 2. Extract the .rar files with a freeware .rar extractor. Save them somewhere nice. 3. Restart computer, tap into BIOS during startup, disable onboard audio, save, let computer finish startup, then shut down (you do NOT have to re-enable afterwards). 4. UNPLUG the computer, crack open the innards, assure that you have an open MOLEX (4-pin) female connector coming from your PSU. 5. Connect the power cable and plug the card into the PCIe slot, then close up the case. 6. Power up the computer. DO NOT put in the disc. It should detect the uncompressed drivers you just put there. 7. If you've really plugged in the power cable, IGNORE the stupid, stupid reminder message. Let the drivers automatically reinstall if they want. 8. The computer will prompt you to restart. Do it. 9. Enjoy the pretty music. Please let it take you 20 minutes to do what it took me 9 hrs. to do. The quality of the output is worth it.

Si eres audiofilo, no puedes ir a por menos que esto. He tenido todas las Sound Blaster hasta la fatality. Tambien la azuntech Forte y un par de mAudio... esto es sonido serio.. no para juegos... Sonido en estado puro. Poseo unos auriculares Sennheiser HD650, Sennheiser ie8, Sennheiser ie80, UE10, y Shure SE535... esta claro que sobre todo busco el sonido mas puro posible. Esta tarjeta los explime al maximo. Más información en:[...]

このオーディオカードを載せたら音割れが少なくなりました。かなりクリアな音に聞こえます。

This thing is simply incredible. Really worth every penny for any audiophile.

Antes de adquirir esta galardonada tarjeta de sonido leí mucho por Internet sobre ella, decían que era una maravilla, que es de las mejores y sobretodo para Gamers etc... la cuestión es que no dudo de nada de lo que leí, estoy convencido de que es muy buena, pero nunca viene un manual de instrucciones a la antigua usanza (en plan tocho) que te explique cada una de sus funciones, en vez de eso te viene una "quick start guide" para conectarla, descargarte los drivers y poco mas... ¿cual es el problema de esto? que se sobre entiende de que es un producto "exclusivo" para audiofilos y si no tienes ni pu** idea de configuraciones y demás en este tipo de hardware no sabrás ni que hacer con ella, mi problema fué ese, pasé de unos auriculares cerrados de 13€ cutres a unos DT770 PRO mas esta tarjeta de sonido (300€+ en total) y obviamente esperaba cagarme en los pantalones con el resultado de este cambio, pero en vez de eso me sucedió todo lo contrario. Por un lado los auriculares DT770 PRO (un producto de mayor calidad que CUALQUIER auricular gamer) eran auriculares Hi-Fi que por muy buena calidad que tengan y mejor precio en comparación a los "Gaming" no están diseñados para el mismo fin(sonido envolvente, oír pisadas de tus enemigos etc...). Y en cuanto a la Tarjeta de sonido... ¿cumplía su función? no lo sé, trate de configurarla de muchísimas maneras posibles, en muchos casos notaba mucha diferencia entre distintos modos (7.1, Hi-Fi, DTS...) pero la verdad es que si tuviera que valorar en euros la diferencia entre la tarjeta de sonido + auriculares Hi-Fi o mis antiguos auriculares de 13€ "marca blanca", por supuesto diría que la diferencia se nota, pero no vale 300€ ni 200€ ni ni siquiera 100€, ¿no he sabido configurar del todo bien la tarjeta de sonido? es probable, pero dudo que se la pudiera explotar mucho mas con todas las pruebas que hice, y francamente tras hacer la devolución, he adquirido unos Astro A50 (a mitad de precio por ser refurbished) y teniendo en cuanta que la mitad son 150€ ahora si que puedo decir que me ha cundido perfectamente. Pero bueno, de los Astro no voy a hablar aquí, dejaré el comentario en la pagina de estos ;).

In purchasing this I was under the impression that this card also can be used for an external surround sound setup, which turned out not to be the case in my situation. Its great for just a headset but that wasn't the reason I purchased it. Would have went with another card if I had known.