ASUS Xonar Essence STX, nice sound card with SNR up to 124dB

'Tis good news, I've been using the Essence STX in Linux for a while with the 2.6.30rc1 and later kernels (in fact I actually "patched" a 2.6.28 kernel to add support), but support in the kernel version shipped with a distro is excellent.

Does the audio mixer in 9.10 provide an option to switch to the headphone amp for output? I've had issues with this part, but at least i've been able to use the line-out.

 

Yer i tried out ubuntu alpha2. System wasn't stable for me. The sound program would sometimes turn up the volume to 100%....NOT good!

Still unusable for me

 

oh well, stx is ordered and will have it next week or maybe even Friday


anyway Graphics cards fade away whereas a good sound card will pump you for years

 

Exactly the way i looked at it. I can't see myself getting rid of this for anything any time soon.....will be kept for quite a few system builds
I try and always spend the most of my budget on things that will be kept...keyboard, speakers, headphones, monitor. Longer lasting products

 

^&**(&%%&**( BLOODY ASUS


thats good to get up my chest, anyway problem was no sound from headphones so I thought I would download some Win7 drivers from asus....... selected global drm not knowing that drm means you have to pay for and insall a special program, anyway figured that out and just went global and when I saw RAR I was totally pissed off, why would they make you download another program to open their ^*&*&^ files............anyway finally got the 40 day trial and unzipped and installed but it froze up..........reboot amd removed and then installed the Win7 beta drivers but still no sound from my headphones........so plugged my speakers in and they worked....sound I have and then looking around I noted the menu arrow at the bottom that opened another part ( why thats not the default I have NNFI ). And there you select headphones and , Houston, I have sound.

 

Jus D2X will do.
Amazing sound so it in the dacs that make the difference in 100% Advantage.
Or am i wrong. Iam on a first sound card and its so good compared to onboard.

But really it true whats said the 124dB compared to the x fi fatality would be sub..

 

I am putting an older x-fi game fatality card in my other Win7 machine

Then I am going to compare sounds using the headphones (ATH AD700)

 

I'm finding that the Asus STX drivers on Windows 7 RTM cause other programs to not load and weird stuff. IE won't open, Windows Live messenger is totally gimped.. Winamp won't open..

I uninstall the Asus drivers..

Voila! Fixed..

Didn't have this problem on the RC, so i'm confused!

 

what drivers are you using ? the ones on the disc or the latest beta ones from Asus ?

 

Asus' Win7 drivers for the card seem to be in beta still as of the start of July ( Beta Version 8.17.71). Perhaps we're due for a refresh.

 

Latest from the Asus website.. they worked perfectly in the Win7 RC.. its just the RTM. :S Anyone else using the RTM?

 

OK guys, DO NOT INSTALL WINDOWS 7 RTM IF YOU WANT TO USE YOUR ASUS XONAR ESSENCE STX. It's a known bug and seemed like it's simply not fixed yet.

I hear there is a patch for the Xonar DX.. not idea if that works for the STX. Also from reading this thread someone installed the soundcard without the control panel and it worked. But that's kind of lame considering I need amplification for my headphones. I might just go back to the RC till it's fixed.

Be aware! I'll post this in the Windows 7 section too.

 

ok, have done this

Have set up the x-fi extreme gamer fatality pro sound card in a different win7 pc and the stx in this one and have played about 6 songs in each , switching back and forwards with the ad700 headphones

and my verdict, well I am not an audiophile and couldnt find that much difference but I think the stx has a warmer feel and is slightly clearer


Well final conclusion is I am happy with the cards in both machines

 

Mate, learn to read properly/in detail. Just by spending 5 minutes researching it I have discovered that apparently the software is fully functional once the patch is installed. http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showpost.php?p=10787512&postcount=7458

 

i fixed this problem by unticking the two HsMgr files in the "msconfig.exe -> Startup tab".

I think it can also be fixed by running the driver patch found under the Vista (64bit?) section of the Asus driver download section.

See how that goes....

 

Yer I posted the link to the patch in my post above yours. Also if you disable the hsmgr, you lose your EAX emulation. According to user reports, installing the patch retains 100% functionality of all features so that is probably a better option.

 

Well it's named as for being for the DX.. but it did work. So.. problem patched/solved. Someone should edit the OP to include the patch link because a lot of people will run into this shortly without a fix from Asus (at least put the patch in the STX driver section....).

 

For people using the STX and Win7:

Download the red alert patch for vista from the asus website (possibly even for a slightly different soundcard - the dx).

Install...

Problems fixed.

To solve the problem in the interim terminate the 'bad' process from taskbar. Sorry, I don't remember what its called but now you know where too look.

It's only 32bit programs that are affected.

 

Loving this sound card. Using it with my AT A-900s.
Does anyone know if upgrading the sound card will make a difference in quality if I decided to use my card as the source to an amplifier to power some speakers?

 

Alpha 5 should be out in a couple of days. Try it and let us know.

It will definitely make a difference — with the STX, for the better.

As for me, I've got my Sennheiser HD 555 phones. Damn, it's loud! Have to set the volume to 4/100 — any higher is painful. Here's what's playing:

Wow ... such sheer power and emotion ... I am left speechless, remembering Conan's stoic face at Valeria's pyre