New Asus sound cards

[moonbogg]

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/as...tx_ii_and_essence_stx_ii_7_1_sound_cards.html

Nice sound card, but I see one big problem. The daughter board is where the 7.1 analog thingies plug into. That's an issue for high end gamers with two video cards as they might not have space for both sound cards. My sound blaster ZxR has two boards, and I only have room for one (the main one with the analog inputs). I leave the daughter board out and I don't need its recording and optical functions thankfully. This Asus card seems like a ZxR copy cat but they put the most commonly used stuff on the smaller board, forcing people to install both which I see as a definite issue. I have already read posts where people said they wanted the card but couldn't buy it since they don't have enough room. So, nice card, but oops, kinda.

 

[DesiPower]

Good, I just posted on another thread saying why doesn't anybody make new sound cards anymore

But to your point OP, these cards are beasts and made for music enthusiasts, the center piece of these cards is the audio amplifier that boosts sound on the headphones, So the market they are targeting will not use analog 7.1 output. It's like IF you want 7.1 output too THEN you can get the daughter.
As par as space is concerned, they don't need to be on a PCI slot right? you can pretty much just hook to any of case's empty slot wherever it is. As long as your case is built for Full ATG motherboards, you should have enough space. But the thing I hate is the extra $$ they charge for the daughters.
Now today, if you want 7.1 or 5.1 sound from your computer you really do not need STX, all you need is the DX. The extra stuff on STX is mostly the amplifier, useful for headphones and all that.


The current STX had "virtual 7.1" this one seems to have real 7.1, so that a step up.
The current ones have AV100 chipset, the review does not say if its based on the same chipset with better amp or a newer chipset...

 

[moonbogg]

Good, I just posted on another thread saying why doesn't anybody make new sound cards anymore

But to your point OP, these cards are beasts and made for music enthusiasts, the center piece of these cards is the audio amplifier that boosts sound on the headphones, So the market they are targeting will not use analog 7.1 output. It's like IF you want 7.1 output too THEN you can get the daughter.
As par as space is concerned, they don't need to be on a PCI slot right? you can pretty much just hook to any of case's empty slot wherever it is. As long as your case is built for Full ATG motherboards, you should have enough space. But the thing I hate is the extra $$ they charge for the daughters.
Now today, if you want 7.1 or 5.1 sound from your computer you really do not need STX, all you need is the DX. The extra stuff on STX is mostly the amplifier, useful for headphones and all that.


The current STX had "virtual 7.1" this one seems to have real 7.1, so that a step up.
The current ones have AV100 chipset, the review does not say if its based on the same chipset with better amp or a newer chipset...

Good point. So are you going to get a sound card?

 

[DesiPower]

Good point. So are you going to get a sound card?

I have a DX and I am very happy with it, I do not use headphones much either. I generally buy 1-2 year old technology, go for tock when they tick so no, no plans of buying this...

 

[ethebubbeth]

I still use my Essence STX. Pretty good card if it was their flagship PCIE product for over 5 years. I doubt I'll upgrade but nice to see that someone is still thinking about discrete sound cards.

 

[Lewy]

I have the original STX too. It sounds amazing running direct analog two channel to a Crown XLS-2500 amplifier and my NHT 3.3 speakers. If I were to do a complete 7 channel setup I would buy the STX II, its companion board and some more Crown amps and matching NHT speakers (speakers like the 1.5 and center on used market) My setup doesn't have high end pretentions it is hi-end. I use a simple A-B switch in order to hook up my old Luxman preamp through the Crown in order to play records etc The sound is superb with no hiss or fan noise. I build my first Dynaco amp over 50 years ago and have been playing around ever since. I am amazed at just how good such a cheap powerful amp can sound and how cheap you can buy top notch speakers for on the used market today.
P.S I updated by going from the STX (24/96 PCM) to and outboard DAC (modified tc-7150) via coax and driving the crown with it. I will try using the analog input in order to record my records on the HD and listen too them too; but I have to find an adapter etc. Sounds even better now. I didn't know that I could increase volume via an spdif output but you can with both toslink and coax.