Asus Xonar Essence STX – PCI-E Audiophile Soundcard
Introduction
The PC Soundcard is a market that has been dominated by Creative up until fairly recently. Creative is a monolith seemingly wrapped up in it’s own success and any innovation seems to come at the cost of quality.
This is where Asus steps in with their Asus Xonar Essence STX. Despite its long and convulted title, this card may be just be what the PC sound-card market has been waiting for – a proper SOUND card. You may be wondering what I am saying by that. Let’s see what Asus say about it:
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors crystallized their knowledge of the materials and music into the Chime of Tiger, one of the first audio masterpiece in human history. Gold-plated on the EMI shield, the Chime of Tiger totem not only represents Xonar teams new footnote in audio innovation, but also mankind’s endless pursuit of the Essence of Sound.”
Now what I really want to draw your attention towards is the last bit. Asus are after the “Essence of Sound” in this card. This is a card aimed at those who want excellent quality sound for music. It’s not aimed at gamers and not at cinema buffs. It’s aimed at those wanting to get the most out of their PC music collection. This is a good thing in my eyes. Sure you can grab an X-Fi and see how it does with music. I’m sure it would be perfectly adequate, but there’s no mainstream cards that really do the trick with music.
Specification
Taken from Asus’s website.
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Audio Performance
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Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted):
124dB for Front-out,117dB for Headphone-out (600ohms) dB Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 118 dB Output THD+N at 1kHz: 0.0003% (-110dB) for Front-out, 0.001% (-100dB) for Headphone-out Input THD+N at 1kHz: 0.0002% (-113dB) for Line-in Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/192kHz input): Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p) |
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Bus Compatibility
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PCI Express:
-PCI Express Rev. specification compatible -Compatible with X1, X4, X8, X16 PCI Express slots |
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Main Chipset
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Audio Processor:
ASUS AV100 High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 192KHz/24bit) 24-bit D-A Converter of Digital Sources: Texas Instruments PCM1792A*1 for Front-Out (127dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit) 24-bit A-D Converter for Analog Inputs: Cirrus-Logic CS5381* 1 (120dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit) High Fidelity Headphone Amplifier: Texas Instruments 6120A2*1 (120dB SNR, 100dB THD+N @ Vcc±12V, RL=600, f=1kHz) |
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Sample Rate and Resolution
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Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution:
44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit Analog Recording Sample Rate and Resolution: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit S/PDIF Digital Output: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit, Dolby Digital ASIO 2.0 Driver Support: Supports 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @16/24bit with very low latency |
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I/O Ports
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Front-Panel Header
Shared by Headphone out / 2 channels out / Microphone in S/PDIF Header: Connects to compatiable graphic cards for HDMI output Analog Output Jack: RCA jack *2 (Front R / Front L), 6.30mm jack*1 (Headphone out) Analog Input Jack: 6.30mm jack *1 (Shared by Line-In/Mic-In) Other line-level analog input (for CD-IN/TV Tuner): Aux-In (4-pin header on the card) Digital S/PDIF Output: High-bandwidth Coaxial/TOS-Link combo port supports 192KHz/24bit |
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Driver Features
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Operation System:
Windows Vista/XP(32/64bit)/MCE2005 Dolby® Technologies: Dolby® Digital Live Dolby Digital Live encodes any audio signal on PC in real-time to Dolby Digital (AC3) 5.1 surround sounds to your home theater environment through one single S/PDIF connection Dolby® Headphone Dolby® Virtual Speaker Dolby® Pro-Logic II XP: DirectSound2.5 SW, A3D®1.0, OpenAL generic modes, 128 3D sounds processing capability |
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Accessories
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1 x 3.5mm-to-RCA adaptor cable (8ch)
1 x S/PDIF optical adaptors |
A pretty beefy set of specs there with the most obvious omission being DTS decoding which is a little suprising. Note that the Dolby processing should convert the signal to 5.1 in this case, but I will be testing this.
