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Product Specifications
| General | |
| Brand: | Asus |
| Item Height : | 8 centimetres |
| Item Width: | 24 centimetres |
Technical Details
- Built-in headphone amp drives every available headphone with <0.001% distortion
- Nichicon "Fine Gold" capacitors offer great dynamic performance
- Customize your sound color effortlessly via swappable OPAmp socket
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Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
Xonar ESSENCE STX
Product Description
The Stock availability and Price are correct at the last update, however, our Web team are working very hard to update more detailed information on this product - Please call us on 0844 5838000 should you require any more details
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
First impressions are excellent: the card is very attractively packaged with a 'high-end' feel to it. The card itself is on a very high quality PCB substrate and clearly uses very high quality components.
Fitting into my case (a Silverstone HTPC case), the card could not be screwed down fully as the back panel is slightly too long at the bottom, and this would have caused misalignment of the PCI-E connector. Note that the card requires an additional IDE-style power connection, and won't work without it. The card is reasonably slim, but too high to fit a low profile case.
There is both a rear headphone output and a front panel headphone output as part of the HD-Audio interface (also line in and out on the rear). More on these later.
Getting the drivers to install was a pain: my brand new, clean Windows 7 64 bit installation wouldn't detect the hardware, and I needed to install the drivers myself. This turned out to require searching for the drivers on the supplied DVD-ROM as the auto-run file didn't work properly.
Once installed, my impressions of the software are not great. I have only managed to get ASIO sound operation working so far, and adjusting the volume is tricky for headphones. The software is 'skinned' to look like a cheap 1980s HiFi compo with lots of flashing lights and buttons, rather than making it easy to configure the things you need and otherwise staying out of the way. The Dolby virtual surround for headphones is fine if you have ever wondered what it would be like listening to music in a fishbowl, but otherwise it's total garbage. My card defaulted to Dolby Headphone enabled, which is definitely not what you want, so make sure you switch it off before doing any serious listening.
So far, so below average, to be honest. However...
Plug headphones into (HD 595s) the rear socket and play a couple of high quality (lossless) CD rips. All annoyance melts away. The sound is very good indeed, with excellent detail, separation and body. While it's too early to make detailed comparisons (and the headphones need a bit more 'running in'), the sound is certainly in the same ball park as my main system (Meridian CD 506, Cyrus Audio amp, ProAc speakers) and possibly better. Certainly like nothing I have ever heard coming out of a computer.
As a more concrete comparison, the same rip, via the same headphones on my iPod sounded far thinner and more constrained, so it is definitely a major step up from what is a pretty decent portable player headphone output. I am very impressed, and the proof is that I ended up listening to tracks for several hours before realising that it was 1:30am.
The front HD Audio headphone socket isn't in the same league, by the way - it was a little better than the iPod, but I won't be using it again, despite the convenience.
Very highly recommended if you have the time and technical expertise to configure it, and care about the sound enough to forgive the fiddling.
Fitting into my case (a Silverstone HTPC case), the card could not be screwed down fully as the back panel is slightly too long at the bottom, and this would have caused misalignment of the PCI-E connector. Note that the card requires an additional IDE-style power connection, and won't work without it. The card is reasonably slim, but too high to fit a low profile case.
There is both a rear headphone output and a front panel headphone output as part of the HD-Audio interface (also line in and out on the rear). More on these later.
Getting the drivers to install was a pain: my brand new, clean Windows 7 64 bit installation wouldn't detect the hardware, and I needed to install the drivers myself. This turned out to require searching for the drivers on the supplied DVD-ROM as the auto-run file didn't work properly.
Once installed, my impressions of the software are not great. I have only managed to get ASIO sound operation working so far, and adjusting the volume is tricky for headphones. The software is 'skinned' to look like a cheap 1980s HiFi compo with lots of flashing lights and buttons, rather than making it easy to configure the things you need and otherwise staying out of the way. The Dolby virtual surround for headphones is fine if you have ever wondered what it would be like listening to music in a fishbowl, but otherwise it's total garbage. My card defaulted to Dolby Headphone enabled, which is definitely not what you want, so make sure you switch it off before doing any serious listening.
So far, so below average, to be honest. However...
Plug headphones into (HD 595s) the rear socket and play a couple of high quality (lossless) CD rips. All annoyance melts away. The sound is very good indeed, with excellent detail, separation and body. While it's too early to make detailed comparisons (and the headphones need a bit more 'running in'), the sound is certainly in the same ball park as my main system (Meridian CD 506, Cyrus Audio amp, ProAc speakers) and possibly better. Certainly like nothing I have ever heard coming out of a computer.
As a more concrete comparison, the same rip, via the same headphones on my iPod sounded far thinner and more constrained, so it is definitely a major step up from what is a pretty decent portable player headphone output. I am very impressed, and the proof is that I ended up listening to tracks for several hours before realising that it was 1:30am.
The front HD Audio headphone socket isn't in the same league, by the way - it was a little better than the iPod, but I won't be using it again, despite the convenience.
Very highly recommended if you have the time and technical expertise to configure it, and care about the sound enough to forgive the fiddling.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
For the last few years (mostly due to financial restrictions), I've made do with onboard sound for my computers. It's free, it's usually adequate (especially now that most onboard solutions ship with optical outs), and for the budget conscious, we're happy to make do...
...HOWEVER: After using this sound card for just a couple of weeks, I have completely changed my tune (so to speak)! The quality of sound produced by this card isn't just good for computer sound, it's good, full stop! I felt guilty for about 2 days after shelling out about £135 on this, and that guilt alleviated the moment I heard it in operation. It's truly that good.
I should qualify my hyperbole by explaining a few things. First of all, I consider myself a bit of an audiophile. I'm not entirely a nutcase when it comes to sound, but I would certainly consider myself someone with a more discerning ear than the average user. Secondly, I was looking for a sound card that would give me two things in particular: excellent stereo sound, and excellent headphone usage. This sound card has dedicated hardware designed for headphones, and one can tell. It is simply the best headphone sound I've ever come across. Admittedly, if you purchased a top-end amplifier, some sound engineer somewhere will probably claim it is better, but for the money and its intended use you aren't going to beat this sound card for headphone usage. This sound card destroys the 'competition'.
When not using headphones, my sound card is plugged into a dedicated amplifier with good quality separate speakers. Again, in the domain of sound card solutions, this is the best sound I've ever heard produced from a computer, however I do wonder how noticeable the quality improvement would be if you aren't using at least decent speakers. From this point of view, I'd hesitate to suggest recommending this card to anyone who uses standard computer speakers (unless they were a heavy headphone user, of course).
One of the reasons why this sound card rinses the rest of the field for quality is the hardware employed. I won't go into the technical nitty gritty (google the card to find numerous reviews on this), but I think it suffices to say that any sound card that requires a dedicated power supply shows you that it's not your average card!
My only minor quibble is the same as the previous reviewer: the software isn't the best. It's a *bit* clunky, and changing between speakers and headphones is a little annoying, but even so, overall I forgive Asus.
This card does have an optical out, so will pass through surround sound streams, but I'm unable to comment on this as I prefer a stereo set up.
Overall, one of the best purchases I've ever made.
...HOWEVER: After using this sound card for just a couple of weeks, I have completely changed my tune (so to speak)! The quality of sound produced by this card isn't just good for computer sound, it's good, full stop! I felt guilty for about 2 days after shelling out about £135 on this, and that guilt alleviated the moment I heard it in operation. It's truly that good.
I should qualify my hyperbole by explaining a few things. First of all, I consider myself a bit of an audiophile. I'm not entirely a nutcase when it comes to sound, but I would certainly consider myself someone with a more discerning ear than the average user. Secondly, I was looking for a sound card that would give me two things in particular: excellent stereo sound, and excellent headphone usage. This sound card has dedicated hardware designed for headphones, and one can tell. It is simply the best headphone sound I've ever come across. Admittedly, if you purchased a top-end amplifier, some sound engineer somewhere will probably claim it is better, but for the money and its intended use you aren't going to beat this sound card for headphone usage. This sound card destroys the 'competition'.
When not using headphones, my sound card is plugged into a dedicated amplifier with good quality separate speakers. Again, in the domain of sound card solutions, this is the best sound I've ever heard produced from a computer, however I do wonder how noticeable the quality improvement would be if you aren't using at least decent speakers. From this point of view, I'd hesitate to suggest recommending this card to anyone who uses standard computer speakers (unless they were a heavy headphone user, of course).
One of the reasons why this sound card rinses the rest of the field for quality is the hardware employed. I won't go into the technical nitty gritty (google the card to find numerous reviews on this), but I think it suffices to say that any sound card that requires a dedicated power supply shows you that it's not your average card!
My only minor quibble is the same as the previous reviewer: the software isn't the best. It's a *bit* clunky, and changing between speakers and headphones is a little annoying, but even so, overall I forgive Asus.
This card does have an optical out, so will pass through surround sound streams, but I'm unable to comment on this as I prefer a stereo set up.
Overall, one of the best purchases I've ever made.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I'm very pleased with the sound from this device. Running through my stereo speakers with Dolby signal processing enabled, my music sounds amazing. Since installing this card I have been giving much of my music collection a fresh listen and enjoying some of it it more than I ever did on my old equipment (an Audigy 2).
With headphones, I prefer to have the signal processing off, as the Dolby Headphone modes can distort some sounds too much for my liking. The dedicated headphone amp goes up to 11 and is a fantastic change from the weedy signal that I made do with from my previous sound card. It's great for getting decent volume on tracks that were mastered at quieter levels.
My only gripe is with the bundled software. Switching between the stereo component outputs and the headphone amp requires opening the software, clicking a button to reveal some menus, and then choosing the output option from a drop-down menu. This quickly becomes tedious, and it's ridiculous that there isn't an easier way to to this, such as via the pop-up menu on the system tray icon.
With headphones, I prefer to have the signal processing off, as the Dolby Headphone modes can distort some sounds too much for my liking. The dedicated headphone amp goes up to 11 and is a fantastic change from the weedy signal that I made do with from my previous sound card. It's great for getting decent volume on tracks that were mastered at quieter levels.
My only gripe is with the bundled software. Switching between the stereo component outputs and the headphone amp requires opening the software, clicking a button to reveal some menus, and then choosing the output option from a drop-down menu. This quickly becomes tedious, and it's ridiculous that there isn't an easier way to to this, such as via the pop-up menu on the system tray icon.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent sound and very low latency for recording.
This card have one of the best if not the best DAC in this price .The sound with headphones or speakers is extra crisp,great stereo feel ,there is no noise so you can hear so... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Dionisis
Perfect sound, worrying set-up.
I am reasonably competent with PCs, but still have some anxieties when installing new hardware. I guess it dates from my Win 98 days. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Js
Fantastic sound card
This is,quite simply, an absolute bargain if you are looking to hook your PC into an existing Hi-Fi system that has some decent components and where you are using high quality... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tim Chapman
delivered wrong item
I had the Xonar Essence ST delivered, despite having ordered the STX. Luckily connectivity wasn't a problem for me and I just went with it. Great card... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kevin Defour
STE-REAL
Ill keep it short, ignore everyone missing a star on the rating due to the fact the installation is fiddly, it isnt! Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. Ismail
Great Hardware. Terrible Drivers!!!
Great sound when you can finally get it to work. Latency is a major problem with these cards. Asus/cmedia xonar drivers are terrible and written by complete amateurs. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. G. Hooper
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