Subjective Listening tests - Music & Movies

Subjective testing - Music

Test Material

• Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan
• Ozzy Osbourne: Black Rain
• Metalica: Death Magnetic
• Metalica: Master of Puppets.
• AC/DC: Black Ice
• AC/DC: Who Made Who
• Obie Trice: Cheers
• 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Trying
• Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings

Play back system

Headphones:

• Sennheiser HD595s
• Beats by Dr. Dre

Studio Reference Monitors

Movies / DVD

Test Material

• Star Wars EPII: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars EPIII: Revenge of the Sith
• Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan

Using Dolby headphone, the Essence STX provided spectacular surround imaging and sound quality of the tested movies.  The card has features to further enhance your listening pleasures such as Dolby headphone, 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter and Dolby Prologic IIx.  I found myself watching much more of the movie then was needed for testing purposes. 

The intro scenes in EPIII: Attack of the clones had me looking to the side at the onset to look for the incoming sounds.  The card had no difficulty picking up the surround cues and relaying them.  The light saber duals were equally spectacular with a little extra volume and no lights on my test 22 widescreen monitor.  Further testing was done using my reference monitors and the forward imaging produced was amazing.

Sound imaging produced could trick you into thinking there was phantom center channel present as the stereo imaging was that convincing.  My last test piece, Ozzy Osbournes live Concert in Budokan Japan, which required a touch of eqing for my personal tastes as it is a live mixed DVD.  Ozzys vocal work, bass guitar and lead guitar were all easily located in the mix.

The music has an almost layered sound with great depth giving the impression you could reach into the sound.

Music

All the testing material was in Lossless FLAC file format as I wanted to have pristine copies of my favorite test tracks for testing.  The Xonar Essence STX has a very balanced and transparent sound and a very musical response.  If I had to pick a statement to describe the sound signature of the Essence it would be analog tube or warm. 

This card also has incredible clarity and detail present.  The card has a very balanced bass response with no tubbiness, or looseness to notice.  The bass heard was tight articulate and both punched and kicked with ease.  The response could easily go from booming thunder to quiet whisper easily with no loss of detail for complex passages. 

The mid range was warm and full with lots of detail without being harsh or scratchy.  The high range has a nice gloss reminiscent of analog tube gear but there is no loss of detail as this card hides nothing and gives you all that has been recorded for better or worse.

New details could be noticed in tracks well known to me, guitars on certain songs and passages seemed to have a new character, sounding more alive and articulate then heard on other cards.

Music just seemed to take on a new life with this card.  I gleefully auditioned this card for all who entered my home and consistently picked up their bottom jaw off the floor after a quick listen. 

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Always loved this album, seems to always get me rocking.  The STX just adds to the musicality of the songs or rather cuts away to noise an slosh heard on other soundcard. 

The vocal, bass and sinister guitar all come through loud and clear in their own sonic locations.  Tested Tracks: Paranoid and Iron Man

Robert Johnson - The complete recordings &The Gold Collection

These are older and remastered.  The STX could bring alot of life out of these older recordings.  Bringing a nice balance between Robert and his guitar and the sense of space in the room and allowing you to hear the room reverberation. 

The card allowed me to hear a lot of the elements and character of the slide guitar.  Roberts voice also has a great deal of character that can sometimes become overshadowed depending on the quality of gear. 

The Essence STX had great imaging and overall sound quality in these tracks.  The bad side would be in some cases the clarity of the STX could actually be too clear for these old recordings and in one case I could hear the noise reduction.  Only on one track and a bit of EQ'ing brought these tracks to life and hide the imperfection in the takes.

As far as I am concerned there is no such things as too much clarity providing it is balanced. Tracks tested, Crossroad Blues and Me and the Devil Blues (Take2), Drunken hearted Man (Take 2) Traveling Riverside Blues