ASUS Essence STX II 7.1 Sound Card Review
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JonasBeckman
Nice, will be interesting to read.
(So this is some upgraded/improved version of the STX then?)
EDIT: This sounds interesting as well. 🙂
War child
Loved the STX I,
Things can only get better.
Ven0m
Thanks for the review, Hilbert.
It looks like an awesome card. I wonder if it would be an upgrade over D2X big enough to let me appreciate it. Also, I think I might rather like an external USB DAC (I'm not sure), but they cost even more.
mackintosh
I'm curious, who buys these products? For a few of whatever is your local currency more wouldn't it make more sense to just buy a receiver and run an HDMI cable from your GPU and let it do the heavy lifting? I used sound cards for years but finally got tired of driver problems, incompatibilities, etc and just bought a mid range receiver. Everything still sounds just as good as it did before and I haven't looked back since.
Ven0m
nikavelli
The big, gaping question left after reading this review: How does the STX II compare to other sound cards on the market? More specifically, how does the STX II (stock OPAMPS) compare to a ST (LME49720x2 OPAMPS)? Would you say the sound is clearer and more refined? Fuller? Warmer? Hard to distinguish differences?
I ask because most of us sound Guru's already own sound cards and would like to know if this is an upgrade/sidegrade from what we have.
moab600
STXII Vs ZXR, who is better? that is the Q
Ven0m
PinchedNerve
ASUS Essence STX II 7.1 = $419.99 U.S.
Might as well pick up a couple Titan Z's as well. :banana:
War child
I returned my ZXR.
Horrible latency on the line in input. made it impossible to use tools like Guitar Rig.
moab600
Ven0m
I've just checked the prices. Perhaps it'll be similar in your countries - over here in Poland, it's actually cheaper to get regular STX II non-7.1 and buy extra Xonar H6 module. It's still a lot, at least for me, but it's around $330-$350 converted to USD, and we have 23% VAT.
LesserHellspawn
Might well go Asus once I build my next rig. Ever since Creative dropped 7.1, they're no longer an option. And EAX is legacy.
GenClaymore
Ven0m
GenClaymore
Not many games are 7.1 now a day's only certain ones. Usually the ones that do not have in game speaker controls usually support 7.1, Tho there are some times game's that does give the option to inside the game to do 7.1 but most of them that i seen lately only goes up to 5.1 but I have seen some still going up to 7.1. It just most people that do use 7.1 tend to be using either 7.1 receiver's or very old 7.1 PC speakers that. Demand is really the whole reason for creative cutting 7.1 support just like they cut 4.1 and 6.1.
antonyfrn
@Hilbert thank you this just made me want a new sound card now...
vajoiner
i couldn't care less since i've always used the optical out into a system but that old xonar d2 with the lit up connections was really pimp. why dont that do that anymore? http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/2759/light2800zg4.jpg
Glasofruix
GenClaymore