What, no phoebus?

i had phoebus card like for 7 months till i replaced it with SBZ. software is poor, hardware is good, results are bad bad card. SBZ is way better than phoebus sound quality wise, never looked back. i afraid STX II would suffer same faith, bad drivers.

Had STX I with Sennheiser HD650 for a few weeks and was very, very happy with what I heard. And now it's time to get my own. Am surely gonna order the STX II only without the 7.1 as that's irrelevant and finally get my own pair of HD650s 🙂 Thanks Hilbert, was waiting for this review

I'm never going to buy another Audio card ever again. The last one I bought was in 1999. I've been on a A/V receiver since 2007, HDMI input all the way baby 🙂

I was satisfied with these drivers for my D2X. STX (1) is also on a list: http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

I would like to see how does it affect CPU load while gaming. How much cpu power does one save with 400 bucks card ??

Nice review ROBSCIX. 🙂 Its the best sound card I've had, got to say. Can't wait for the op amp guide! The muses are great but I'm in the process of trying a heap of op amps, that lean slightly more towards the analytical side, for gaming. Got 3x dual LME49990, THS4032's and a LME49710HA on the way. The LME49720 in the op amp swap kit are nice, they have some seriously impressive sound stage and are quite analytical, they pick up every tiny sound. Although they're a little airy (thin sounding) for my tastes.

I would like to see how does it affect CPU load while gaming. How much cpu power does one save with 400 bucks card ??

I'd rather bet that all that processing will actually increase CPU load. These aren't EAX times. People buy such cards for sound clarity and Dolby Headphone. I think I might be tempted to get one if I hadn't got D2X already. Perhaps, if I had a buyer for it, I might get this or read a little more about new Creative cards. External DACs with Dolby Headphone aren't cheap.

Finally. Thank you very much for the review.:) Was waiting long time. Finally this car is available in North America. Ordered.:banana:

I'd buy an external unit over this any day of the week, in fact I'm after a Pan AM which runs cheaper than this. Then again I don't bother with any of the features found on soundcards.

Aside from wanting to keep everything inside the case, I'm not sure why would anyone grab this sound card. You're better off buying an external DAC/AMP from the likes of Objective2 or Schiit. Those devices are half the price and are praised for the most accurate sound by even the most anal audiophiles.

Essence STX specs *in case you were wondering for comparison* as taken from Asus site -=Essence STX=- Audio Interface PCI Express Audio Performance Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) (Front-out) : 124 dB Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) (Headphone-out) : 117 dB Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) : 118 dB Output THD+N at 1kHz (Front-out) : >0.0003 %(-110 dB) Output THD+N at 1kHz (Headphone-out) : >0.001 %(-100 dB) Frequency Response (-3dB, 16bit/44.1KHz input) : 10 Hz to 90 KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage : Line output (RCA, 3.5) : 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p) Chipset Audio Processor :ASUS AV100 High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 192KHz/24bit) Digital-to-analog Converter(DAC) TI Bur-Brown PCM1792A Sample Rate and Resolution Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit Analog Recording Sample Rate and Resolution : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit S/PDIF Digital Output : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit ASIO Driver Support : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit Connectivity Analog Output 1 x 6.3 mm jack (1/4") Headphone out 2 x RCA (Un-Balanced) Analog Input 1 x 6.3 mm jack (1/4") (Line-in/ Mic-in combo) Digital 1 x S/PDIF out (1 x Optical / Coaxial combo) 1 x Front-Panel Header 1 x Aux in (4-pin header) Special Features Dolby® Technologies : Dolby® Digital Live/Dolby® Headphone /Dolby® Virtual Speaker /Dolby® Pro-Logic II Karaoke Functions FlexBass™ GX 2.5 Game Audio Engine VocalFX™ Operating System Windows® 8 Windows® 7 Windows® XP Accessories S/PDIF adapter x 1 3.5mm-to-RCA cable x 1 6.3mm-to-3.5mm adapter x 0 Quick start guide x 1 Driver CD x 0 -=Essence STX II 7.1 specs=- Audio Interface PCI Express Audio Performance Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) (Front-out) : 124 dB Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) (Headphone-out) : 120 dB Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) : 118 dB Output THD+N at 1kHz (Front-out) : >0.0003 %(-110 dB) Output THD+N at 1kHz (Headphone-out) : >0.001 %(-100 dB) Frequency Response (-3dB, 16bit/44.1KHz input) : 10 Hz to 90 KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage : Line output (RCA, 3.5) : 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p) Headphone output : 7 Vrms ( Vp-p) Chipset Audio Processor :ASUS AV100 High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 192KHz/24bit) Digital-to-analog Converter(DAC) TI Bur-Brown PCM1792A Sample Rate and Resolution Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit Analog Recording Sample Rate and Resolution : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit S/PDIF Digital Output : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit ASIO Driver Support : 44.1K/48K/88.2K/96K/176.4K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit Connectivity Analog Output 1 x 6.3 mm jack (1/4") Headphone out 8 x RCA (Un-Balanced) Analog Input 1 x 6.3 mm jack (1/4") (Line-in/ Mic-in combo) Digital 1 x S/PDIF out (1 x Coaxial) 1 x Front-Panel Header Special Features Dolby® Technologies : Dolby® Digital Live/Dolby® Headphone /Dolby® Virtual Speaker /Dolby® Pro-Logic II Operating System Windows® 8.1 , 32bit/64bit Windows® 8 , 32bit/64bit Windows® 7 , 32bit/64bit Windows® XP , 32bit/64bit Accessories Op-amp swap kit x 1 3.5mm-to-RCA cable x 1 6.3mm-to-3.5mm adapter x 0 S/PDIF adapter x 1 Driver CD x 0 Quick start guide x 0 Dimensions 168 x 107 mm ( L x W ) Note Op-amp swap kit content: 1 x Needle-nose pliers 2 x LME49720 1 x MUSES8820 Im also curious as to the exact specs of the speakers that were used, as well as the cabling 🙂 any room treatments? power filtering/conditioning of the test system? 🙂 awesome review too 🙂

Receivers take alot of room at the desktop, also these sound card's have features that GPU audio's doesn't have as well usually work better with muiti channel in games that do not have Xaudio2 as in games that are FmodEX or openAL or custom API, I had a friend who originally used his GPU HDMI for audio with his receiver's but had dozen of games outputting in 2 channel over the few he had that was Xaudio2 outputting in 5.1, so he had to grab a Cheap Z to get 5.1 in all of his games and not few of them, he didn't use optical but what U hear to get PCM 5.1 sent to his Receiver HDMI as it comes up as a audio device. Also people also have headphone's that req a lot of power to be driven correctly which a lot of receiver's headphone jack wont do a good job with, I tried my self with a couple of headphone's that was 250ohms a one that was 600ohm's my receiver headphone jack drove them poorly. A lot of people prefer to use analog over HDMI and Toslink because of the sound card's that they are using. Some times people do run out to a external headphone amp from the card or even send the functions of the card's to their external dac/amp. Tho some receivers do have a line out connection that will let people plug headphone amp's into the receiver's. I have a receiver my self but I don't use it any more as I tend to use headphone's and my receiver is no match for my desktop setup. You would need to spend a lot of money on a higher end receiver and then speakers to get the performance of a lot of these external dac/amp setups that people use , to pull the dsp features from cheap sound cards. Like Dolby headphone that some receiver's actually have and then CMSS3D headphone and SBX surround headphone.

If you want to buy something new, then yes, receivers can be somewhat pricey, but you can just as well pick up a decent entry level receiver for half the price of that sound card on ebay. I just had a look and my old AVR-1911 can be had for as little as $150 these days; pair it with a pair of decent Sennheisers and you're golden. It has no problems driving my HD650s and it sounds just as good as the top of the range sound cards I used before it (I had the Auzentech Hometheater HD and the STX). I haven't had any problems with positional audio in contemporary games either. There may be issues with some legacy stuff, but really now, who still plays legacy games in 2014 other than for a once in a blue moon nostalgia trip. If you're going to splash $500 on a sound card, do yourself a favour and just get yourself a DAC or a receiver, it'll serve you better in the long run.

Im also curious as to the exact specs of the speakers that were used, as well as the cabling 🙂 any room treatments? power filtering/conditioning of the test system? 🙂 awesome review too 🙂

I mentioned both my speakers, subwoofer and my cables. There is no room treatments or power filtering. I use Axiom Speakers and Subwoofer, JPS cables/wires and a Sony surround receiver using multi channel analog input. Glad you guys liked the review, this is a great sounding card.

STXII Vs ZXR, who is better? that is the Q

I bought one when they first came out from amazon uk for ~$280.00 US (308.00 US w/shipping 4day) also this card is much better than the ZXR as in sound quality latency is a disaster on ZXR no driver issues at all and as far as cpu load ,I don't see any because I have a hexacore so,it doesn't matter thanks

Well my SBZ sound perfect with my z906, sound is best i've heard. so u saying STXII is a good upgrade over it? if so i wait till prices come down

You'd be better off upgrading your speakers before the sound card tbh, using a card like that with Z906's is a bit of a waste. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they're bad speakers. I just wouldn't pair them with a high end source.

Brilliant review, gotta save some cash to get one though... 🙁 regards ,RagDoll.

Well my SBZ sound perfect with my z906, sound is best i've heard. so u saying STXII is a good upgrade over it? if so i wait till prices come down

What is being said, is right now, your speakers are your weak point so before you consider getting a better source, you might want to get better speakers. Your speakers would be limiting what you are hearing right now. So you have more quality in our system but you are limiting your system with those speakers.

Finally. Thank you very much for the review.:) Was waiting long time. Finally this car is available in North America. Ordered.:banana:

Do you have a link?

What is being said, is right now, your speakers are your weak point so before you consider getting a better source, you might want to get better speakers. Your speakers would be limiting what you are hearing right now. So you have more quality in our system but you are limiting your system with those speakers.

I seem well i bought them in Jan this year, they are really awesome. but yeah if and when i buy new setup i think about STX III OR IV by that time 😀