I'd love to see a comparison test with the internal STX. Had STX for a month with Sennheiser HD600s recently and I must say that it sounded perfect. This external version is very tempting..

I don't understand why they always mention only laptops when an external sound card is reviewed. This card would be also perfect for a mini ITX system, which has no available slots for an internal sound card if you're using a dedicated GPU.

I don't understand why they always mention only laptops when an external sound card is reviewed.

Because laptops are more common than mini-ITX systems or SFFs. Besides, most, if not all, mini-ITX users who built their own rig don't need to be told that it can be used with their systems. Hell, even I often move around my U3 between systems without looking for a review that states whether it can be used on a desktop or not. =b

Because laptops are more common than mini-ITX systems or SFFs. Besides, most, if not all, mini-ITX users who built their own rig don't need to be told that it can be used with their systems. Hell, even I often move around my U3 between systems without looking for a review that states whether it can be used on a desktop or not. =b

Sure. If a person needs a review to know if it's compatible with a laptop, desktop or whatever, then why and how did he buy an external sound card. 😀

Also, a selectable DC servo headphone output can be activated to minimize pop noise which may occur when powering on.

Hopefully that works well as intended because I can sometimes get very very loud popping noises from both my previous Essence ST and my current Essence STX to my M-Audio BX5a Deluxe that they had always been hooked up to. It was back in 2011 that I intended to purchase the Essence STX from my local Microcenter but it turned out that despite their inventory system showing 3 in stock at that location the manager couldn't find a single one of them after a 30+ minute search of the shelves and items on display along with any places in the back warehouse like section. Dude was really pissed because it sounded like 3 $200+ sound cards had been stolen by employees either for personal use or self profit reselling them. Pissed me off as well as I had intended for it to be installed along with the Crucial M4 I bought that same day as well. While still in the store I got on amazon and purchased the card with overnight prime shipping for about $25 less than what Microcenter was offering. When the card arrived I saw that it was a legacy PCI and not PCI-E card. It was at this point that I learned there were two versions of this card, the ST and the STX. I did some quick research online about the legacy PCI version in my possession and the basic conclusion that the reviews said was that the ST had more available features that it could take advantage of with the H6 daughter board to add 7 channel analog sound to its 2 channel standard setup and that there was an ever so slight advantage in sound quality as well on the legacy PCI version. As I had some legacy PCI slots on my then current board (Gigabyte x58-UD5 first gen or whatever it was) that were in no way obstructed that I'd just settle with that and not go through the effort of returning it for the STX that I had wanted in the first place. But then last March sorta shortly after X79 motherboards came out I was looking to upgrade and the need of having a legacy PCI slot for my ST really limited me to 2 boards, a Gigabyte x79-UD5 and the Asus Sabertooth X79. I went with the Gigabyte board at first and received two DOA examples in a row from the local Microcenter. After the frustration of that with about 5 or 6 90 minute round trip drives (other annoying stuff happened and added another one or two trips) to the Microcenter I insisted on switching to the Sabertooth and it worked perfectly the first time I hit the power button. I used to hate Asus and loved Gigabyte but now thats really turned around completely with the companies having switched spots. So anyway that was great for a year with using a single 7970, but I had upgraded my main display from a 1920x1200 24" monitor to a 2560x1440 27" monitor in that time. With having somewhere around 66% more pixels iirc, the single 7970 was starting to struggle with the very newest games at its native resolution. This prompted me to get another 7970 to run in crossfire, and I picked the Gigabyte windforce card because that was what I already had and loved from a year ago. Well it turns out that my original card is a hardware revision 1.0 and the new one a revision 2.1 board. The 2.1 board doesn't even come close to the tuning ability of the 1.0, I can easily get 200mhz higher core and about 800mhz higher ram from the 1.0 vs the 2.1. This just cemented my hatred of what Gigabyte had become and truly is my last Gigabyte product for at least 5 years. But the main problem now, was that no matter how I arranged the dual 7970 on my Sabertooth, that the legacy PCI slots it had were completely blocked and that no such crossfire cable made came close enough to letting a legacy PCI slot be used in any kind of crossfire or even sli as well. I wasn't about to give up my second 7970 as I'd been spoiled with them together in Tomb Raider with my G35 USB headset for the time being during finding a solution so I just had to suck it up and buy a STX to replace the ST. Luckily a friend of mine loved the ST and didn't require PCI-E so I was able to sell it to him for $75 + $10 for shipping, but was surprised when the check finally showed up a few days after I'd sent him the card that he wrote it for $100 as he felt bad for having taken so long to send it out. So in the end it worked out great for everyone and everything involved but it was quite annoying as it unfolded in real time. So thats how I've had both ST and STX in use and knew that they both could produce that very loud popping noise as they turned on in some situations.

It looks sexy.Would love to get those in some sort of a giveaway. 🙂

Hopefully that works well as intended because I can sometimes get very very loud popping noises from both my previous Essence ST and my current Essence STX to my M-Audio BX5a Deluxe that they had always been hooked up to. It was back in 2011 that I intended to purchase the Essence STX from my local Microcenter but it turned out that despite their inventory system showing 3 in stock at that location the manager couldn't find a single one of them after a 30+ minute search of the shelves and items on display along with any places in the back warehouse like section. Dude was really pissed because it sounded like 3 $200+ sound cards had been stolen by employees either for personal use or self profit reselling them. Pissed me off as well as I had intended for it to be installed along with the Crucial M4 I bought that same day as well. While still in the store I got on amazon and purchased the card with overnight prime shipping for about $25 less than what Microcenter was offering. When the card arrived I saw that it was a legacy PCI and not PCI-E card. It was at this point that I learned there were two versions of this card, the ST and the STX. I did some quick research online about the legacy PCI version in my possession and the basic conclusion that the reviews said was that the ST had more available features that it could take advantage of with the H6 daughter board to add 7 channel analog sound to its 2 channel standard setup and that there was an ever so slight advantage in sound quality as well on the legacy PCI version. As I had some legacy PCI slots on my then current board (Gigabyte x58-UD5 first gen or whatever it was) that were in no way obstructed that I'd just settle with that and not go through the effort of returning it for the STX that I had wanted in the first place. But then last March sorta shortly after X79 motherboards came out I was looking to upgrade and the need of having a legacy PCI slot for my ST really limited me to 2 boards, a Gigabyte x79-UD5 and the Asus Sabertooth X79. I went with the Gigabyte board at first and received two DOA examples in a row from the local Microcenter. After the frustration of that with about 5 or 6 90 minute round trip drives (other annoying stuff happened and added another one or two trips) to the Microcenter I insisted on switching to the Sabertooth and it worked perfectly the first time I hit the power button. I used to hate Asus and loved Gigabyte but now thats really turned around completely with the companies having switched spots. So anyway that was great for a year with using a single 7970, but I had upgraded my main display from a 1920x1200 24" monitor to a 2560x1440 27" monitor in that time. With having somewhere around 66% more pixels iirc, the single 7970 was starting to struggle with the very newest games at its native resolution. This prompted me to get another 7970 to run in crossfire, and I picked the Gigabyte windforce card because that was what I already had and loved from a year ago. Well it turns out that my original card is a hardware revision 1.0 and the new one a revision 2.1 board. The 2.1 board doesn't even come close to the tuning ability of the 1.0, I can easily get 200mhz higher core and about 800mhz higher ram from the 1.0 vs the 2.1. This just cemented my hatred of what Gigabyte had become and truly is my last Gigabyte product for at least 5 years. But the main problem now, was that no matter how I arranged the dual 7970 on my Sabertooth, that the legacy PCI slots it had were completely blocked and that no such crossfire cable made came close enough to letting a legacy PCI slot be used in any kind of crossfire or even sli as well. I wasn't about to give up my second 7970 as I'd been spoiled with them together in Tomb Raider with my G35 USB headset for the time being during finding a solution so I just had to suck it up and buy a STX to replace the ST. Luckily a friend of mine loved the ST and didn't require PCI-E so I was able to sell it to him for $75 + $10 for shipping, but was surprised when the check finally showed up a few days after I'd sent him the card that he wrote it for $100 as he felt bad for having taken so long to send it out. So in the end it worked out great for everyone and everything involved but it was quite annoying as it unfolded in real time. So thats how I've had both ST and STX in use and knew that they both could produce that very loud popping noise as they turned on in some situations.

yikes, use paragraphs

I keep wanting to put a "F" in between the "T" and the "U" , But other wise at-least its another option for people instead of the E1 and the E1 muse which cost a arm and a leg.

Hopefully that works well as intended because I can sometimes get very very loud popping noises from both my previous Essence ST and my current Essence STX to my M-Audio BX5a Deluxe that they had always been hooked up to. blablabla..... So thats how I've had both ST and STX in use and knew that they both could produce that very loud popping noise as they turned on in some situations.

I can only read the first and last sentence. OT: I hope this product enters Indonesia soon. I need an external sound card since my monitors don't have volume control. I owned an STX before and I miss its sound. If this STU is in the STX's price range, I'll grab one for sure. E1 is a bit too expensive for me.

Looking sexy there... I love my STX, but if the STU was an option when I bought it, I might have considered it if the price difference was small...

I changed from the ST to an external Arcam dac and felt I got a cleaner signal but not as much power or control over the sound. This could be an upgrade for me if it contains enough components to be priced over £300.