ASUS Xonar Essence STX Sneak Peak

silverlai3

silverlai3

silverlai3

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hohoho... got forwarded with this news this morning...
indeed something to look forward to be my Xmas gift... wahaha..

Xonar Essence STX Engineering Sample Sneak Peak

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by Robscix | November 12, 2008

The PC audio industry has been kicked into high gear even though there have been some minor speed bumps and this is great for the audio fans since it provides a plethora of new products offering features never before seen on any sound card. Throughout the last few months, the Hardware Canucks Audio Lab has been testing many exciting soundcards and audio products and today we get to present you with a sneak peak of another.

Within the last few days, we have received an exclusive engineering sample of the highly anticipated Xonar Essence STX. While in this sneak peak we will be taking a bit closer look at this card, please keep in mind the final production version may vary from the sample we have received. This is exactly why we will forgo the usual benchmarks....for the time being of course. This preview may be a bit short since we are currently waiting for fully functional beta drivers before auditioning it but this should be enough to show you some of what the Essence has to offer.
 
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"The Essence of Sound", I can't help thinking of Zoolander... lol.

Is this based on another card, or is it an Asus original?
 
Greenlizard0 said:
Curious...would you be able to use this alongside another Asus sound card?
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Also curious. But can you use it with any other sound card? Im guessing it would be okay since you can configure audio adapters.. Maybe use this for headphones and another for speakers :)
 
Hutch said:
Also curious. But can you use it with any other sound card? Im guessing it would be okay since you can configure audio adapters.. Maybe use this for headphones and another for speakers :)
Click to expand...

Yeap exactly what I was thinking. Though I think I might be able to connect both.

The red/white ones for the speakers - and there's the thicker headphone socket.
 
Looking at the components on this beast of a soundcard hopefully its gonna improve the sound big time.

I was surprised when I read some reviews on the other Xonar cards that even a modded Xfi sounded better during music, lets hope this beast can claw its way back to supreme Audio :)
 
What seems strange to me is the fact that this seems to be a nearly finished product and still there is no approximate release date :S
It would be nice for Asus to release such information and not hold us in the dark. While i believe this will sound better than the current Xonar l can't see how they could increase the quality by much since the Xonars sound amazing to me but a pleasant surprise would be welcome.
What remains to be seen is the prize of this beast. While l would pay up to £200 for this card, the high quality of parts that are going to be used the headphone amp on the card will probably make this card around £275-£300 at launch :(
 
Does this card support surround sound in games via SPDIF out?

I tried to play warhead with my maudi 2496 but it wasn't having any of it :( Apparently the card needs to encode to AC3 on the fly to pass through the SPDIF out?

Asking as I noticed the dolby logo...
 
Ok, stupid question time. Could this card be hooked up to my amp to output to my 2.1 setup? Just looking at those connections, I'm used to seeing 3.5mm jacks on PC soundcards. Or have I missed the point? lol. What are these connections for and why are they different?
 
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