Best sound card for stereo

[smilertoo]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good sound card for use with stereo speakers, no interest in 5.1 or 7.1. I need low Asio latency for synth use and i plan to get the philips fidelio x1 headphones later.
Thanks

 

[RavenXXX2]

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18608175

STX above in MM.

 

[rids57]

^+1
STX is still the best sound card for music

 

[smilertoo]

Looks like i was too slow, was asking a question and someone jumped in to buy it

 

[smilertoo]

A new STX looks a bit expensive.

 

[smilertoo]

Are the STX II's better than the STX...or cost reduced in some way?
I've seen the STX II on the rainforest for less than the STX.

 

[Space Monkey]

The STX you've seen isn't the new II model, it's the way they've written the title, I almost fell for that

 

[smilertoo]

There's not a whole lot of info about for sound cards is there, most reviews seem to be years old, or using misleadingly similar names as on the rainforest, that still looks like STX II to me.

 

[Space Monkey]

It says STX 2 channel, they should have put a comma in there, search for Xonar and you'll see

 

[smilertoo]

Ah yes, it has the gold lion on it. STX 2 is a gray lion.


sort of narrowed down to:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD £119
Claims to be near audiophile level with headphone booster- ASIO super low latency.

Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card - £135
Gets great reviews for super clean sound - Unable to find ASIO specs anywhere, every single review fixates on the clean signal.
*If anyone has tried one of these with cakewalk or cubase how well did it work? what was the lowest asio latency without crackles/pops?*

Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card - £90
Appears to be a cut down Essence STX with good reviews - Unable to find ASIO specs.

 

[rids57]

The STX is often on weekly deals for under £120, I paid £119.90 for mine

 

[Marsman]

I'd probably favour the Titanium HD over the Xonar's for music creation. D2X is more a home theatre card, and the Essence cards are more for hi-fi music listening. The one thing that is off putting about the Titanium HD, is that if you have speakers and headphones plugged in, you can only use one or the other. You can't swap in the software like most cards, you have to unplug one or the other. Dumb idea from Creative, but very good card otherwise.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

The STX is often on weekly deals for under £120, I paid £119.90 for mine

how does it compare to the AUNE?

AUNE can be used with active speakers with it's RCA out, headphones with it's built in amp.

It's the best DAC/AMP available for under £200.

A sound card is basically a DAC/AMP.

 

[rids57]

Both have excellent DAC's and offer the option of tailoring the sound by "rolling", one by changing tubes and the other by changing op-amps. I prefer the sound of my Aune, which is smoother and has a larger and more solid sound stage, both of which features work well with my K702's. The Aune Amp is basically a CMOY design, so nothing ground breaking but it does it's job and does it cleanly and efficiently. The Aune's tube buffer stage is the clever bit of the design as it gives you a touch of that "valve sound" by acting as something of a unity gain pre-amp. The STX amp can sound a bit harsh with detailed headphones and is the weakest link of the card but it still manages to sound very impressive in it's price range. The STX II is reported to have a slightly smoother sound so may be closer to the Aune but it does cost a fair bit more.

You make a very sweeping statement there by declaring it to be the best DAC/Amp available under £200. What about the iFi iDSD, or the Epiphany O2D, or the Beresford TC-7533 Bushmaster, or the Schiit Modi / Magni combo? There is great variety out there and some of it is of extremely high quality without breaking the bank. Did I pick the Aune because it's the best? No, I picked it because it suited my AKG K702 - ie. it sounds smooth yet detailed with a large sound stage, a neutral mid range and well controlled bass plus it's a nice looking piece of kit with a large, external power supply. I purposely didn't want a portable setup because few of them are up to driving the AKG's sufficiently well (excluding the iFi). The O2D is an aesthetic design disaster which should be much improved with the O2Di (but that's not available yet). The Beresford doesn't have USB as an input (which I wanted so I could use it off my tablet too). And the Magni isn't a good sound match for the AKG's as while it's very detailed, it's also on the cold side. The Vali would have been a good replacement but that takes the total over £200.

 

[Imdur]

I'd probably favour the Titanium HD over the Xonar's for music creation. D2X is more a home theatre card

Seriously? When I went from a Titanium to a Xonar DX card, it sounded less harsh to my ears. It certainly felt better for listening/mixing purposes.

I often use my Xonar for mixing when making videos and the results travel well.

 

[smilertoo]

I expect them all to sound good, my asio concern is latency. I did manage to find a very old forumn entry for the STX and they were talking about 50ms, im looking for around 5ms.

 

[rids57]

what about the Creative E-MU 0204 or the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 external USB audio interfaces? They seem a better match for what you want.

 

[smilertoo]

I've never even seen one of these USB external sound card things, I always thought having to move everything across USB must add extra latency.

 

[rids57]

so how does your synth connect?

 

[rids57]

Here are some latency measurements of the STX.

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/ASUS-XONAR-Essence-STX-Headphone-Amp-Card/?page=6#!5Vfkd

I think a lot has to do with the rest of the system, not just the sound card. You need a fast, multi core CPU, plenty of fast RAM and a decent sized SSD for recording. You also need to have as little software as possible running in the background, things like motherboard monitors and malware suites can use up appreciable amounts of CPU time and memory.