Asus Xonar Essence STX PCI Sound Card

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first off HI! :)

I currently have my pc using realtek on board audio with optical cable connected to my sony str-dg820 receiver using 5.1

I was looking to get the Asus Xonar Essence STX PCI Sound Card

but Im told Im better off using my onboard audio via optical and this wouldnt make any difference using the Asus Xonar Essence STX PCI Sound Card!

using analog through the Asus Xonar Essence STX PCI Sound Card wouldnt make a difference either would it?
 
Hello, and welcome to the forums. :)

Buying an Essence to use SPDIF connection would be a waste of money. A Xonar D1/X has the same digital features for less than half the price. There's no point buying an Essence to use analogue connection, as the card is stereo, and you have a 5.1 AV receiver.

What motherboard do you have, and what do you use your 5.1 speaker system for mainly. Gaming?
 
Hello, and welcome to the forums. :)

Buying an Essence to use SPDIF connection would be a waste of money. A Xonar D1/X has the same digital features for less than half the price. There's no point buying an Essence to use analogue connection, as the card is stereo, and you have a 5.1 AV receiver.

What motherboard do you have, and what do you use your 5.1 speaker system for mainly. Gaming?

my mobo is the msi p67a-gd65 and yeaqh mainly gaming
 
The Asus Xonar Essence STX is primarily an audiophile type card, im using the term loosley here. The only reason why I bought it is because of the onboard headphone amp and its low harmonic distortion levels. As marsman previously stated, it would be a waste of money if you are connecting to an av reciever for 5.1. I had mine hooked up this way for a while in the living room but I built a media computer so I could have my main rig in the office. I could not tell a difference between the SPDIF out on the STX and onboard SPDIF out. This card need high impeadance speakers or headphones in order to be experienced properly.
 
its just with my on board realtek audio I only seem to be getting 2.1

so wouldn't I need a sound card to achieve 5.1 ?
 
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You'll most probably only be able to get 2 channels over SPDIF as i doubt the onboard realpootec will be able to handle Dolby Digital Live or DTS-Connect/Neo:C
However, if you're able to use the analogue connections then you can have all the channels.

Otherwise, get a cheap soundcard that supports DDL.
 
Any mobo with spdif out can achieve 5.1. Your problem lies with the source material or decoders. If you are trying to get game audio in 5.1 you need a sound card that can process DD live or DTS live. These encode sound on the fly. Creative has a few options here as well as omega, azuntech, Asus and omega.
 
Hello, and welcome to the forums. :)

Buying an Essence to use SPDIF connection would be a waste of money. A Xonar D1/X has the same digital features for less than half the price. There's no point buying an Essence to use analogue connection, as the card is stereo, and you have a 5.1 AV receiver.

What motherboard do you have, and what do you use your 5.1 speaker system for mainly. Gaming?

do you mean this one?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-004-AS&tool=3

do you get cables with the sound card?
 
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If your receiver supports muti channel input you can use that, but a sound card with an encoder would be a better option because whatever the source is it can be encoded to 5.1 that card does not have encoding options.
 
Xonar D1/X would be a good choice. It has Dolby Digital Live. If you want DTS Connect, then the Xonar DS would be the card to get.

Xonar D2/X, and the X-Fi Titanium, have both DTSC and DDL.
 
does the sound cards come with the required cables? Im not sure how I will be connecting this to my receiver?

yes my receiver is multi channel
 
If your receiver supports muti channel input you can use that, but a sound card with an encoder would be a better option because whatever the source is it can be encoded to 5.1 that card does not have encoding options.

so will the Xonar DX be the one to get for encoding?
 
Yea that card does encode with DDL thought you were looking at a different card, you just don't have spdif out. So you need to be certain that you have multi channel input on your reciever. Multi channel is not necessarily 5.1 I think this is where you are getting confused, multi channel input is using analog 3.5 connections for each channel. So you need to check if you have these connections not all receivers do. If you don't you need to find a sound card that supports encoding and hansSPDIF output.
 
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I think Voodoo is referring to analogue multi channel connections. The AV receiver is multi channel, all are, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will have multi channel analogue connections.

That's irrelevant though if you are going to use SPDIF optical.
 
No multi channel analogue connections there. Doesn't matter though, just get a Xonar D1 or DX, depending on whether you want PCI or PCIE.

The card will come with a mini toslink adaptor. You'll need to buy a standard toslink cable, same both ends, or you could get a toslink to mini toslink cable, and forego the adaptor.

Difference between mini toslink and toslink is, toslink looks like every optical connector common on most devices. Mini toslink looks like a 3.5mm jack.
 
No multi channel analogue connections there. Doesn't matter though, just get a Xonar D1 or DX, depending on whether you want PCI or PCIE.

The card will come with a mini toslink adaptor. You'll need to buy a standard toslink cable, same both ends, or you could get a toslink to mini toslink cable, and forego the adaptor.

Difference between mini toslink and toslink is, toslink looks like every optical connector common on most devices. Mini toslink looks like a 3.5mm jack.

my mobo is a msi p67a-gd65 so I think its pci-e for me!
 
I have a sound blaster xfi Titainium 7.1 card and am trying to do the same thing. However I've been trying to set it up for over a year and still only getting 2channel out. I'm using Dolby pro logic2 on my surround sound to make it sound like 5.1:(
 
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