PCIE Soundcard or external card?

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

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I currently have a Xonar Essense ST soundcard which is PCI. I should probably replace it with something external or PCIE whilst I can change it and still get ok money for it.
Don’t mind 2nd hand, i could pick up an Essense STX for ~£60 and sell my ST for maybe £50.
Or get something different, be it PCIE or external.
It will be powering AKG K702s for main use - games and music.
I have no idea what is good / better thsn the Xonar nowadays, the Essense was a high end card but that was maybe 7 years ago - comparible to a good quality DAC costing around £250
 
Hmmm, some interesting points. Jason, what about just replacing the ST with the STX (for about the same price) the STX was supposed to be similar sounding if not the same as the ST when reviewed.

C64, the ST/STX line of cards do have built in headphone amps. They are similar to a good quality external DAC

EsaT, if the drivers works (which they always have) then im happy.

Isn’t Dolby headphone just the bundled software, like Prologic II and the other stuff it can do in software?
I bought Dolby Atmos from ghe Dolby store which sounds great in games. I mainly use it with Call of duty modern warfare

Do the soundblaster cards good nowadays? I switched from SB years ago during times if EAX and when they bought the THX cert and stamped it on their terrible line of speakers that were never real THX.
I did have Soundblaster going back to SB 16 though, in the late 90s

Edit. It looks like the Soundblasterx g6 headphone amp pushes out a max of 3.5V.

The Xonar Essense i have pushes double that (7.03) for up to 600ohm headphones, an increase of +18db.

Why the lack of headphone amp power on the SB G6?
 
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EsaT said:
Essence ST outputs max 5V.
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/amp/asus-st.php#rw11
That's comparable to SBX G6.
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/amp/creative-g6-hi.php#rw50
After 20+ years of internal cards I got B-Stock SBX G6 as first external card few months ago and with 250 ohm Beyers I'm using about 10% volume at low gain.
Click to expand...


This reads like the ST outputs 7.03V
https://www.stereophile.com/content/asus-xonar-essence-ststx-soundcards-measurements

and 7.03V (+18dB for headphones with impedances of >300 ohms)
Click to expand...

I have it set to High gain (+12db) instead of extra high (+18db) on about 1/2 volume on my K702s. The rated impedance is only 62 Ohms but they need a lot of driving. More like 400 I would say
 
C64 said:
no they are not my amp does 200mw at 600ohms be lucky to get 1 mw at 600ohm from a soundcard
Click to expand...

No what are not?
The DAC on the Xonar is powered from +12V of a molex connection (that goes into the soundcard) Not sure what powers the external Soundblaster X G6
 
C64 said:
300 Ohm loading is 120 mw, my sennheiser hd650 sound anemic even with 300mw
I'm just saying soundcards just cant push the same juice as headphone amps
Click to expand...

Mine (Xonar essense) seem to do fine driving AKG 702s. No, i doubt soundcards can't push as near as dedicated headphone amps but for the time (10 years ago) the Xonar had great writeups

Headphone wise it says

The headphone driver is a Texas Instruments TPA6120A2 chip, a current-feedback design capable of sourcing 80mWpc into 600 ohms with very low distortion
Click to expand...

https://www.stereophile.com/computeraudio/asus_xonar_essence_ststx_soundcards/index.html

I'm only looking to replace it because PCI is going to die out soon and might aswell cash in and get something either PCIE or external DAC / headphone amp of similar quality and price... not spend £1000 on something that can drive £1000 headphone. I'm looking for something around £100 to drive £100 headphones!
 
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