Xonar Essence VS sub £100 range

SirJinks · 5 Oct 2015 at 10:12

Complete sound noob here, but thinking of replacing the onboard sound with a card. My maximum budget is £100 and its use is primarily gaming through a Senheiser PC350 SE headset so I guess an in-built audio amp is important. I can either get a second hand Essence from the Bay or an alternative new card.... so is it a no-brainer to get the Essence or should I be getting something different.

(not sure if it matters but I only intend to use the drivers and forgoe installing any software suites etc).

stuie · 5 Oct 2015 at 11:33

I use the phoebus solo with my akg 612s. Cant comment compared to the Essence.

There are reviews about the phoebus having issues but ive experienced non of them. While I believe the Essence is a bit higher ranked card I think youd struggle to tell the difference and the phoebus does leave options open to run speakers if you ever decided to do so.

Comparing to the Soundblaster Z I havnt listened to one of those either but I have heard that creative can be a bit his and miss with their drivers but read into that what you will and it may be old news

One thing I can say for certain the PC350s are crying out for a decent amp so whatever you get will be leaps and bounds over on board

rids57 · 5 Oct 2015 at 14:16

My sound card and headphone journey was as follows....

Asus Xonar DGX with Sony MDR-V6

Which sounded ok but I soon wanted an upgrade so got the 250 ohm Beyerdynamic DT990s and it soon became apparent that the DGX just wasn't up to driving them.

So upgraded to...

Creative Sound Blaster Z with Beyerdynamic DT990 pro (250 ohm)

Was a good pairing and I stuck with the duo for around a year but eventually wanted more, so bought the AKG K702. Sadly the Sound Blaster Z struggled to drive these headphones even though it was advertised as having a headphone amplifier capable of driving 600 ohm headphones. I came to the conclusion that impedance isn't the only factor in driving headphones so started looking for something with more grunt.

So I got the Xonar Essence STX when it was on sale for £120

Xonar Essence STX with modded AKG K702 and Sennheiser HD 650

This card has no problem driving either of the above headphones, even though the AKG K702 (62 ohm) needs a lot of current and the HD650 (300 ohm) is high impedance. Its hard to describe the differences in sound between the SBZ and the STX with these headphones without sounding like a pompous audiophile so all will say is that the STX drives these more difficult loads with ease, while the SBZ struggled and the resulting sound (mostly music in my case) was a little clearer and fuller, though YMMV. The STX actually compares well with entry level external DAC & Amp components like the O2Di and the Schiit Modi & Magni combo.

NirK · 5 Oct 2015 at 14:59

For that money yes definately a Xonar STX will be the best for the money, if you want an external DAC it will cost more to get something better. For example the only external DAC I have found to be significantly better than the STX is the £400 NAD D1050 that I replaced the STX with.

rids57 · 5 Oct 2015 at 16:47

yes but then you lose a lot of the sound card features for gaming, which by his choice of headphone, may be important.

For pure sound quality, when I tested the Essence One MUSES edition I did find it better but only in very subtle ways, the STX certainly wasn't far behind it.

For my external DAC & Amp setups I went with different rather than better, the Schiit Modi & Vali stack and the Aune T1, both of which use valves to produce a warmer signature that goes very nicely with the HD650s.