Asus Xonar Essence ST soundcard - experience

[cha_indian]

For all those who are looking to buy opamps ,

DO NOT BUY THEM FROM CHINESE sites or sellers anywhere !!.

Most of what they sell are reprinted, fake, used pieces.

 

[sound1]

I am not sure if this has been posted here before or not, but to all the people that have or are planning to change their op amps, here's an interesting article from a guy who has designed a few amps and dacs etc.

NwAvGuy: Op Amps: Myths & Facts

Thanks for the link, very informative! I am starting to read all his articles

 

[doors666]

Thanks for the link, very informative! I am starting to read all his articles

Even I have not gone thru all the articles on his site. Quite a lot of interesting stuff. Please post direct links for more interesting stuff. I am dying to get my hands on the O2 amp and odac, real high quality stuff as per who ever has tried it so far, would definitely love to compare the headphone amp and dac of essence with o2 and odac.

Even I have an ST, thought of changing the op amps, but after searching the net, couldnt find anywhere a clear mandate saying that opamp xyz is clearly and definitely superior to the stock one. This was a while ago, and recently I ran into that article and decided to stick to the stock ones.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

...here's an interesting article from a guy who has designed a few amps and dacs etc.

NwAvGuy: Op Amps: Myths & Facts

HiFiVision is responsible for more of my internet "surfing" then all my other regular daily sites put together! It is great jumping-off point, with links like this. Thanks

...And I guess I've reached a point in life where I am much happier reading that I don't have to do stuff, or change stuff, or spend, spend spend!

 

[Traveler]

Have been using the default sound card on my motherboard with stuff like WPM, VLC etc for a long time now. Had heard of Foobar before but decided to try it only after reading your post here. Foobar made a major difference even with my "free" sound card. Thanks.

 

[sonosphere]

Update for opamp experimenters:
Based on review on web regarding the Opamp AD797 BR, I ordered two sets of these mounted on DIP8 adapter (so that it fits in the Xonar ST opamp slot).

I've placed these in the two I/V slots, whereas the Audio-GD discrete opamp remained in the buffer slot. Initially AD797 sounded marginally better than the LM4562 (they have almost similar "neutral" signature as LM4562). I was hopeful that after burn-in they might sound better (this has been my experience will all opamps so far)

Now after after 20 Hrs of burn-in they are sounding a league ahead. Most significant improvement (compared to 4562) is in bass. It is more noticeable without being bloaty. Midrange has more details. Top end details are almost same but sound more refined. Keeping my fingers crossed for more improvements by 100Hrs burn-in

I strongly recommend AD797 BR to Xonar ST/XT users. (PM me for the ebay seller who supplied these... avoid buying without reference from china sellers, as some opamps may be fakes with AD797 BR print)

Regds,

 

[stryik3r]

Hi Sonosphere , After reading your detailed review of Xonar Essence ST , I finally bought one for myself.
I am using this with Foobar+WASAPI+Noise sharpening mode . In Asus control panel i set DSP to music and bit sampler to 192KHz .

It's has completely blown me away !! I can't believe music can sound so good . I am using swans M200MKII with Asus Xonar Essence ST.

Thanks for your review and steps to configure for best experience ! Thanks a ton!

 

[haisaikat]

My HTPC case is slim so that only low height cards fit. Hence Xonar ST is out of question but open for the Xonar USB DAC or the Xonar version for gaming (I think D1 / or something like that). But wondering whether the alternate Xonar editions will be better than creative X Fi which is also low profile

 

[corElement]

Hi Sonosphere , After reading your detailed review of Xonar Essence ST , I finally bought one for myself.
I am using this with Foobar+WASAPI+Noise sharpening mode . In Asus control panel i set DSP to music and bit sampler to 192KHz .

It's has completely blown me away !! I can't believe music can sound so good . I am using swans M200MKII with Asus Xonar Essence ST.

Thanks for your review and steps to configure for best experience ! Thanks a ton!

Where did you buy the st from?

 

[iaudio]

HiFiVision is responsible for more of my internet "surfing" then all my other regular daily sites put together! It is great jumping-off point, with links like this. Thanks

...And I guess I've reached a point in life where I am much happier reading that I don't have to do stuff, or change stuff, or spend, spend spend!

I came across NwAVguy around 2 years back about the time I was getting the Nuforce uDAC. He had come out with elaborate results showing how badly the dac measured. There are a host of other interesting articles on his site. Iirc, he was banned from head fi because of his controversial findings!

 

[stryik3r]

Where did you buy the st from?

It was very difficult to get one as it was out of the stock everywhere .Finally, pristinenote came to the rescue!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I came across NwAVguy around 2 years back ... Iirc, he was banned from head fi because of his controversial findings!

Hmmm... read that story recently. Controversial as in not favourable to their sponsors. Not that I'm taking sides, but it was an interesting read.

 

[doors666]

Hmmm... read that story recently. Controversial as in not favourable to their sponsors. Not that I'm taking sides, but it was an interesting read.

I went through some stuff on headfi also. They call him lord voldemort, as in the one who should not be named. or even as V:lol:.
Lots of knowledgeable and biased people out there on headfi. anything related to measurements, blind testing etc gets moved to some obscure science forum there.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Yes. It's one thing to get pounced on by the I-have-laboratory-ears people, who are entitled to their point of view (point of hearing?) but it is quite another to get banned. Thank goodness Hifivision practices live-and-let-live.

Anyway, I won't be ignoring headfi links when googling, but I now know I wouldn't want to join up.

 

[alpha1]

Hi Sonosphere , After reading your detailed review of Xonar Essence ST , I finally bought one for myself.
I am using this with Foobar+WASAPI+Noise sharpening mode . In Asus control panel i set DSP to music and bit sampler to 192KHz .

It's has completely blown me away !! I can't believe music can sound so good . I am using swans M200MKII with Asus Xonar Essence ST.

Thanks for your review and steps to configure for best experience ! Thanks a ton!

You do realize that Noise sharpening mode will sound "better" whether you have any of the other bold items with you or not - if you have a preference for "sharp" "detailed" sound with louder high-end frequencies.

In fact, its ONLY the noise sharpening that is creating this illusion - the rest are unfortunately red herrings.

 

[iaudio]

Thad, Doors, Yes he is refered to as 'the one who should not be named'

In spite of all that, it is still worth checking out head fi just to get an awareness of the sheer variety of head fi related stuff. As with everything, just take it with a 'pinch' or rather 'a handful' of salt.

 

[tirthankar]

In fact, its ONLY the noise sharpening that is creating this illusion - the rest are unfortunately red herrings.

Can you please elaborate on what you think are red herrings?

I assume you are meaning "points of apparent interest which actually provide no end result". I apologize if I got your meaning wrong.

 

[stryik3r]

You do realize that Noise sharpening mode will sound "better" whether you have any of the other bold items with you or not - if you have a preference for "sharp" "detailed" sound with louder high-end frequencies.

In fact, its ONLY the noise sharpening that is creating this illusion - the rest are unfortunately red herrings.

I tweaked the setting a bit further and thanks to abhijollyguy , I am presently using these settings -

In Foobar -

Components- Kernel Streaming, Output Format - 24 bit.

DSP Manager - Resampler(SOX) ,Advance Limiter.
In Resampler(SOX) -

I Selected "192000" in the target "sample rate" drop-down box, quality "Best". Passband at 95%, checked the anti-aliasing and Phase response @25% .


In Asus Control Panel -

Main- Selected "2 Channels" in Audio Channel.
Sample Rate PCM 192 KHz
2 Speakers in "Analog Out"
Click on "Mixer" tab and drag the slider of left and right channel to the top level, open the volume of both the channel to the full.
Enabled "HF" which u can find at the right side under volume control.


That's it. No equalizers , DSP's etc. I am satisfied with these settings . If anyone has better configuration , I'd be happy to implement those !

Thanks.

 

[alpha1]

Can you please elaborate on what you think are red herrings?

I assume you are meaning "points of apparent interest which actually provide no end result". I apologize if I got your meaning wrong.

Affirmative.

I tweaked the setting a bit further and thanks to abhijollyguy , I am presently using these settings -

In Foobar -

Components- Kernel Streaming, Output Format - 24 bit.

DSP Manager - Resampler(SOX) ,Advance Limiter.
In Resampler(SOX) -

I Selected "192000" in the target "sample rate" drop-down box, quality "Best". Passband at 95%, checked the anti-aliasing and Phase response @25% .


In Asus Control Panel -

Main- Selected "2 Channels" in Audio Channel.
Sample Rate PCM 192 KHz
2 Speakers in "Analog Out"
Click on "Mixer" tab and drag the slider of left and right channel to the top level, open the volume of both the channel to the full.
Enabled "HF" which u can find at the right side under volume control.


That's it. No equalizers , DSP's etc. I am satisfied with these settings . If anyone has better configuration , I'd be happy to implement those !

Thanks.

Your audio source (CD/Wave/FLAC) is at 192kHz??? !!!
Where did you get hold of such music?

If its at 44.1 kHz, then foobar upsampling makes no difference.
Your soundcard is already up sampling to 192kHz (= native sampling rate of the sound card)

Now please don't say that you can make out a difference (between foobar up sampling to 192 and foobar not doing anything).
There is no difference (since it doesn't matter whether foobar upsamles or the soundcard). And whatever being heard is just placebo.


*** thankfully you removed the foo_dsp_delta = noise sharpener. Which is nothing more than a glorified equalizer = higher dB for higher frequencies
This plugin is required for people who love the ear piercing high-end or those whose speakers are not able to resolve higher frequencies fast.

 

[stryik3r]

Affirmative.


Your audio source (CD/Wave/FLAC) is at 192kHz??? !!!
Where did you get hold of such music?

If its at 44.1 kHz, then foobar upsampling makes no difference.
Your soundcard is already up sampling to 192kHz (= native sampling rate of the sound card)

Now please don't say that you can make out a difference (between foobar up sampling to 192 and foobar not doing anything).
There is no difference (since it doesn't matter whether foobar upsamles or the soundcard). And whatever being heard is just placebo.


*** thankfully you removed the foo_dsp_delta = noise sharpener. Which is nothing more than a glorified equalizer = higher dB for higher frequencies
This plugin is required for people who love the ear piercing high-end or those whose speakers are not able to resolve higher frequencies fast.

Well , I just copied those settings in my Foobar, Asus control panel. I obviously don't know what those figures meant. I am a complete noob at this .

I just liked the music played with these settings . That's all matters . Right ?