Most motherboard these days come with built in audio chip and the more expensive ones, a daughter card bundled with it. Let face it, these audio chips are just entry level ones and the sound card, mid range. ASUS saw the problem and came out with the ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card.
The packaging of the sound card alone is exquisite. The card was packed in a black box with an illustration of the Chime of Tiger. We have to say that with packaging like this, we’re sold. The card itself is also a sexy one. ASUS used a lot of gold in their design, including gold plated back plate and sockets as well as the same Chime of Tiger illustrations on the EMI plate, which ASUS claim is gold plated as well.
This card has five ports, namely analog stereo RCA output, 6.3mm headphone amp output, 6.3mm microphone line in and digital audio output. A 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold plated convertor is also bundled together with the sound card so that it will work with your existing speakers
Installation was easy as it uses only PCIe x 1 slot and four pin Molex from your power supply. Armed with a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones, one of the highest end audiophile headphones from Sennheiser, and a collection of Mark Levinson’s Reference CDs, we tested the soundcard on a newly formatted Windows Vista Ultimate system with the motherboard’s built in audio chip disabled in the BIOS, just to avoid any clashes.
The sound quality was excellent! There was enough treble to hear the movements on the guitar in the CD as well as deep enough bass when applicable. The sound produced by the sound card was really crisp and we’ve never heard anything like that before, besides some very high end audio systems. Bear in mind that this just a sound card from a computer, not a full fledge audio system.
We have friends that spend tens of thousands of Dollar in pumping their audio systems and all of them agreed that the sound quality of ASUS Xonar Essence STX is really good. However, you’ll need a good set of speakers or headphones to be able to enjoy the brilliance of the sound card and all these doesn’t come cheap, including the card itself.
Pros : Superb audio quality, Gold plated construction
Cons : It will not come in cheap
Asus Essence STX Specifications :
Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 124dB for Front Out
Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 118dB
PCIe: Compatible with X1 to X16 PCIe slots
Audio Processor: ASUS AV100 High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 192 KHz/ 24bit)
I/O ports: RCA jack x 2, 6.30 mm jack x 1
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