Testseek.com have collected 36 expert reviews of the Asus Xonar Essence STX PCIe and the average rating is 91%. Scroll down and see all reviews for Asus Xonar Essence STX PCIe.
March 2009
(91%)
36 Reviews
Average score from experts who have reviewed this product.
Users
-
0 Reviews
Average score from owners of the product.
91010036
The editors liked
Remarkably clear and crisp audio
Terrific headphone support
Almost too good for low-to-midrange bitrate MP3 listening!
Made with high quality components
Exceptional sound playback
Stable
Intuitive driver
Compatible with Windows 7
It has a very high signaltonoise ratio
Superb audio quality
Dedicated headphone amplifier
Swappable op-amps
Direct3D
EAX emulation for XP
Vista games
And
Clean and pure sound output and control over headphone impedance.
Crisp audio output
Near flat frequency response
Respectable headphone amp
Very low noise levels on both linein and lineout
Toptier components
Such as the capacitors
DAC and opamps
Opamps are user replaceable
Drivers work flawlessly on Vista and 7
Dolby Headphone works well for movies and games
The editors didn't like
Limited support for multichannel speaker systems
Expensive
There is no S/PDIF input
Output only.
Analog output is stereo-only
List
And also the well-deserved Editors Choice award. We apologize for this oversight
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Pricey and lacks full EAX support.
Need pricey equipment to appreciate the added quality of sound
EAX emulation isn't quite as good as a native hardware solution
No hotkeys to quickly alter settings in Xonar Audio Center
Abstract: Most hi-fi audio is stored in digital form. With advancements in lossless compression, bit-perfect ripping/streaming, HD audio formats, multi-terabyte storage, and PC-friendly DACs, has the PC earned a place among high-end audio gear? At what price point?...
Abstract: An example of this is their Xonar Essence series of digital-to-analog converters and sound cards. In November 2008, ASUS announced their Xonar Essence STX sound card, and it is still considered a top of the line product rated among the Creative Labs Sound...
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(80%)
Published: 2011-10-04, Author: George , review by: hitechlegion.com
For the serious, or even not so serious, music listener the ASUS Xonar Essence STX is an awe inspiring piece of equipment. Now, let's keep it in perspective, I am not going to tell you to go out and sell your 1968 MacIntosh tube amp and replace it with ...
Crisp audio output, Near flat frequency response, Respectable headphone amp, Very low noise levels on both linein and lineout, Toptier components, such as the capacitors, DAC and opamps, Opamps are user replaceable, Drivers work flawlessly on Vista and 7, Dolby Headphone works well for movies and games,
Need pricey equipment to appreciate the added quality of sound, EAX emulation isn't quite as good as a native hardware solution, No hotkeys to quickly alter settings in Xonar Audio Center
As the performance graphs show, the ASUS Xonar Essence STX is a high achiever. It blitzed all tests, bar one, where the Xonar Xense got a slight upper hand in frequency response. The Essence STX absolutely obliterated the onboard solution in all tests...
Made with high quality components, Exceptional sound playback, Stable, intuitive driver, Compatible with Windows 7
Expensive
Asus' Xonar Essence STX may be pricey, but for audiophiles or those with the money to spend on an excellent sound card, this is the one to get. It looks good and performs even better. It's made with high quality components throughout, right down to t...
When you get down to their core feature sets, the Xonar Essence STX and X-Fi Forte really are quite similar. Both fake EAX effects in Vista, both support 24-bit audio up to 192kHz, both offer a measure of headphone amplification, both sound fantastic, ...
When I had been listening to the Auzen X-Fi Prelude, I had not expected any card to surpass it. Later on, the ASUS Xonar D2 showed the weak aspects of the Prelude. And now, the Xonar Essence STX sounds better than the Xonar D2 and Prelude, and better t...
We should also mention other aspects of ASUS Xonar Essence STX as much as those are secondary in this case. If you want to watch movies with surround speakers this card won’t disappoint you because there is S/PDIF output for optical or coaxial cable...
