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
list, and also the well-deserved Editors Choice award. We apologize for this oversight, Discuss this article in our forums!, Have a comment you wish to make on this article? Recommendations? Criticism? Feel free to head over to our related thread and put...
Without a doubt, ASUS has taken a broad and varied approach to the audio card market. What started with the Xonar D2, a solid all-around contender to take the performance crown away from Creative, has morphed into one of the most well-rounded audio pro...
The Asus Xonar Essence STX is marketed as an Audiophiles sound card. That being said, we could do without some of the non-essential bells and whistles. An audiophile will never be satisfied with the stock EQ presets and there are plenty. The rotating...
One thing that annoys me most about PC audio is just how noisy and dirty sounding it is, especially with good headphones. The most startling thing about the ASUS Xonar Essence STX Headphone Amp Card was just how dark the background was. There was abs...
Abstract: When we came to the climax of our review of Auzentechs new X-Fi Forte a couple of weeks ago, we labelled it as our new "king of the hill" as far as discrete audio solutions go. Indeed, it was almost a minor miracle in the way it squeezed so much fun...
Published: 9th March 2009 | Source: Asus | Price: £160.99 | Author: Matthew KempSound Quality - ConclusionThe sound quality of the Xonar Essence STX far surpasses any commercially available and viable sound card in it's price category. Barring sound cards...
Abstract: If you’re the type of audio enthusiast who delights in discovering nuances in musical recordings you thought you were already intimately familiar with, you’ll want to check out the Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card. This audiophile-quality sound card ...
Based on my long term testing with the STX card, from engineering sample to final production version I have been highly impressed with the Xonar Essence STX. ASUS set out to build a new flagship card for stereo and headphone use and definitely pushed...
Remarkably clear and crisp audio; terrific headphone support; almost too good for low-to-midrange bitrate MP3 listening!
Limited support for multichannel speaker systems
For the dedicated headphone listener, this is the finest sound card available. But its price and its limited speaker support are unfortunate factors.Listening Observatio ......
Abstract: Asus Xonar Essence STX ReviewAsus Xonar Essence STXBackside of the EssenceThe sound card seems to have fallen out of favor with the hardware enthusiast over the past few years, as on-board solutions have provided multi-channel surround sound that funct...
