Tuesday, October 21st 2008
ASUS Prepares Xonar Essence STX, the World's First Audio Card to Achieve 124dB SNR
ASUSTek is reportedly prepping ASUS Xonar Essence STX, the next installment in the Xonar sound card lineup. The report does not include information on EAX support or gaming experience with Essence STX, but it's the music that will really matter with this card. According to ASUS, the Xonar Essence STX will boast a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of 124dB with 0.0003% distortion, and will be the first card available with an onboard headphone amp. The amp will drive up to 600ohms headphones with less than 100dB distortion. Whats more, Xonar Essence STX will provide independent outputs for headphones and normal audio. The whole card will be using high-quality Nichicon capacitors. The frequency response for Xonar Essence STX is <10~90 kHz @ 3.5dB. That's not all, just like some high-end Auzentech sound cards, the Xonar STX will also allow changing the original op-amp ICs, without having any soldering skills. Under the plastic of the card, there are op-amp sockets that will allow a replacement operational amplifier to be installed very easy. The release date and pricing information for this pure audiophile card are still to be proclaimed.
Craving for the clearest audio source to support your precious headphone and speakers? Then let Xonar Essence STX amaze you. Being the worlds first audio card to achieve 124dB in signal-to-noise ratio, and capable of driving headphone with highest impedance under lowest 100dB distortion, your only concern will be hard to stop the heavenly music playback from Xonar Essence STX.
Designed in Essence
Perfectly sealed by improved EMI shield, Xonar Essence STXs analog output path generates the purest audio ever from a sound card -124dB signal-to-noise ratio and 0.0003% distortion.
Fine-selected Components
With premium-quality digital-to-audio converter and audio-specific capacitors selected, Xonar Essence STX provides <10~90 kHz frequency response and 124dB dynamic range for your unlimited pleasure.
Shines your beloved headphones
Drives up to 600ohms headphones with less than 100dB distortion, the built-in headphone amp supports every available headphone in the market with unbelievable audio quality.
Source:
Expreview
Designed in Essence
Perfectly sealed by improved EMI shield, Xonar Essence STXs analog output path generates the purest audio ever from a sound card -124dB signal-to-noise ratio and 0.0003% distortion.
Fine-selected Components
With premium-quality digital-to-audio converter and audio-specific capacitors selected, Xonar Essence STX provides <10~90 kHz frequency response and 124dB dynamic range for your unlimited pleasure.
Shines your beloved headphones
Drives up to 600ohms headphones with less than 100dB distortion, the built-in headphone amp supports every available headphone in the market with unbelievable audio quality.
26 Comments on ASUS Prepares Xonar Essence STX, the World's First Audio Card to Achieve 124dB SNR
no.
I'm glad Asus stormed the soundcard market like this.
I currently use a Xonar in my HTPC, but it cannot decode these high-definition audio codecs, and neither can my receiver as its a couple of years old.
If this sound card cannot decode HD audio, when will I see a sound card that will??
Commendable, though, to try and achieve 124db SNR . . . but are they quoting the DSP spec, or the final output spec? I'll be amazed if it's final output, as no card that I can recall has been able to live up to it's speced SNR via output . . .
TBH - I'd be more impressed if ASUS could be the first to bring 24b/192kHz playback for output setups with more than 2-channels.
I'd be floored if ASUS beat everyone else to the punch with a 32b capable card, the DACs to do so have been on the market for quite some time now.
The 124dB SNR might only be aplicable on the RCA stereo output tho.
Looking forward to testing this cause my only complaint with the HDAV is that headphones are actually under powered, specifically Sennheisser PC350 set. As a result it sounds better with with the Creative Aurvana Live! set but one thing is for sure and that is as far as quality is concerned its better than the X-Fi Fatal1ty... That should be a given though as component list reads better than what is on Creative mainstream products like X-Fi.
quality, also, is subjective - I've known many others who've never had any component's fail on a Creative card. As far as us audiophiles are concerned, though, the choice of components is far below the quality of competitors (except for the case of the Elite Pro), but the X-Fi's make up for it with lower audio latency and less-audio breakdown (clipping) during times of high-output . . . i.e. gaming, which is where the X-Fi's excell over the market.
I'd advise you not to worry on my behalf. You don't appear to be an audiophile, like myself and others here.
I didn't ask for your 2 cents, I asked for facts.
And 32bit audio exists... but the use it more in music productions software on the mixing stage... with a higher resolution you get a better mix of channels... its not really needed for a single channel though as 24bit is fine. Most of the software DAW programs have internal 32bit mixing... although the highest output resolution is 24bit/192khz
www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php#combocard
I think that might be along the lines of what you're looking for. Auzentech (iirc) was supposed to release that in Sept and pushed it back to Oct. With just over a week left hopefully they'll make an announcement soon.
Asus I think was also supposed to have a similiar card... the talk of these cards goes a couple months back so it could very well be this one but I don't think that's the case as this one seems to be lacking the HDMI out.
Anandtech talks about both cards and said they had the Asus card in this article here ;
www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3411&p=4
Although, there is a software issue with Vista that affects 90% of the audio cards out there, down mixing multi-channel during DVD playback to 2-channel.32b DACs have been on the market for a long time now (2 years), and they're not expensive at all - hell, most higher end 24b DACs are more expensive than the 32b . . . but, as you pointed out here, you'll get better channel mixing (and up-mixing, at that) with a 32b DAC versus a 24b. Even though for even the audiophile consumer, 32b isn't necessary, it equates to a better audio depth and cleaner sound - in essence, a 32b capable DAC would equate to a more noticeable audio difference than being able to bump the audio output from 118db SNR to 124db SNR.
Aside from the rare few of us - to be able to actually hear that small of a difference in SNR rating, at that scale, would require some extremelly high-end speakers. I mean, this isn't like going from 60db SNR to 80db SNR, once we start getting over the 115db SNR range, actual subjective differences are very negligible . . . sure, there will be an astounding difference through hardware testing, the waveforms will make it stick out like a sore thumb, but will you actually hear that? In most cases, I'd fathom not.
IMO, the 124db SNR capable is just for good marketing - hell, most people purchasing the audio equipment don't even know what it means. It looks better on paper, and will look better in reviews.
even though it has a built in headphone amp, i'll still use my own. tubes :D.