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Asus Xonar Essence STX - Should I ?


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#1 pjplay

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Posted 17 March 2016 - 07:25 PM

Hello All,

 

I have a PC based setup, playing (lame) 320kbps MP3's on the following:

PC (Asus Xonar D1 Soundcard) --> Marantz PM6003 Amp --> Mission 751 speakers.

 

Would an upgrade to the Asus Xonar Essence STX improve the sound quality? Is my setup good enough use the STX card, would I notice any difference?

 

Sound Card Specs:

http://www.bjorn3d.c.../asus-xonar-d1/
http://www.overclock...ile_soundcard/1

 

I would be grateful for any opinions.

 

Thanks,

Rob

 


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#2 ellisdj

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Posted 18 March 2016 - 11:29 AM

Rob nice to see you listened to me mate on WHF - this forum is a library of amazing information and people that will help you get amazing sound from a computer.

 

Start with by downloading the free demo of jplay - set it up carefully looking at the right threads on here for settings advice.

 

See what advice you get back on your Query.

 

Is the PC dedicated to audio or is it a multi use PC?



#3 Marcin_gps

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Posted 18 March 2016 - 04:08 PM

Hi Rob, 

 

I'd get an external USB DAC instead of PCIe sound card. 

 

Best regards, 

Marcin


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#4 ellisdj

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Posted 18 March 2016 - 08:22 PM

After getting J Play Marcin - can only come as good as it starts, never any better 



#5 pjplay

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Posted 18 March 2016 - 09:38 PM

Hello ellisdj,

 

Yes, it was good advice you gave to me.

 

I typed JPlay into google, went to the forum and nosed around a little.

 

I have to be honest and tell you I have not downloaded JPlay (I balked at the cost 99 euro),

but Foobar2000 was mentioned mentioned in the forum and I checked it out.

All I can say is that I've been lazy, I've been using WMP and never payed any attention to the

software side of things, There's a noticeable difference between WMP and Foobar2000 with asio,

the instruments and voices are properly separated and the timing is much better.

 

Although it has some strange quirks.

 

Is JPlay that much better than Foobar2000 at sound quality?

 

My PC is a general use one,



#6 pjplay

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Posted 18 March 2016 - 10:07 PM

Hello Marcin_gps,

 

This dac has caught my attention (Beresford Caiman II)

http://www.homehifi....k/S/tc-7534.htm

 

Although I find myself asking the same question as I did for the STX sound card.

 

Would I achieve a noticeable difference with my setup? Would it out perform my Xonar D1 and be noticeable.



#7 jmmbarco

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Posted 20 March 2016 - 08:35 AM

Download the free version and give a try. Improving any part of your setup, hard or soft, will be a step forward...Good luck! :)

Almost finishing!!!!


#8 Marcin_gps

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Posted 21 March 2016 - 07:49 AM

Hello Marcin_gps,

 

This dac has caught my attention (Beresford Caiman II)

http://www.homehifi....k/S/tc-7534.htm

 

Although I find myself asking the same question as I did for the STX sound card.

 

Would I achieve a noticeable difference with my setup? Would it out perform my Xonar D1 and be noticeable.

 

If possible I'd arrange home trial before purchasing. You will know for sure then :)

 

Cheers, 

Marcin


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#9 ellisdj

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Posted 21 March 2016 - 12:08 PM

Hello ellisdj,

 

Yes, it was good advice you gave to me.

 

I typed JPlay into google, went to the forum and nosed around a little.

 

I have to be honest and tell you I have not downloaded JPlay (I balked at the cost 99 euro),

but Foobar2000 was mentioned mentioned in the forum and I checked it out.

All I can say is that I've been lazy, I've been using WMP and never payed any attention to the

software side of things, There's a noticeable difference between WMP and Foobar2000 with asio,

the instruments and voices are properly separated and the timing is much better.

 

Although it has some strange quirks.

 

Is JPlay that much better than Foobar2000 at sound quality?

 

My PC is a general use one,

 

 

The price of JPlay is grossly miss balanced by the sound quality benefit it brings to a system.

 

My audio PC is down at the minute - using my blu ray player as a transport into my system as a temp measure sound horrendous - its un-listenable.

JPlay is the reason I sold ££££ worth of meridian streaming kit because its just miles better - then once you optimise a pc in all the ways you can there is not much out there than even casts a shadow.

 

Try the free version - take a bit of time with the settings - or ask advice and hear for yourself.

Ultrastream is what most people use if you are running Windows 8 or newer



#10 The Chaplin (Peter C)

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Posted 22 March 2016 - 05:57 PM

 

Hello All,

 

I have a PC based setup, playing (lame) 320kbps MP3's on the following:

PC (Asus Xonar D1 Soundcard) --> Marantz PM6003 Amp --> Mission 751 speakers.

 

Would an upgrade to the Asus Xonar Essence STX improve the sound quality? Is my setup good enough use the STX card, would I notice any difference?

 

Sound Card Specs:

http://www.bjorn3d.c.../asus-xonar-d1/
http://www.overclock...ile_soundcard/1

 

I would be grateful for any opinions.

 

Thanks,

Rob

 

 

Rob, try playing lossless (flac, alac, wav, aiff) instead of 320kbps MP3


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#11 pjplay

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Posted 23 March 2016 - 03:08 PM

Hello Die Hard,

 

After I put together my setup, I had a choice of what to rip my CD's to, Flac or MP3.

 

I ripped 3 CD's into both Flac and MP3 and tested them against each other, I couldn't

discern any real difference between them, maybe the Flac files were few % better?

 

I did the same test again with foobar2000/ASIO, I think there's a little bit more of a difference

than before, but nothing to get excited about.

 

I think my setup is just not good enough to expose the differences between best quality Lame and Flac.

 

However I'm now on the upgrade path, but can't decide what to upgrade first amp or speakers.

 

Thanks



#12 ellisdj

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Posted 23 March 2016 - 06:42 PM

I look at it this was way - music starts on a CD as a Wav any conversion to that cant be an improvement for SQ so keep it Wav

 

Storage is cheap and metadata works just fine with Wav.  If you keep it as is over time when your suystem gets upgraded you wont need to go back and rip the whole library again when you realise MP3 is lousy, especially in the bass.

 

I personally think the source is one of the most important links in the chain, 4 years ago I would never have thought that but now I do.

 

If you want the best SQ from a computer you need to dedicate it to audio - you can have dual o/s boot if you still want to use it for multi use but the difference an optimised computer makes over one that is not you would hear on any system I believe

 

Find the threads on here where people put in their Mobo Bios settings for cpu ram etc.  These you can try for free and see if you get a SQ improvement.

JPlay is free to demo, hopefully you have tried it by now

 

Post for advice on the best settings for it - the reason an external dac was suggested is because it gets it away from the noisey PC environment which murders SQ. It also opens the options for better power for it than crappy atx supplies 

 

All this stuff makes a big difference and is just the tip of the ice berg



#13 The Chaplin (Peter C)

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Posted 23 March 2016 - 07:13 PM

Hello Die Hard,

 

After I put together my setup, I had a choice of what to rip my CD's to, Flac or MP3.

 

I ripped 3 CD's into both Flac and MP3 and tested them against each other, I couldn't

discern any real difference between them, maybe the Flac files were few % better?

 

I did the same test again with foobar2000/ASIO, I think there's a little bit more of a difference

than before, but nothing to get excited about.

 

I think my setup is just not good enough to expose the differences between best quality Lame and Flac.

 

However I'm now on the upgrade path, but can't decide what to upgrade first amp or speakers.

 

Thanks

Rob,

 

If you cannot get excited about the difference between MP3 and any lossless format do not bother spending any money on Dacs or any kit, it will be a wasted.

 

As with all music systems the source is key, you cannot change the quality after your source. It needs to be lossless. What you put in defines what you get out.

Spend your money on a good source, if you are going to source from a PC then as Marcin says a good USB Dac, decide on your budget, audition before you buy.

Folks can advise what to listen to if you give a budget. I started with a Cambridge audio DACmagic then an Audiolab MDAC (which I still have, may sell second hand) and now an Auralic Vega.

They are all good for their price but you generally pay for what you get. There are now a great many Dacs to try across a wide price range.

 

The same advice would also be for Vinyl or CD player or SACD.

I used a top Meridian CD player and a Dynavector moving coil cartridge for vinyl but now use digital only.

You still have to spend to raise the quality but only need to find out what sound you like. 

See if you can listen to some-ones pc-dac based system and whether you like the sound.

All the components, source, amp, speakers, will make a difference but throughout you are looking to minimize the reduction in quality from starting with the best quality you can.

 

Hope this makes sense. 

 

Peter C (The Chaplin)


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#14 pjplay

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Posted 23 March 2016 - 09:33 PM

Hello Die Hard,

 

You're 100% correct about starting with the best source, it's just on my system

at present it's not worth converting everything to Flac. I have my eye on a few amp / speaker combos,

I may well be soon damaging my wallet in the region of £1.7k to upgrade for amp+speakers+dac,

at that point I'll be ripping everything to Flac.

 

As it happens I have a decent PSU. It's a Corsair HX750 Gold, There's very little noise or ripple coming from

it according to the many reviews I read.

 

Am I correct in saying that if a USB dac is part of the setup, It won't matter what player I use, because it will be sending a

complete PCM file to the dac without sampling or changes?

 

 

Thanks



#15 ellisdj

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Posted 24 March 2016 - 09:48 AM

It can be low ripple, but its still an smps power supply.

There are some seasonic fanless ATX PSU's that are decent but when you compare ATX SMPS to Linear Power Supply Pico based or better, there is no comparison.

 

Also underclocking and undervolting everything, turning off any hyperthreading and other bios options will improve SQ.

 

Then you have OS and better optimisation software's etc.

 

Lots of people think it doesnt matter what player you use bit perfect is bit perfect and all that - but that would mean all digital sources sound the same - but they do not, not even close 






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