PC pcie soundcard

[julian_hughes]

When the only problems are awful drivers and low impedance gain.....those are serious issues! Another point not mentioned so far is that Xonar sound cards only support a very limited range of sample rates. These days your audio stream (or even disc) can be 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192/352.8 kHz etc. etc. Other values are possible (especially lower ones with streaming voice audio). But Xonar cards support, at best, 44.1, 48, 96, 192 and force everything else through sample rate conversion.

 

[AnalogSteph]

But Xonar cards support, at best, 44.1, 48, 96, 192 and force everything else through sample rate conversion.

And 44.1 is not ideal since it degrades dynamic range. The resampling is pretty good though.

In my Xonar days (primarily with the D1) I eventually settled on shared mode. Plenty of quirks to be had for sure.

 

[happy hopping]

Hi, im actually using an Asus xonar essence STX (pcie versione) and i thinking about changing it, but im a bit concerc about "is actually worth?"

The STX work well on the hardware side, a little bit less on the drivers side (actually using UniXonar), the audio seems to be good (expect the times when the channel go fuck themselft and only one give output or when high hiss pitch occurs). My setup is attually Thieaudio hype 2 and Fosi audio V3.
I have noticed that the card have some difficulties driving the low impedence IEM (i need to push the headphones output to high gain). but no issues on the speakers amp (rca)
I tried to do a test with RMAA, but idk how much should i trust it, maybe i have done something wrong (the input signal was directly feed in the STX)

I thinking about replace the card with the creative AE-9 (the external ACM would be usefull for me) or, maybe, the creative X5

Any actual tips on what should i do? keep the moneys and stay with the STX or upgrade (even if can be considered a real upgrade) to the AE-9/X5?

isn't this asus xonar essence stx card at least 15 yr. old? what version of windows are you running?

 

[Libette]

Module is exactly why you shouldn't buy it. It uses micro HDMI and doesn't perform. AE-5 Plus is actually fine (including headphone out and impedance) and not much money. You do need multichannel for one day you add sub's. If you aren't annoyed by what you already have you can buy a 10$ Apple dongle for IEM's or CS43131 based dongle starting at about 25$.
Edit: regarding functionality you can use mechanical keyboard with volume controls and macros (where you add audio mod switches or whatever you need) including wireless ones. I have such wireless TKL tho rarely use it for that.

What you mean by “doesnt perform”

 

[ZolaIII]

What you mean by “doesnt perform”

It doesn't perform better to it's mid range and HDMI undermine possible performance for the module.

 

[Libette]

It doesn't perform better to it's mid range and HDMI undermine possible performance for the module.

U mean like hdmi dont have enough bandwidth? Or u mean when connector brake… ?