ASUS has announced the Xonar Essence STX
Spiritually supported "high-fidelity" sound card.
For a while now, we’ve gotten used to ASUS doing a lot of things, and it’s going so well for them that they’ve also established a stable position in the world of sound cards. To ride this, another model is appearing on the market, which definitely deserves attention - not only because of its expected high price, but also because of its quality and services.
The announcement of a newcomer to the PCI Express rail is mostly around the numbers. The magic value is 124, which - in the case of front out - describes the signal-to-noise ratio in dB - and we could list it further, but the specification table does it instead:
Of course, the usual "EMI shield" — that is, the "shield" responsible for minimizing electromagnetic noise — couldn't be left behind on the Xonar Essence STX, which features a reclining, gilded tiger evoking Far Eastern culture, which obviously provides spiritual support to the card. If all this wasn't enough for us, we also have to say that the engineers designed the PCB with the greatest care, especially emphasizing that the circuits that interfere with each other should be separated from each other as much as possible.
What we should clearly praise ASUS for is the use of quality parts: Burr-Brown PCM 1792A DAC, Cirrus-Logic CS5361 ADC, Nichicon “Fine Gold” capacitors. What we still have to say is that on the output side, the operational amplifier is placed in a replaceable socket, ie we can insert the copy that best suits our taste. In the case of the Xonar Essence STX, the designers also paid special attention to the headphone amplification, so the promised high quality can be combined with a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 117 dB.
Of course, the ASUS AV100 HD processor knows all the standards used today in terms of games and Dolby technology (the popular Dolby Digital Live and DS3D GX2.5 are also part of the "package").
Unfortunately, for the time being, we do not have information about domestic prices and future availability.
