Will the Xonar Essence STX (5.1) be much of an upgrade from my Xonar D1 (7.1)?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
DaCrazyCageMan

DaCrazyCageMan

Honorable
Aug 25, 2013
45
0
10,530
Hi guys, I really want a sound card upgrade, however I don't really know enough to know if this is a good deal, I'm currently using a Asus Xonar D1 sound card with my Sennheiser HD598 headphones and I really wanted to use these headphones to their full potential, I've been tempted in the past to buy the Xonar Essence STX ii, since I knew how much of an improvement going from onboard sound to an actual sound card was, but it's just so expensive!
I use the virtual surround option in my games usually with a home cinema audio setting when available for better directional audio in-game, my current D1 is 7.1, however I spotted this Essence STX (Link Below) at an affordable price although it says it's 5.1 surround instead of 7.1 like my cheaper D1's, obviously the quality of sound will be enhanced in comparison to what I'm currently used to, but will this give me less detail on the direction of sounds in game?

Link to Essence STX

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
DaCrazyCageMan
 
Solution
Lutfij
The Sennheiser HD 598 are a pair of high end stereo grade headphones and by that definition it means that the unit can only accept input via a stereo source and not directional audio. To further emphasize this point each ear cup has one driver within. Your argument may be with you experiencing positional audio on your headphones but in reality it's merely a virtual surround sound created via the software suite in essence it's stereo upmixing to give a virtual surround experience. Unless you're connecting your headset to (nearly)all the analog ports that come from the sound card, you're not taking full advantage of the sound card nor the surround sound experience.

Bringing it back to the Xonar Essence STX, the sound card in itself is a...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Lutfij

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Oct 7, 2009
54,079
4,750
173,390
The Sennheiser HD 598 are a pair of high end stereo grade headphones and by that definition it means that the unit can only accept input via a stereo source and not directional audio. To further emphasize this point each ear cup has one driver within. Your argument may be with you experiencing positional audio on your headphones but in reality it's merely a virtual surround sound created via the software suite in essence it's stereo upmixing to give a virtual surround experience. Unless you're connecting your headset to (nearly)all the analog ports that come from the sound card, you're not taking full advantage of the sound card nor the surround sound experience.

Bringing it back to the Xonar Essence STX, the sound card in itself is a good quality device and my brother in law owns it that powers his studio monitors running off RCA plugs for each monitor. So after my post above if you're looking for a better listening experience off a stereo pair of headphones go for it but don't expect anything impressive when you go for virtual surround sound via their software suite as that isn't the easiest thing to do with flair. Creative brought that idea to the field and they haven't yet perfected it.

One other note, your previous Xonar is PCI based while the STX is PCI-E x1 based so the question is does your system support a device when needing a PCI-E x1 slot?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom