Thoughts? Any owners here?

Thinking about picking one up. Had the Fatal1ty Champion a while back but got rid of it. After reading a few reviews, the Essence seems to be the consensus for headphone and 2.1 setups.

cant go wrong with it. look for a used one for a cheaper price if you dont mind gettin a used one

I've heard it's primarily a headphone card. Will it still play 2.1 and 5.1 as nice as it's competitors (or better)?

not sure. i dont think youll notice a difference unless you got high end speakers.

PM this guy: http://www.head-fi.org/u/65151/obobskivich He is all things genius when it comes to sound cards. He'll break down the architectures of a SC if you ask him to. I've been using him as a reference to learn (Kind of my goto guru atm) and he will tell you things from what drivers to use, which hardware upgrades, myths and truths, etc.

Mind you if you DO get Xonar STX, DL the unified drivers. http://brainbit.wordpress/ .com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

Edit: Dumb JSP and blocking decent websites. Or maybe firefox considering it won't un-no-script all. stupid firefox too.

This post was edited by NinjaSushi2 on Aug 28 2012 10:42pm

Should work fine for anything you throw at it.

The only way you can hook up 5.1 (and actually have 5.1) Is through Spdif though (They do sell a add on card that gives you anolog 5.1 / 7.1 though)


I've owned mine for about 2~ years now. I have no complaints :3


But i would get the St version (st is pci instead of pci-e and has a slightly better clock rate & jitter controll)

Basically the same card, Slightly better though.

This. Used ST = STX new.

Eh not really

They say the difference between the two cards is so minimal that almost no one will actually hear it.

But if you can swing reg pci, I'd go for the st to be safe.


I own the stx

Thanks guys. I have store credit at Frys and am thinking about getting this set of speakers to couple with the Essence. It's on sale for 105$

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836183042

Anyone know a few things about speaker specs and if it's worth the price range?

I have an STX and it's awesome.