Hardware Asus Xonar Xense Audio Bundle Review

It's not just the amplification that pointed me towards the STX, the other components on the card are superior to cards in the DX range too.

 

are any of these cards better than a CAMBRIDGE AUDIO DACMAGIC and a decent headphone amp or a
EMU 1616 PCMCIA?

 

No, the dedicated amp will be better. The problem with the STX isn't the amp part, but the DACs are supposed to be quite cheap.

Better than the EMU 1616m - I don't know.

 

DACMagic is one of the best 'budget' DAC's... Unless you went for a Larvy DA11.

 

iv used the PC 350 and i would say bit-tech are right, there pretty crappy for the price tag, my £50 steel-series sound ALOT better...

 

For positional accuracy there is the ATH AD700, which is one of the best. There IS one more headphone that I know of that wins the AD700 for accuracy (by Denon, FYI) but it costs nearly double.

 

Has anyone changed DACs in the STX - they are swappable - if so, what did you use, and how much were they?

 

I think you mean opamps? The stock ones are just fine for me, but I have a friend who prefers warm, tubey sounding music, so he changed his. I can find out and get back to you in this thread.

EDIT: He's on GTalk. Says he uses National LME49720 opamps. He did mention that he still hasn't got the warmth he was looking for, so he's still tinkering. But he likes the LME49720 more than the stock ones. I'll have to give this a listen when I get home.

 

Tell him to try OPA627's. I have them, and love them.

 

Will do. Thanks for the tip.

 

For those recommending a ASUS Xonar card for gaming here is a question:
Have you even tested the GX (offers EAX support) function to see how many instability problems can appear in games and other application (sound when streaming video through Silverlight still doesn't function properly with it's turned on)?

I've owned a ASUS Xonar DS cards for about a year now and driver support is, for lack of a better word to describe it - **** (two driver releases since Windows 7 launched). Great for music, movies but if you want gaming, go with the competition -> Creative or Auzentech. There's no amount of mod you can do when support for the card is a joke.

I'm hoping that with the launch of this new card, ASUS will bless us other "mortals" with some new drivers. I can only pray...

 

I changed the op-amps on my X-Fi Titanium to LM4562's - the sounds is much richer than the stock. The only problem was having to solder them on myself.

 

Is it wrong for me to like my XF-i extreme audio card and sennheiser 201 headphones?
Volume is what I was after over the onboard audio and that is what i got.
Am I missing out by not getting anything better?
I play games and listen to all genres of music and watch plenty of movies.

 

This review was first published on 31 May 2010 as Asus kindly gave us early access to the hardware. Three months later, the kit is on sale at Overclockers for £200 rather than the £275 we were originally quoted, so we've revised our conclusion and scores.

 

Sorry to go off topic but 'Why'?

Surely with all that kit you have at Bit-tech/Custom PC you could liquid cool your gaming rig and have it silent? Obviously you wouldn't want to liquid cool your test PCs you swap out hardware countless times for reviews but for your gaming rig get your CPU+GPU silenced!

Especially if you are using expensive sound equipment where you don't want background white noise spoiling the music/movie etc.

Maybe it's just me that's obsessed with background fan noise?

 

What about the ASIO 2.0 use and possible compatibility problems?

I'm planning to get an Asus Xonar family, but not only to listen music, too create too.

 

Still can't see myself plonking out more than my motherboard cost for a card of this level. Will be happy with a basic ac97 card TBH. Might end up with a Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 VX but thats pretty high end for my needs!

 

Unless you are going to be recording, you won't need the 1616m. I feel as though the price on the DACMAGIC is pretty steep for what you get. You can save yourself the money and hassle of buying a DAC and a headphone amp and buy an EMU 0404 USB. A friend of mine that works R&D at Focal Audio uses the 0404 USB when running measurements.

 

ASIO will cause no compatibility issues, it will give you more flexible routing and latency options than a card without it.

If you're looking to create and work in DAW software, I would look elsewhere in terms of an interface. As I said in my previous post, I would recommend an EMU0404 USB.

 

"If audio quality isn't the most important factor from your PC, a combination of a Xonar DX and Creative SoundBlaster Arena will satisfy you for £70 less than this bundle."

Seems no one else has noticed this odd advice in this article. The SoundBlaster Arena is a USB headset that completely bypasses any internal sound card - in no way can it be used with a Xonar DX.

The Razer Carcharias on the other hand sound great, are extremely comfortable, AND work with your Xonar's features. I bought them thanks to the bit-tech review and they're overall the nicest headphones I've ever owned.