ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card

Pros: The best sound, both in music and games. Positional audio is also very good. I love Dolby Headphone. I like having changeable op-amps also.

Cons: -

Overall Review: I have owned this card for over 3 years now. I recently bought the Soundblaster ZX to see if the hype Creative always gets in games is true. After spending a LOT of time comparing the two cards, the Essences STX is the better card in my opinion, and the STX does do just as good of positional audio as the Creative card does despite what some claim. The Creative card has a different sound in games. The sound is kind of like your in a cardboard box when someone speaks. The Essence STX card has more of a clear open sound that makes games more realistic in my opinion. I do use Dolby Headphone using the middle DH-2 setting. But this is all personal perference. The STX card is much better for music than the Z card is. I haven't tried changing the opamp yet, but plan too soon. I have also had no problems with buggy software whatsoever, and right now I am using Windows 8. Asus rarely puts out software updates, but so does Creative., thats the only negative I have with Asus.

Pros: High quality stereo output.

Cons: Absolutely none.

Overall Review: Loaded the driver from a folder after downloading it from the website. Disabled onboard audio in the BIOS prior to installing the sound card. Connected the molex power cable before seating the card in the PCIe slot. I turned it on and started playing music thru a receiver with stereo speakers. Glad that I bought it.

Pros: Great specs on paper. Looks good, sounds just as good. Sweet packaging.

Cons: Did not take off any eggs but software does not work in Windows 8, driver installed, but you can't even switch to headphone output.

Overall Review: Little warmer sounding and more focused stereo imaging than the RME Hammerfall DSP 9632 which was about $800 new, now goes for about $325. Overall sounds like a high end card. Replacing the opamps and dacs can take you the extra mile.

Pros: This is it, one of the very best headphone audiophile cards in the market right now (period), if not the best. Can be used for speakers too, it have dedicated outputs for it. 1. Awesome warm and detailed audio quality. Make sure to use a very good headphone or speakers. Also, try to listen to lossless formats, however it works wonder for lossy formats too. 2. Very easy to setup, if you are using Windows 7, make sure to download the drivers from the official Asus site, instead of using the included CD. 3. Worked out of the box. 4. The high quality is very good, warm, detailed for near every type of audio (music genre, gaming, movies, etc...) 5. What more to say, the card looks awesome. 6. This is not only a headphone card, it have dedicated output for speakers and a digital output for 5.1 systems. However, this card is really focused for analog audio output, due to the dedicated high quality DAC for headphones and speakers. 7. Amp for those hungry power headphones.

Cons: ***These are NOT really cons, but these points can help on your research***: 1. The card needs power directly from the PSU, so it has a 4-pin molex connector. 2. The card may be somewhat big for just audio, I don't has any problems with it. 3. Make sure to set the correct "ohm" power in the Asus settings console software in the headphone output, this setting should match the requirement of your headphone, or it can damage it. There is no problem if you use lower power than you headphone needs, but don't do it the other way around.

Overall Review: I was previously using a Creative Audigy 2ZS Platinum since I think 2003 or 2004. While at that time the card sounded better than on-board audio, the same can't be said with boards from 2007 to present. The card started giving me issues and I had to use on-board audio, but when I was thinking about it, I have the following: - Audio Technica A900 - Cowon S9 32GB for outside use - Clarion VX-709 audio system in my car - Logitech Z-5500 for console gaming What I want to say is that I have some pretty good audio stuff, so why getting stuck with on-board audio, when I really enjoy music in the highest quality possible under my budget. After a solid research that lasted several days, I was deciding between Asus Essence STX and HT Omega Claro Halo. Most people recommended the STX, so I decided by it. Very happy with it. If you want a gaming dedicated card, don't get this one! Get one with the X-Fi chip, like Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1

Pros: -No issues under vista 64 on a Asus P5Q Deluxe -Tested with Dead Space and World in Conflict, both work properly -Incredible /w Music -Unobtrusive driver/interface software One thing I really hate about sound cards like this is the obnoxious software that comes with it in order to enable advanced features (like 5.1/7.1 sound emulation and EQ settings). Usually this software is bloated, like in the case of anything that Creative has done in the last 10 years (and I have owned at least 5 of their cards). In the case of this Asus card, the software is not too flashy, and works well. I don't mind having its icon clutter up my OCD-ruled desktop. Creative should take a lesson from Asus on this one.

Cons: -Requires additional power from a molex connector (just letting you know)

Overall Review: Bought this card and some Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pros when I suddenly became interested in a high quality headphone setup after investing a few hours in Dead Space. I wanted some high quality phones, so I did some research and before you know it I am on the hook for this sound card, the headphones, and a handcrafted amp. Still waiting on the amp, but even without it, the sound is amazing. Mostly positive noise concerning this card on headfi.org led me to buy it. I didnt want a separate DAC on my desktop, so I wanted a high quality soundcard. Not only is sound in games great, but in music as well. Along with the new headphones, a whole new level of detail has been revealed that I didnt even know exisited.

Pros: Price performance ratio. Very solid sound for 200 bucks, although I wish it could be around 150. No driver issues in my Win7 64x set up. MAKE SURE you feed the card with a power plug! Just follow the instructions on their website, uninstall the old sound drivers and disable onboard audio before installing and you should be good to go.

Cons: Internal relays in the card clicks when powering up and down, this only happens when you booting up and powering down the computer but the click noise is tad on the noisy side. Quirky software interface not as intuitive as it should be, but easy to figure out.

Overall Review: Since this card is targeted for audiophiles, here is the set up of my pc audio before I bought this: DAC: Benchmark DAC1 USB HDR to NADM3 integrate to a pair of Ohm Walsh 2800s in a 15x15 treated room. I later switched to a Pioneer SC-57 when the M3 is going for repairs. I wouldn't call my set up high end but I am very familiar with how it sounds and I think for a PC set up, this is very very decent if you compare it to 95% of the stuff out there regardless of price. Why I bought the card is beyond me, just for kicks I guess, to see how it sounds. It wouldn't be fair to compare this card against my DAC1 but what surprises me is how well the sound card held up against the Benchmark. I test both analog and coax on this card. What I can tell you is this, No, it doesn't sound as good as my DAC1, not as refined at the extreme ends and depth on imaging, but if I'm on a tight budget, I would happily live with the sound from Xonar and not looking at anything else for a while.

Pros: The Dolby Headphone settings are great for gaming. Using a Sennheiser PC-360 headset along with it has produced the best surround sound I have experienced.

Cons: I was warned by a friend who read about the random high pitched screeches this card is plagued with. I chose to ignore the reviews and warnings, but I have now experienced one of them. It did not damage my hearing as others have claimed, but it is very loud, startling, and could definitely hurt your hearing if you have your equipment hooked up at a high volume.

Overall Review: As the screeching issue might not affect all users I rated 3/5 stars, but you would think ASUS would acknowledge or look into this problem. If you take a look at their support forums you will find a lengthy post detailing this problem.

Pros: this is probably the 1st sound card i bought in a long time (since the sound blaster 16 i had in my 386) compared to the onboard realtek HD ITS SO MUCH BETTER.. and my headphones is slightly cheap too.. SONY MDR-XD100 it was able to produce amazing surround sound, echo effects, and all sorts of different equalizer settings.. you can also adjust the volume gain +12db ~ +18db and what that does is allow ur computer to have a higher volume ratio than it used to (even higher than the realtek HD)

Cons: people complained about a slight crackling sound when it switches between output devices or when the computer starts up, this happens with all stereos and this sound card IS A STEREO

Overall Review: steps i took to get it working: - uninstalled realtek HD drivers and rebooted the HAF912 - went into bios and disabled onboard audio - turned the HAF912 off and took the cover off - put a ESD wristban on and unplugged the frontpanel audio cable off the mainboard and plugged it into the soundcard - put the soundcard in the pci x1 slot, fastened it in the bracket and plugged a power cable into it and the frontpanel audio cable - put the cover back on and booted up to windows 7 - it came with drivers on cd but i downloaded more uptodate drivers from the website, installed that and rebooted - and then i noticed i didnt have sound so what i did was go into the xonar essence control panel thing in the system tray and clicked on the tiny arrow in the bottom right corner, and changed the analog output from whatever it was to headphone (may vary on diff computers so play around with it)