Back in 2009 the market was in a state of flux with creative suffering hideous driver issues leaving a yawning chasm just waiting for another manufacturer to fill, and the xonar range from asus beautifully filled that gap. Just like creative its software can be finnicky, but once you get it setup and the drivers installed, it runs in absolute glory. Asus also announces the xonar u7 mkii external sound card. I would like to compare creative to asus in terms of. Greatly whether the card from creative better card from asus. Went from a asus xonar d1 pci to a sound blaster z pcie. The xonar uses pci, whereas the sound blaster uses pci x1. Connect your evo headset via usb to your pc and install sound blaster evo control panel to enjoy virtual 7. We liked being able to customize our sound stage by shifting virtual speaker or headphone positions. Better than sound blaster xfi titanium hd anandtech forums. I would like to know which is the best sound card for music and games from xonar dg dgx which is better xonar essence.
Right now i am awaiting them though to update the drivers for proper 8. I mainly use the pc for music movies with the odd bit of gaming. All specifications are subject to change without notice. Products certified by the federal communications commission and industry canada will be distributed in the united states and canada. Drivers and some software wont give you the ultimate sound quality and experience of a dedicated soundcard such as the higher end xonar and creative labs soundcards. I already installed uni xonar driver but i never see this oo. The zxr manages to even things out in the 2496 and 24192 areas but the stx ii manages to just edge it out a little. The asus xonar essence stx is a pcie audio card that is designed for the music enthusiast. Should i buy the sound blaster z or the asus stx, when paired with. The only real difference seems to be the interface. You could choose to buy an asus xonar essence stx and a creative soundblaster z to go in your system, or for a little less you could just get the creative sound blaster zxr. Asus xonar essence stx or creative sound blaster zxr. Asus sent me both the xonar essence st and essence stx cards. Movies 4060% with virtual surround music rest, sometimes with virtual, else 2ch output through all sources.
Frequency response gets a little wobbly on the zxr after 2khz. Highend sound card according to needs and tastes creative. Asus xonar essence stx vs creative sound blaster zx. When i use those mics in fl studio in the same inputs they work fine but i. I know the asus is probably better for music i had a soundblaster zx. I have an stx with custom opamps, unified driver, and the 250 ohm. I have not had a chance to use the new sound blaster z yet but im curious if this is a. Stx but just updated and some even saying its better specd, installed the card, went to adjust settings and discovered the headline advertised 24bit192khz is only on the front channel speakers under stereo direct mode only, every other channel is. Asus xonar essence stx vs creative sound blaster zxr. If you have 600ohms headphones i suggest a high end xonar essence stx. Our newest innovation cleanline technology is set to overthrow. Xonar essence stx click show more most recommended headphones for. The creative sound blaster zxr and the asus essence stx ii 7.
With the sound blaster evo zxr, you can even experience cinematic, virtual 7. I cant buy sound blaster zxr due to availability issue. Xonar dg, essence stx or creative sound blaster z pcmac. There is this troublesome decision that bothers me. Sound card should i get the asus stx or sound blaster z.
The compact xonar u7 mkii is an upgraded version of the acclaimed xonar u7 and features true 7. Since hunting the forums for info on a new set of headphones grado sr80i i spotted info on the xonar essence stx. Asus xonar essence stx or creative sound blaster zxr toms. Asus xonar essence stx ii or soundblaster zxr battlefield. A reupload as the last one missed some audio sorry about that. Driver suite is memory intensive at over 80 mb ram. Jun 02, 20 i use my creative titanium hd to listen to music and games its better than the xonar dx which i use with my 5. Boasting an unbeatable snr of 124db, it includes a dbpro daughter board and audio control module for unrivalled audio playback and content creation. Jan 02, 2011 ive got the hd with windows 7 x64 and havent had problems so far, i game quite a bit as well.
Should i buy the sound blaster z or the asus stx, when paired with the. I was thinking to buy a new sound card for a better surround especially the creative sound blaster z. Jan 12, 2015 the creative sound blaster zxr is the flagship zseries sound card featuring a 124db signaltonoise ratio, the dbpro daughter board, and the audio control module. So my preferences are the creative zxr and the asus xonar essence stx. I dont have any effects enabled eq or dsp and i dont use virtual 7. Asus has some very big shoes to fill and a possibly a more impressive feat of surpassing such well known audio cards, the. Only what cause me to feel extremely bad is because asus xonar phoebeus had many problems and asus update driver for windws 10. In the back looped tests the asus essence stx ii proved to be surprisingly exceptional, particularly in the 1644 tests, this is again proven in the stereomix test vs the creative soundblaster zxr, this is worth noting because most, particularly older, game audio is made at this bitdepthsample rate, while modern gaming audio is moving into the 24bit audio realm as memory permits, it is nice. E the creative zxr, some may find that the performance difference, especially when you could throw in some customisation money, may not be worth the extra cost, or upgrade could even ring true for current stx. Aug 21, 2014 i actually got a xonar essence stx sound card. Asus essence stx vs creative sound blaster zxr anandtech. The sound quality is the same as the essence stx, so the sound is pretty glorious. Better than sound blaster xfi titanium hd anandtech.
This might be an issue for people who are using microatx motherboards, which do not provide a lot of pcie slots. I have found the sound to be odd in some games or have experienced conflictscrashes caused by the drivers since corrected with the latest drivers. Sound card should i get the asus stx or sound blaster z for. I just got an offer to buy a 1year used sound blaster zxr. I use a crappy behringer uca222 with rca inputs to record audio. Jan 04, 2017 hi guys which do you think has the best sound quality for gaming i know the asus is probably better for music i had a soundblaster zx and swapped it for the new sennheiser gsx but im not 100% sure about it but for bf1 it does have very good surround sound but when i try some other games i think the zx was a little better. Trouble free installation, very robust drivers windows 10 on my computer. Even headsets with multiple drivers such as the tiamat 7. Please visit the asus usa and asus canada websites for information about locally available products. It sounds very good for music but, in games especially in fps games the surround isnt that good. Hello, i would like to know which is the best sound card for music and games from xonar dg dgx which is better xonar essence stx or the creative sound blaster z. The other problem with an internal sound card is that it can pick up electromagnetic interference emi from the other components inside the computer. Buy creative sound blaster zxr pcie audiophile grade gaming sound card with. They appear to be identical, other than the st being configured to fit into a standard pci slot on a legacy computers motherboard, the stx conforming to the newer pci express standard.
Creative labs soundblaster zxr vs asus xonar essence stx. I installed linux mint 18 kde x64 but i have no sound at all my soundcard is creative soundblaster zxr. Creative sound blaster zxr pcie audiophile grade gaming sound card with high. I use astro a40s with the mixamp, and i use all of the dolby features meaning i need digital 7. We dont have 3 years new driver for sound blaster zxr and before 3 years 90% of people had windows 7. Stx is basically the highest end sound card asus has ever produced. Pci x1 is a faster interface, so that might make a slight difference. I was also interested in sound blaster xfi titanium hd but it is already 4. I didnt had any issues with the drivers from both of them. Asus today announced xonar u7 mkii, a highquality usb sound card and headphone amplifier. Apr 10, 2010 i currently have a xonar dx sound card, which i am pretty happy with was a big improvement over the onboard card.
Asus xonar phoebus or asus xonar essence stx please help. You just cant turn an onboard soundchip into a highend xfi soundcard with some software, even though creative labs wants you to believe that. Our driver from 2015 is driver from 2014, we dont have new driver, even newest is everything same. Asus xonar essence stx 124 db snr headphone amp card. I would go for the zx, unless you have very good audio gear, if you have very good audio gear then go for the zxr but i doesnt have analog 5. Went from a asus xonar d1 pci to a sound blaster z pci. Sound cards, such as asus essence stx ii or creative sound blaster zxr, require two pcie slots. No metter what opamp i used in the zxr except for the very expensive muses02,the bass is just bloated,the highs on heavy rock music is harsh,and i always had the impression that the card is trying too hard.
To put simply,the creative zxr have better channel seperation,more in your face sound,while the stx ii is more musical,more forgiving,more rounded. Uni xonar drivers are windows drivers for the following sound cards. Sound blaster zs sbx pro vs xonar stxs higher snr choice. Hardware is excellent, drivers are passable, support is as usual piss poor. Or rather get sound blaster z and regret about higher snr of stx 124. No metter what opamp i used in the zxr except for the very expensive muses02,the bass is just bloated,the highs on heavy rock music is harsh,and i always had the impression that the card is.
If you check some online comparison,asus cards are ahead in music performance. Equipping the xonar essence stx with the best components and the finest design, the stx delivers a topoftheline audio experience with a 124 db snr rating. Should i change my essence stx for a creative sb z sound card. I just want to know why i cant get the mics to work when im on my desktop. The xonar dgxs dolby headphone and xonar dsxs dts technologies were definitely superior surround methods compared to the phoebuss new dolby home theater v4 and xear surround. The flagship of the ultra highperformance sound blaster zseries of sound cards, sound blaster zxr elevates the standards of technology and performance for the future of pc gaming and entertainment.
Creative sound blaster xfi titanium champion vs asus xonar d2. Was having issues with the asus but when i wasnt i have to say it sounded pretty awesome with my 380 pros. It features an industryleading 124db snr signaltonoise ratio, ultralow jitter with a premium tcxo clock source, clean and consistent power. Mam v pocitaci xfi elite pro a ted sem k ni pridal po prehozeni grafiky do jineho slotu opet zxr. The headphone ampdac is as important as the speakers. Drivers for windows 7 and windows 8, creative software suite, users guide. The xonar sound machine decided to switch gears and once again has aimed their design prowess at the high end add in soundcard market. Creative worldwide support knowledgebase solutions. I have had the first asus xonar stx since it came out and it is absolutely incredible if you have good quality headphones i am using beyerdynamic headphones stereo. Id understand the complaints about creative s driver support if current drivers are buggy or if new codecs were. Below shows the graphs of the stx ii handling 1644 vs the zxr. Only thing is you must unplug your headset every time when you want speakers again, theres no option to stop it automatically muting the speakers which is crazy considering every xfi before it could do this and if it automatically mutes them then all we need is a simple checkbox to stop that behavior.
The core of the sound blaster ae9 is the flagship audiophilegrade hires ess sabreclass 9038 dac. Jan 10, 20 xonar essence stx click show more most recommended headphones for. Creatives sound blaster x7 asus essence stx ii hardforum. Its been a while since i have used a product from creative, but the sound blasterx ae5 pcie sound card has. Intel core i99900k desktop processor 8 cores up to 5. Creatives sound blaster x7 asus essence stx ii hard. It delivers an ultrahigh dnr of 129 db, 32bit 384 khz playback over pcm, dsd64, and an incredibly low total harmonic distortion of 120 db 0. Best sound card 2020 winners the complete buying guide.
From here on, unless otherwise noted, my comments refer to both cards. Im not to familiar with the asus xonar cards, but i know that xfis have onboard memory, called xram. Hello, i am new to these forums so sorry if i make some mistakes but i am having a lot of trouble choosing between the asus xonar essence stx or the asus phoebus. Xonar essence stx 2 channel pci express audio card. Asus xonar phoebus link to amazon 2 asus xonar essence stx link to newegg 3 creative sound blaster zxr link to. Get technical help for your creative products through knowledgebase solutions, firmware updates, driver downloads and more. Creative soundblaster zxr driver linux mint forums. Downloaded the latest windows 10 iso ver 10240 then did a clean install of windows and installed the exact same driver and bam no asus blue icon in the bottom right corner on the desktop and no sound even though it is the same driver and all i cannot log into xonar essence stx audio center in the control panel any longer, when i click it. I want to replace my creative xfi platinum sound card. Solved xonar dg, essence stx or creative sound blaster z. There is a xlr microphone input and a linein 14 input i have tried with different mics and my pc isnt picking up any sound. Creative doesnt deliver in my country and other website.
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