Thread: ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card review

The Asus Xonar Essence STX is designed for those who are very particular about pristine audio quality. The soundcard plugs into the PCle xl slot and intakes power via a 4-pin Molex power connector of the PSU. Asus has paid immense amount of attention to the design and build quality of the card. The Asus AV100 sound processor and TI Burr-Brown PCM1792A DAC form the heart of the card. This combined with high-quality audio capacitors and a high-impedance (600 ohms) headphone amplifier chip makes this soundcard pleasing to any audiophile. The rear panel of the card sports a 0.25-inch jack for headphone out and line-input, RCA output for left/right speakers and combo S/PDIF jack (coaxial and optical). The package includes a RCA to 3.5 mm cable, 0.25-inch to 3.5 mm adapter, S/PDIF TOSLINK optical adapter and a test report by Audio Precision.