|
Title: Asus Xonar Essence STX - Compressed sound Post by: slyder on May 21, 2009, 05:07:09 am Hi, I was running on Realtek onboard audio, and loved the sound of XXHighEnd.
I just upgraded to the Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card. http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=2711&l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0 The songs now sound compressed in XXHighEnd, like certain high impact parts of the song have their volume/impact reduced. Any idea what is happening here? Could it be a Q setting? Out of phase? Running on Windows 7 RC, Engine3, but this problem was happening on Windows Vista too. Thanks, Rob Title: Re: Asus Xonar Essence STX - Compressed sound Post by: PeterSt on May 21, 2009, 08:53:16 am Hi Rob,
This is hard to say, and obviously you expected it to be better instead of worse. Besides the below, let's keep in mind that nobody that I know of (for XXHighEnd) uses a PCI Express soundcard. And, while I myself would expect that PCIe should be better than normal PCI, it is very different anyway. First, however, I'd look into those "DSP" settings in there. The "normalized volume" could be a first you overlooked, or even set on purpose. I think you will know that all of these things should be shut off, right ? Now, since you will be using this for analogue out (opposed to SPDIF Passthrough), anything could differ, because you're just using another DAC. And you won't hear me say that Realtek is specifically bad (in fact it seems to be the only mobo chipset people use here and there). So, I'd say that when nothing else can be found (the DSP stuff) it may very well be the DAC you are hearing. Lastly there's this : Quote Customize your sound color effortlessly via swappable OPAmp socket This looks like a virtue, but may also tell you that an opamp is in order while in the Realtek there is not (this needs diving into that chip), and which - when one has not and the other has one - is a good reason for very different sound. I hope this brings you somewhere ... :) Peter Title: Re: Asus Xonar Essence STX - Compressed sound Post by: slyder on May 22, 2009, 04:32:25 am Hi Peter,
Thanks for the great reply! I looked into the dsp/volume settings, as far as I can see, they all look correct - nothing being added to the sound. The songs sound okay in foobar2000, so I can only assume it's the interaction between the sound card and xxhighend. So maybe dac related... Guess I will keep listening to new versions of xxhighend, and see if anything changes. Thanks, Rob Title: Re: Asus Xonar Essence STX - Compressed sound Post by: Telstar on May 23, 2009, 11:16:30 pm Are you using the headphone out? Because they have a pcm1794 dac which is very good...
|