[Update 4/2019]
I've had this card since 2010 and I'm very happy with the quality of audio reproduction. I use it primarily for headphone playback (Sennheiser 595, 120 Ohm version) of my compressed lossless audio music collection (FLAC, created with EAC) on a Windows 7 x64 desktop.
In order to get the best performance out of the card I suggest the following settings for headphone playback:
--Install the latest driver from the Asus website (currently: Beta Version 7.0.8.1821, for Win 7 x64). In the Asus control panel select: '2 Channel', 'PCM 44.1 kHz' and 'Headphone'. Also, click the 'HF' button in the 'DSP Mode' section which puts the card in Hi-Fi mode and disables all sound effects.
--From the Windows control panel open the Sound panel. In the 'Playback' tab you should have 'Speakers (ASUS Xonar Essence ST Audio Device) ' as the default device. Right-click 'Speakers' and select 'Properties'. In the 'Speakers Properties' panel that opens select the 'Advanced' tab. Select '24 bit, 44100 Hz (Studio Quality) ' from the drop-down menu in 'Default Format' and make sure both boxes are checked in the 'Exclusive Mode' section and click 'Apply'.
--Install the free and excellent foobar2000 player with the WASAPI output support component which allows exclusive control of the audio driver, bypassing the mixing/resampling layers of DirectSound (DS). To do so, after you install foobar, go to 'File'->'Preferences' and in the 'Components' section of the foobar preferences click 'Get more components'. In the webpage that opens find 'WASAPI output support', download and double-click the module installer and then click 'Apply' in the foobar Components window. It will restart foobar and if everything goes well you should see 'foo_out_wasapi' in the list of modules.
Now go to the 'Playback' section of the foobar preferences and select 'none' for both menus in 'ReplayGain'. In 'DSP Manager' move 'Resampler (dBpoweramp/SSRC) ' to the 'Active DSPs' column and then double-click the Resampler module and select '44100' Hz for 'Target sampling rate'. In the 'Output' section of the 'Playback' preferences select 'WASAPI (event) : Speakers (ASUS Xonar Essence ST Audio Device) ' from the drop-down menu in 'Device' and also select '24-bit' for the 'Output format'. In the 'Advanced' section of the foobar preferences navigate to 'Playback'->'WASAPI' and check the box 'High worker process priority' and also set to 100 the 'Hardware buffer in MS' for both push and event. In the 'Thread priority' section the 'Thread priority (1-7)' should be 7, check the 'Use MMCSS' box and for the 'MMCSS mode' type 'Audio' as opposed to 'Playback' which is the default. Click 'OK' to close the 'Preferences: Advanced' window.
Leave the volume setting within foobar to its maximum value (0dB) and change the volume using the usual Windows control. Foobar automatically indexes the audio files/folders present in the default Music folder of Windows.
PS
You might ask why did I choose the sampling rate of 44.1 kHz instead of higher values like 96 kHz or 192 kHz? Aliasing effects. I used to have it set at 192 KHz or 96 kHz and then realized that I had aliasing. Search for 'frequency sweep download' and in the audiocheck webpage that should be the first link download the free 'High Definition Frequency Sweeps' files. The Sample rate 192 kHz sweep file should be named 'audiocheck.net_hdsweep_1Hz_96000Hz_-3dBFS_30s.wav'. As you play it you should not hear anything as it sweeps above 20 kHz.
PPS
If your keyboard has volume control keys then great. If it doesn't, you can use a nice free utility called 3rvx to program keys for volume control. Search '3rvx volume control download' and the first link should be a softpedia download link. After you install it, put a shortcut of 3rvx.exe in your startup folder if you want it to start automatically after each restart. Right-click the 3rvx speaker icon in the taskbar and select 'Settings'. In the 'General' tab click and set 'Custom volume change amount' to 3% (or the step size of your preference). In the 'Hotkeys Setup' tab set the F1, F2, F3 function keys (or keys of your choice) to volume down, up, and mute respectively.
Enjoy!
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| Customer Rating | (65) | (2030) | (930) | (1706) |
| Price | Unavailable | $199.99 | $39.99 | $62.99 |
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| Sold By | — | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| Item Dimensions | 11.3 x 9.3 x 3.1 inches | 5.71 x 0.79 x 5.04 inches | 9.29 x 2.36 x 6.54 inches | 5.71 x 4.72 x 0.71 inches |
| Item Weight | 1.55 lbs | 1.63 lbs | 0.60 lbs | 0.60 lbs |
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Bhogalrajnish
The delivery was not great. The delivery guy came to my office without ...
Reviewed in India on July 29, 2015Verified Purchase
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