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As far as the sound goes, it's pretty great. Headphone amp is very useful and is the biggest reason I needed external soundcard.
Amp is interchangeable, but it's covered by the shroud, so reaching it is a pain. Luckily, most people will not need to change them often, so it's just a minor annoyance, if at all.
Drivers are rough. Design of Windows application is straight from 2000 with thick curved bezel, and additional settings panels coming out of the main window from the sides like some futuristic drawer.
Sound card exposes only one analogue interface, and you change output Headphones<->Speakers<->FP within driver itself, not by using OS sound settings. This means it's impossible to output sound to multiple outs at the same time. This was unpleasant suprise, since this is a feature I've used often with my integrated sound. Something even the cheapest Realtek codecs have supported for years.
However, this is HW design choice, not something that can be fixed in a driver update - there's a mechanical relay on PCB changing outputs with audible click.
Now, following is why this is rated as one star.
When AMD released new CPUs in February, I upgraded to AM4 socket.
Immediately I noticed that whenever I try to change sound output in the driver or even adjust volume, there's a chance that entire PC goes down. Not with a BSOD, just goes dark and nothing goes on until I hit reboot switch.
Thinking card might have developed some defect, I checked it out in the old rig (AM3), and also in yet another even older one (LGA775). In both of those it would work exactly like it used to without shutdowns. On my AM4 MSI motherboard however it would not be stable.
Blaming MSI I contacted their support. After a long time they confirmed that they see it across the board with AM4 baseboards, including ASUS's own Crosshair Hero VI.
Meanwhile I was busy trying to pinpoint the problem, changing every part down to PSU, none of which made difference - card simply would not work with AM4.
After MSI's response I contacted ASUS. And after two and a half months the reply was a three-sentence "works for us" with no advice on what to do next.
After questioning their thoroughness in reproducing the crash and asking what am I supposed to do next, agent rudely implied that I do not know what I am talking about and told to bring up any problems I have with the ASUS equipment with retailer.
Sound cards are not the kind of equipment that obsoletes every year or two like GPUs.
The card was released three years ago, and it already does not work with the new hardware.
In my book a piece of standardized PCI-E equipment should not bring down the entire system.
| Brand | ASUS |
|---|---|
| Item model number | Essence STX II |
| Item Weight | 1.56 pounds |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 6.61 x 4.21 inches |
| Processor Count | 1 |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Manufacturer | Asus |
| ASIN | B00ONSBF4K |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | July 17, 2014 |
