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Essence STX II

Audio card

User Guide

Summary of Contents for Essence STX II

Page 1: ...Essence STX II Audio card User Guide ...

Page 2: ...ICULAR PURPOSE IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS ITS DIRECTORS OFFICERS EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS LOSS OF BUSINESS LOSS OF USE OR DATA INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE LIKE EVEN IF ASUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY DEFECT OR ERROR IN THIS MANUAL OR PRODUCT SPECIFICATI...

Page 3: ... peripherals Connecting digital speaker systems Home Theater 15 Connecting stereo headphones 16 Connecting 2 2 1 channel speakers 17 Connecting a microphone 18 Connecting Line In audio sources 19 Chapter 4 Audio Center Audio Center 21 Main Setting 23 Mixer Volume 31 Effects 34 Karaoke 36 FlexBass 37 Smart Volume Normalization 38 DS3D GX and DSP Modes 40 VocalFX 42 Appendices Troubleshooting and FA...

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Page 5: ... missing System requirements To ensure a successful installation of ASUS Essence STX II your computer must meet the following requirements IBM compatible PC with one PCI Express 1 0 or higher compatible slot for the audio card Microsoft Windows 8 1 8 7 XP 32 64bit Intel Pentium 4 1 4GHz AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU 256 MB DRAM system memory 60 MB available HDD space CD ROM drive or DVD ROM dr...

Page 6: ...t 7 Vrms Headphone Out Headphone Impedance Optimized for 32 600ohm Main Chipset Audio Processor ASUS AV100 High Definition Sound Processor Maximum 192KHz 24bit 24 bit D A Converter of Digital Sources Texas Instruments PCM1792A 1 for Front Out 127dB SNR 192kHz 24bit High Fidelity Headphone Amplifier Texas Instruments 6120A2 1 120dB SNR 100dB THD N Vcc 12V RL 600ohms f 1kHz 24 bit A D Converter for ...

Page 7: ... connection Dolby Headphone Dolby Headphone technology allows users to listen to music watch movies or play games with the dramatic sound Dolby Virtual Speaker Dolby Virtual Speaker technology simulates a highly realistic 5 1 speaker surround sound listening environment from as few as two speakers Dolby Pro Logic II Dolby Pro Logic II is the well known technology to process any native stereo or 5 ...

Page 8: ...Karaoke Functions Music Key Shifting Vocal Cancellation and Microphone Echo effects like professional Karaoke machine FlexBass Professional Bass Management Enhancement system Xear 3D Virtual Speaker Shifter Virtual 7 1 speaker positioning Other Effects 10 band Equalier 27 Environment Effects ASIO 2 0 Driver Support Supports 44 1K 48K 96K 192KHz 16 24bit with very low latency Specifications are sub...

Page 9: ...gain in audio center or mute the volume before powering up DO NOT connect your speakers to the headphone output port The possible high driving power may cause damage to your speakers 6 3mm analog input Line in Mic in Connect to your microphone with built in microphone amplifier or audio devices with line output such as MP3 player or synthesizer S PDIF coaxial output Connect to the external digital...

Page 10: ...or Connect to the multi channel expansion board of Essence STX II 7 1 edition or Xonar H6 4 pin Molex power connector Connect to the power cable of your power supply unit STX requires a 4 pin Molex connection to power the card Front panel audio header Connect to the chassis mounted audio module ...

Page 11: ...s the tonal characteristics of the 6 3mm 1 4 headphone output A Right channel I V converters B Left channel I V converters C Low pass filter To swap op amps 1 Use an IC clamp to clasp an op amp and remove it vertically upwards 2 Replace it with a new op amp from the op amp kit Op amps sockets To avoid reversion ensure that the half moon opening on the op amp points the same way as that on the sock...

Page 12: ...12 Chapter 1 Product introduction ENGLISH ...

Page 13: ...avoid static electricity use a grounded wrist strap or touch a safely grounded object such as the metal part of the rear panel of your computer Installing the audio card To install the audio card 1 Unplug your computer s power cord and disconnect all peripherals or cables 2 Touch a metal object such as the metal side of your computer to avoid damaging components due to static electricity 3 Remove ...

Page 14: ... install the audio card driver 1 Insert the driver CD into your optical drive Proceed to step 5 if Autorun is enabled on your computer and the driver setup screen appears If Autorun is not enabled on your computer perform step 2 2 On your Windows desktop launch File Explorer Windows 7 SP1 Click Start then Computer Windows 8 Click E 3 In File Explorer double click the optical drive icon 4 Double cl...

Page 15: ...d sound experience A single digital cable connection can carry high quality DTS digital audio from any of your PC audio sources to any digital speakers or AV Receivers with DTS 5 1 decoding capabilities Optical adapter Plug the optical TOSLINK adapter into the S PDIF Out combo connector Optical cable Connect your decoder s S PDIF In port to the optical adapter with the TOSLINK optical cable You ca...

Page 16: ... speakers and peripherals ENGLISH ENGLISH Connecting stereo headphones Front Out Headphone Jack The Front Out jack has a built in high quality amplifier to drive headphones Connect your stereo headphones directly to this jack ...

Page 17: ... 1 Speakers Left Right Front Out Left Right Front Out ports have a built in quality amplifier to drive headphones Connect the 2 2 1 speaker set s 3 5mm plug to the bundled RCA to 3 5mmY cable and then connect the Left Right ends to the Front Left Right Out ports on the Essence STX card ...

Page 18: ... Connect the headphone s 3 5mm plug to the bundled RCA to 3 5mmY cable and then connect the Left Right ends to the to Front Left Right Out ports on the Essence STX II card Microphone Input port Connect your external PC microphone to this port by using the bundled 6 3mmto 3 5mm adapter for voice communication recording or karaoke ...

Page 19: ...nput jack Connect the CD MP3 player or any other line level analog audio sources to this line in port by using the 6 3mm to 3 5mm adapter for sound recording or real time Dolby DTS sound processing through the monitoring path Refer to the Mixer section of the driver s user guide ...

Page 20: ...20 Chapter 3 Connecting speakers and peripherals ENGLISH ...

Page 21: ... functions and features of Essence STX II To launch Essence STX II double click the Essence STX II icon on the taskbar If the icon is not shown on the taskbar click Start All Programs ASUS Essence STX II Audio Essence STX II Audio Center to launch the Audio Center Close button Minimize button Support link Click this button to go to the ASUS website at www asus com ...

Page 22: ... driver information window Menu Open Close Click this button to display more settings MasterVolume This rotary knob controls the master playback volume Drag the small circle inside it to change the volume level Mute Button Click this button to mute audio playback It displays a red light when playback is muted SVN Button Click this button to enable the Smart Volume Normalization feature for constan...

Page 23: ...e rate for your playback sources to get the best audio fidelity Even if your setting differs from the audio source s sample rate the Essence STX II engine will do super high fidelity sample rate conversion with a double floating point filter which can reduce total harmonic distortion THD N by 140dB Sample Rate Select the sample rate that corresponds to or exceeds that of your playback sources for ...

Page 24: ...nd process the 3D Dolby sound accordingly Select the correct speaker type for your connected speakers SpeakerTest Click this button to show the speaker test window in the right pane Click the Play button to test each speaker one by one or click each speaker manually to test HP Advanced Setting Click this button to select the gain tuning according to your headphone impedance The setting is also ava...

Page 25: ...ound sound experience It enables a single digital connection to carry high quality Dolby Digital surround audio from your PC to digital speakers and AV Receivers SPDIF Out Tick this checkbox to enable S PDIF output SPDIF Output Format Functions From the dropdown list select one of these formats PCM Pulse Code Modulation which is a typical raw audio data format Dolby Digital advanced upmixing optio...

Page 26: ...in accordance with your audio content before you play it This setting is synchronized with Windows Vista Windows 7 system speaker configuration and changing the setting during playback stops the audio playback program You may have to restart the program after changing this setting Close all running applications before changing this setting Audio Channels Recommended settings MP3 WMA AAC CD VCD 2D ...

Page 27: ...k the textbar to switch the right window to the Speaker page for manual adjustments Settings will be retained even when a different Analog Output is selected Drag speaker or listener You can drag each speaker or listener to a different relative position virtually using only your mouse Essence STX II card will process it and virtualize each speaker position in real time The Subwoofer has no directi...

Page 28: ...eater systems TVs game consoles and car audio systems It can expand stereo audio such as MP3 CD and TV programs into immersive 5 1 or 7 1 channel surround Dolby Pro Logic IIx Tick this checkbox to enable Dolby Pro Logic IIx Click the textbar to switch the right window to the Pro Logic IIx page for manual adjustments CenterWidth This parameter is used to set the spread of the center mainly for the ...

Page 29: ...omfort and reduce listener fatigue from long listening over headphones Dolby Headphone Tick this checkbox to enable Dolby Headphone Click the textbar to switch the right window to Dolby Headphone page for manual adjustments 7 1 Virtual Speaker and Dolby Pro Logic Ilx can be selected only when Dolby Headphone is enabled DH1 Dolby Headphone DH provides three room filters that may be used with any ty...

Page 30: ... delivers a virtual 5 1 channel surround listening experience from any high quality stereo source DolbyVirtual Speaker Tick this checkbox to enable Dolby Virtual Speaker Click the text bar to switch the right window to a Dolby Virtual Speaker page for manual adjustiment Reference Mode Dolby Virtual Speaker provides two modes of virtualization Reference Mode and Wide Mode Reference mode virtualizes...

Page 31: ...k volume page Volume slider Drag this slider down to decrease the volume Drag it up to increase the volume The tool tip reveals the percentage increments Mute button Click this button to mute the audio channel click this button again to restore the audio output Source path name including WAVE All digital audio sources except MIDI files SW Software Synthesizer control the playback volume of the MID...

Page 32: ...going to record The recording function on Windows is a one path selector Hence you can select only one default recording source at a time You may have to restart the recorder program if you switch to a different source Microphone In Advanced Setting Click this button to open the advanced settings for the Microphone In Enabling Microphone Boost increases the volume gain to boost microphone input si...

Page 33: ...D MP3 or stereo game console audio from Wii Xbox and PS2 PS3 PSP When the monitoring function is enabled audio output from HDMI output is disabled Source path name This shows the source name for each volume control slider including S PDIF In S PDIF digital input source Mix Stereo Mix will record MIC AUX and digital WAVE audio that you are playing on your computer Aux recording from Aux In for typi...

Page 34: ...ironment options that can be applied to all 2D sound sources such as music Default environments These four buttons activate Bathroom Concert hall Underwater and Music Pub environments More options Click this button to view more environment effects in the dropdown list which contains 23 more options Environment size There are three size settings for each environment Large Medium and Small ...

Page 35: ... your own settings Default equalizer options There are 12 available equalizer patterns Click one to apply it Equalizer slider Adjust the gain for each band 30 16KHz User Defined Click this button to view your customized equalizer setting Save name Key in a name for your own User Defined equalizer setting Add save Click this button to save your customized equalizer setting Delete Click this button ...

Page 36: ...e switch to turn on or off the karaoke functions Key Shifting Tick this checkbox to enable or disable the key shifting feature for music playback from 4 semitones below to 4 semitones above Vocal Cancellation Tick this checkbox to enable or disable the vocal cancellation function and adjust the voice cancellation level from 0 to 100 100 eliminates most original vocals The default value is 50 Mic E...

Page 37: ...quency signals bass select Small speaker type and Essence STX II filters out the bass signals and sends them to the subwoofer channel If those speakers are full range you can select the Large speaker type Usually low cost PC s 2 channel speakers are small type speakers Refer to the speaker s specification Common 2 1 speakers with a subwoofer should be categorized as Large speakers because the subw...

Page 38: ...adjustment hassles inherent with sound sources of different loudness It allows you to listen to various content like MP3 TV program DVD video and even games with consistent sound level The following graph shows how different signals 1 2 adjust to the same level for example 10dB below full scale after you turn on SVN Please note that for lower volume music 2 becomes louder when you turn on SVN and ...

Page 39: ...tlined blue when active SVN blue light When SVN is enabled the master volume knob is illuminated by a blue light It is illuminated red if the volume is muted SVN display When SVN is enabled Smart Volume will be lit up at the bottom of the volume meter and the volume meter will show the level ...

Page 40: ...lows you to run EAX HD 5 0 games on both Windows XP and Vista It provides the best compatibility with existing DirectX games GX2 0 also adds innovative VocalFX voice effects for existing EAX games or VOIP applications Besides the abundant sound effects described above the Essence STX II also provides quick Digital Sound Processing modes that are configured for typical applications including Music ...

Page 41: ...rectX DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista Hi Fi Mode This mode is set for Hi Fidelity playback where all effects will be cleared to keep the original digital data and analog output quality as high as possible Music Mode This mode is set for Music playback Movie Mode This mode is set for DVD Movie playback Game Mode This mode is set for Games ...

Page 42: ...ealistic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication LocalVoiceEX It produces realistic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication You can hear your voice from the speakers ChatEX It emulates different background environment effects while you chat online MagicVoice Changes your voice pitch to different types for disguisin...

Page 43: ...s 2 Ensure that you and your team member can talk to each other in the game ForVOIP 1 Click App List 2 If you do not see your VOIP application in the list click Add Ensure that you have installed the latest version of Skype or MSN Messenger 3 Navigate to the application then click Open ...

Page 44: ...44 Chapter 4 Audio Center ENGLISH ...

Page 45: ...y analog speakers Ensure that the power cable of your power supply unit is properly connected to the power connector of the audio card Ensure that you have connected the speakers properly and that the speakers are turned on Ensure that the device master volume or the software player is not on mute mode on the Essence STX II Audio Center Check if you are using a Dolby Digital Live encoder through t...

Page 46: ...d entertainment center Why is Essence STX II the best audio card for HTPC and multi channel speakers Essence STX II supports Dolby Digital Live which allow a single digital connection to your AV receiver to carry Dolby Digital audio Essence STX II also provides Dolby Pro Logic Ilx to upmix TV and other music to multi channel surround sound in Home Theater environments Essence STX II also has High ...

Page 47: ... CA 94539 USA Telephone 1 510 739 3777 Fax 1 510 608 4555 Web site usa asus com Technical Support Telephone 1 812 282 2787 Support fax 1 812 284 0883 Online support support asus com ASUS COMPUTER GmbH Germany and Austria Address Harkort Str 21 23 D 40880 Ratingen Germany Fax 49 2102 959931 Web site asus com de Online contact eu rma asus com sales Technical Support Telephone Component 49 2102 57895...

Page 48: ...48 Appendices Troubleshooting and FAQs ENGLISH ...

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