Specifications: Soundcards compatible with PCI (ST) and PCI Express (STX) personal computers. Windows operating systems supported: XP, Vista, 7. Sample rates supported: 44.1, 48, 96, 192kHz. Bit depths supported: 16, 24. Dolby Digital and DTS decoding supported. Analog outputs: line on RCA, headphones on ¼" jack. Analog inputs: line/microphone on ¼" jack. Digital output: electrical and optical S/PDIF on RCA jack with coaxial TosLink driver. Maximum output level: 2V, line output. Headphone output level & impedance: optimized for headphones with impedances of…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Shuttle PC (AMD Athlon 3.1GHz dual-core processor, 2GB RAM) running Vista Home Premium with SP2; A-One PC (Pentium 1.4GHz processor, 2GB RAM, running Windows XP with SP3); with Foobar 2000, Adobe Audition 3.0, and ASIO4 used for playback (see text); Ayre QB-9 USB D/A processor, Logitech Squeezebox 3 WiFi D/A processor, both used with Apple Mac mini (G4 processor, 1GB RAM) running OS10.4.11 for media storage & playback with iTunes 9.0; dCS Puccini SACD/CD player.
Preamplifier: Simaudio Moon Evolution P-8.
Power Amplifier: Simaudio…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the measured behavior of the ASUS Xonar Essence ST and Essence STX using the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue), as well as, for some tests, my Audio Precision System One Dual Domain. I performed a complete set of tests on the STX card, which was installed in an AMD Athlon-powered PC running Vista Home Premium, and repeated some of the tests on the ST card, which was installed in an older Pentium-powered PC running XP. Test-tone WAV files were played back using Adobe Audition 3.0 and Foobar 2000,…
John Atkinson wrote again about the Xonar Essence STX soundcard in September 2010 (Vol.33 No.9):
When I reviewed this $200 soundcard for Windows PCs in the January 2010 issue, I concluded that the Xonar Essence STX was by far the least expensive way of turning a PC into a genuine high-resolution audio source that I had encountered. Neither the Essence's resolution nor its low level of noise was compromised by having to operate in the electrically unfriendly environment of a computer chassis. However, I ran into a problem playing files with sample rates of 96 or 192kHz. The card was…
Until recently, I have considered LaserVision video discs as a rather dubious medium for serious music reproduction. The only review I had read about it by a critical listener (Harry Pearson in The Absolute Sound) was I singularly unenthusiastic, and since I had not heard one myself, I was inclined to take his word for it.
I feel now that may have been a mistake. I finally got an opportunity to hear some LaserVision discs of classical music reproduced through a good audio system—in my own home. And while I could easily find things to complain about with the microphoning and mixing (all…
In fact, most TV sets in American homes are cheating their viewers of much of the picture quality that's present in the received signal. Color TV receivers have myriad internal adjustments for such things as color tracking (gray scale, when the color is turned off) and convergence (registration of the red, blue, and green images on the screen), and these need periodic touching up if the set is to produce the picture it's capable of. Properly adjusted, many TV receivers can give as accurate color as the best photographic slide films, with enough detail to show individual hairs in a newscaster'…
We crotchety middle-aged (and older) audiophiles frequently sit around and whine about the apparently rising median age of enthusiasts of two-channel audio. "We need to do something to attract the youts to our cause!" one of us will say. (Youts? See Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny.)
Well, that's not giving the younger generation enough credit. There is a growing number of young audiophiles, many of them hooked on vinyl. In fact, one of them commissioned this review. When Stereophile's own Stephen Mejias found out that Marantz was producing an attractive integrated amplifier with…
A fairly intense electric jazz group is a good test of an amplifier's ability to render a coherent sonic picture with realistic pacing. The middle section of "Ice Crushing at All Speeds," from my jazz quartet Attention Screen's Live at Otto's Shrunken Head (CD, Stereophile STPH020-2), features a forceful, driving rhythm from drummer Mark Flynn playing his entire kit, juxtaposed against a moaning ostinato bass line by Chris Jones that challenges Flynn's rhythmic statement. It all hung together through the Marantz, just as it did on stage the night we recorded it.
But, you say,…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state integrated amplifier with remote control, phono stage, and headphone output. Maximum output power, 20Hz–20kHz: 40Wpc into 8 ohms (16dBW), 55Wpc into 4 ohms (14.4dBW). Frequency response: 10Hz–50kHz, +0dB/–1dB. THD: 0.01%, 20Hz–20kHz, 8 ohms. Input sensitivity: 200mV (line), 2.2mV (MM phono). Input impedance: 20k ohms (line), 47k ohms (MM phono). Signal/noise ratio (IHF-A, ref. 1W into 8 ohms): 83dB (MM phono, 5mV input), 87dB (line, 500mV input).
Dimensions: 17.2" (440mm) W by 4.1" (105mm) H by 14.4" (369mm) D. Weight: 14.7 lbs (6.7kg…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge.
Digital Source: Lector, Creek Destiny CD players.
Integrated Amplifier: Creek 5350SE.
Loudspeakers: Monitor Audio Silver RS6, Epos M5.
Cables: Interconnect: MIT MI-350 CVTwin Terminator & CVT Terminator 2. Speaker: Acarian Systems Black Orpheus. AC: manufacturers' own.
Accessories: Various by ASC, Bright Star, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI.—Robert J. Reina