I've had this card about 2 months now a all i can say is wow ! The sounds this card produces is incredible, I'm using a beyerdynamic mmx300 headset which is also only a couple of months old, Amazing combo especially when it comes to gaming, I olay mostly arma 2 day z an what an advantage i feel i...

The best audio card for music lover, Be sure disable your onboard sound card before installation. I'm listening it with my Sennheiser HD 598, produce amazing sound, particularly the software affords you so many options to color your sound.

If you're looking for a dedicated sound card that's not a desktop USB DAC, the Essence STX II is definitely a great choice if you have the PCIe slot to spare. You could opt to buy it with or without the 7.1 daughterboard.

Improves sound quality over on-board audio options; Swappable op-amps

Price; Only for desktop PC users

Excellent headphone amp audiophile sound card. Currently using Sennheiser HD650's on the card and they have literally leapt to life with this Sound card. Sound is full and meaty, while still being insightful and emotional.

I upgraded from the Essence mk1. All I can say is that the sound from the mk2 is fantastic! The Asus Xonar Essense STX 2 is worth every penny - A remarkable sound card for hi-fi enthusiasts!! Run out and buy one, you won't regret it !! ;)

I bought this elsewhere and saved over 30 bucks and had "free two day shipping" (wink, wink). I'm not going to lie, at this price range, I was expecting to be blown away by the sound production and this card managed to exceed my expectations despite the little annoyances.

Just got mine today along with a Hyper X Cloud Revolver headset and I am beyond blown away; I upgraded from my awful onboard sound on the Asus Maximus Formula VIII; Had issues hearing voices and certain sounds in games, loud hissing with no sound playing, etc...

-Headphone and mic plugins are the bigger jacks that you need an adapter for most headsets if you were to plug audio and mic in separately; That's fine, but they only include 1 adapter for 1 plugin so you need to either buy another one to keep them as separate inputs or do what I did and use a...

I went from a Soundblaster ZxR to this card and I'm so glad I did. There is lot of issues with the z series and I'll probably never buy another Creative product ever again. I wasn't expecting a big difference in audio quality because both claim 124db snr but at my great surprise... HOLY ****!!!

A true audiophile product not a gadget

Molex power connector; Pricey but totally worth it

Same hardware in a different package. It's essentially a PCIe version of the Essence ST (PCI). This wont give you any improvement over the previous version ot he STX in real world listening.

Great signal to noise ratio

Old driver interface; Software is still dull and half broken (same as previous version of this card

I wanted this card for high quality recordings from vinyl records. The highest input is 24 bit, 192khz, which is very impressive, considering most sound cards only go up to 24 bit, 96khz. The op amps in this card are also nice.