I am thrilled with the sound quality of this card. I can't imagine anyone complaining about it regardless of the cost of the rest of their equipment be it cheap or ridiculously expensive. It really is worth switching to analogue for music listening and then back to digital for games and movies.

Well, firstly this is a nicely made item, sadly though it told me that i needed to install "Windows Vista" after I had installed it... REALLY?! Need I say more?

The Asus Xonar Essence is extremely good. Although a little long in the tooth, it still performs well. It beats the dust out of the so called hi def on board sound as supplied by many mobo manufactures. Being PCIe it will work in any size socket without any problem with video cards.

Behind every pair of headphones should be a good sound chipset. That's the idea, and hopefully anyone who knows anything about good audio would adhere to that. For those who can't figure out why their big expensive headphones aren't quite performing as well as they'd imagined, read on; Large and...

Great quality; beautifully packaged; forms a deadly duo with high-end headphones

None come to mind

Amazing Sound Card. I'm Hearing Stuff In Tunes I Have Never Heard Before. As a music Producer Myself This is Perfect For Me. As I Can hear Everything In crystal clear sound. This Card Also Does Well In Games I Recommend. :)

Have this hooked up to some Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 speakers. I know they aren't not the best speakers out there, but this thing makes them sound really really nice. I'm impressed most playing my guitar through it via IK Multimedia Amplitube. Using the ASIO driver set @ 24-bit 2ms it's perfect.

This card is great for sound quality, but lacks analog outs for surround sound, and there is no EAX support. Good for audiophile music and movies, but don't use this for gaming and definitely not audio production.

Great audio clarity; and selectable ohm setting for built-in headphone amp

-Requires a 4 pin molex power connector -Useless gimmicky EMI sheild, A clean power supply makes this feature redundant -Not a true PCIe card, it's actually a PCI card with a PCIe bridge chip -Slow ASIO 2.0 drivers; You're lucky to get 30 or 40ms latency.

This thing is simply incredible. Really worth every penny for any audiophile.

The Xonar Essence STX is a PCIe 1x card, with an EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) shield, optical/coaxial output, RCA output L/R and two 6.3mm headphone jacks - that are powered by an onboard amplifier.

Perfect for headphones. Gets the best out of any headphones/earphones. Quality of output is pristine. Listen to musical notes never heard before, in any song, with a good headset. Even though drivers could be better, giving it a 5 star is not exaggerating.

Reliable

Difficult To Install; Expensive