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Xonar Essence STX
Audio card
User manual
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E7806 Revised Edition V2 October 2012 Copyright © 2012 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (“ASUS”). Product warranty or service will not be extende
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Contents Notices ......................................................................................................... iv Safety information ....................................................................................... v Trademarks ................................................................................................... v License ......................................................................................................... v 1. Introduction ....................
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Notices Federal Communications Commission Statement This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: • This device may not cause harmful interference, and • This device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide r
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Safety information • Before installing the device on a motherboard, carefully read all the manuals that came with the package. • To prevent electrical shock hazard or short circuits, switch off the power supply before installing the device on a motherboard or connecting any singal cables to the device. • If the device is broken, do not try to fix it by yourself. Contact a qualified service technician or your retailer. • Before using the product, make sure all cables are correctly connected.
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1. Introduction 1.1 Package contents • ASUS Xonar Essence STX PCI Express audio card • 3.5mm-to-RCA cable x1 • 3.5mm-to-6.3mm adapter x1 • S/PDIF TOSLINK optical adapter x1 • Support CD • Audio Precision Test Report 1.2 System requirements • One PCI Express 1.0 (or higher) compatible slot for the audio card ® ® • Microsoft Windows Vista (32/64bit) / XP (32/64bit) / MCE2005 ® ® ® • Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU • 256 MB (or above) DRAM system memory • 60 MB availab
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Items Description Audio Performance 124dB for Front-out Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 110dB for Headphone-out Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 118dB Output Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz 0.0003% (-110dB) for Front-out (-3dB) : 0.001% (-100dB) for Headphone-out Input Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz 0.0002% (-113dB) for Line-in (-3dB) : Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz format): <10Hz to 80KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p) Hea
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Items Description Audio Performance 124dB for Front-out Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 110dB for Headphone-out Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 118dB Output Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz 0.0003% (-110dB) for Front-out (-3dB) : 0.001% (-100dB) for Headphone-out Input Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz 0.0002% (-113dB) for Line-in (-3dB) : Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz format): <10Hz to 80KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p) Hea
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2. Xonar Essence STX card layout 6 7 8 1 2 9 3 4 5 No Item Description 1 Front Right Out port Connect the Right audio cable (red) from your 2/2.1 channel speakers to this port. For multi-channel speaker systems, connects to the Front Right In port on the powered speakers. 2 Front Left Out port Connect the Left audio cable (white) from your 2/2.1 channel speakers to this port. For multi-channel speaker systems, connects to the Front Left In port on the powered speakers. 3 Headphone Out port C
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4 Line In port Connect analog devices like MP3 players, CD players, music synthesizers and other line-level sound sources to this 6.3mm port for audio recording or processing. (Through Ultra-high fidelity 118dB SNR A-D converter) 5 S/PDIF Out port Coaxial and optical TOSLINK combo digital output port. Connects to external digital decoder or digital speaker systems, Home Theater systems, AV receivers for outputting digital audio including PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS, WMA-Pro, etc. 6 Front pan
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3. Installing the hardware 3.1 Preparing your computer Before you proceed with the following installation steps, it is recommended that you disable the onboard audio device in the BIOS settings, or uninstall any other sound cards on your PC. For BIOS setting or uninstallation of other sound cards, refer to the user manuals of your motherboard and sound cards. 1. Power OFF the computer, the monitor, and all other peripheral devices connected to your computer. 2. Unplug the computer power cor
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3.2 Installing the Xonar Essence STX card 1. Secure the audio card with screws and the metal bracket. 2. Connect the 4-pin power cable of your power supply unit to the power connector of the audio card. 3. Put back the chassis cover. 4. Reconnect all cables. 5. Plug the power cord to the computer and to a power outlet. 6. Power ON the computer. The PCI Express high-quality audio card requires additional power from your computer. If the power cable is not connected properly, the audio card will
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3.3 Connecting to a TV tuner card 1. If you have a traditional PCI or PCI Express TV tuner card on your PC, you may need to connect it to the Xonar Essence STX card to send the tuner card’s sound to your PC speakers. 2. Secure the PCI/PCI Express TV tuner card and screw it into the back-panel. 3. Connect the audio output header from the TV tuner card to the Aux-In header of the Xonar Essence STX card. For optimum TV audio quality, Xonar HDAV uses ADC recording to digitize the signal and loop
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4. Installing software Installing the card driver Ensure that you have installed the VGA card driver before installing the Xonar Essence STX driver. Otherwise, driver installation error may occur. 1. After you have installed the Xonar Essence STX card, turn on your computer. ® Windows automatically detects the HDAV card and searches for device drivers. When prompted for the drivers, click Cancel. 2. Insert the support CD into the optical drive. If Autorun is enabled in your system, the setup
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5. Connecting speakers and peripherals 5.1 Connecting digital speaker systems (Home Theater) The Xonar Essence STX supports Dolby Digital Live technology, which transcodes any audio, including games and music, into industry-standard Dolby Digital surround bit-streams. This makes playback through your home theater system possible, creating an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience. A single digital cable connection can carry high-quality Dolby Digital audio from any of you
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5.2 Connecting stereo headphones Headphone Out The Headphone Out port has a built-in high-quality amplifier to drive headphones. Connect your stereo headphones to the Headphone Out port son the Xonar Essence STX card. ASUS Xonar Essence STX 11
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5.3 Connecting 2/2.1 channel speakers 2 Speakers 2.1 Speakers 1 1 1 Front Right Out Front Left Out No Item Description 1 Front Left/Right Out The Left/Right Front Out ports have a built-in high-quality amplifier to drive headphones. Connect the 2/2.1 speaker set’s 3.5mm plug to the bundled RCA-to-3.5mm Y cable, and then connect the Left/Right ends to the Front Left/Right Out ports on the Xonar Essence STX card. 12 ASUS Xonar Essence STX
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5.4 Connecting microphone 1 2 2 1 Front Right Out Front Left Out Mic In 2 No Item Description Front Left/Right Out Connect the headphone’s 3.5mm plug to the bundled RCA- port/Headphone port to-3.5mm Y cable, and then connect the Left/Right ends to the to Front Left/Right Out ports on the Xonar Essence STX card. 1 Microphone Input port Connect your external PC microphone to this port by using the bundled 6.3mm-to-3.5mm adapter for voice communication, recording, or karaoke. ASUS Xonar Essenc
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5.5 Connecting Line-In audio sources 1 Line In No Item Description 1 Line Input Jack Connect the CD/MP3 Player or any other Line level analog audio sources to this Line-In port by using the bundled 6.3mm-to-3.5mm adapter for sound recording or real-time Dolby sound processing through the Monitoring path (See the Mixer section of the driver guide). 14 ASUS Xonar Essence STX
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6. Xonar Audio Center 6.1 Xonar Audio Center GUI 1. After the driver installation is complete and your computer has been rebooted, you will find the Xonar Audio Center’s icon in the system tray on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Double click this icon to open the Xonar Audio Center utility. If the icon could not be found in the system tray, launch the Xonar Audio Center from the Windows desktop by clicking Start > All Programs > ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio > Xonar Essence STX
