{"video_id":"iueTVM3xfFM","title":"ASUS Xonar Essence STX Premium Amped Sound Card Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2013-05-07T14:53:29Z","duration_s":481,"segments":[{"start_s":7.319,"end_s":15.04,"text":"welcome to my unboxing and first look at the ASUS Zonar Essence","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":11.679,"end_s":16.44,"text":"STX now I talk about sound cards a lot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":15.04,"end_s":20.199,"text":"and people ask me for sound card recommendations a lot and you know","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":18.52,"end_s":23.8,"text":"there's sort of lower-end ones the whole Zone R line actually is just kind of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.96,"end_s":30.0,"text":"awesome so whatever your price range is just buy a Zonar and you'll be fine um","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":26.359,"end_s":32.279,"text":"but this one is like the baller Zonar","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":30.0,"end_s":39.16,"text":"this is the Zonar with all the features that you need especially if you use","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":35.48,"end_s":42.12,"text":"headphones so 124 DB sound to noise","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":39.16,"end_s":47.12,"text":"ratio which is just ridiculous I mean remember that decb are essentially a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":45.079,"end_s":52.6,"text":"doubling of of in terms of sound to noise ratio it's a doubling of quality","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":49.52,"end_s":54.039,"text":"every time you go up 3 DB okay so think","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.6,"end_s":60.0,"text":"remember that so when you see something that's 110 DB sound to noise ratio that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":56.64,"end_s":62.64,"text":"is like many times worse than this okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":60.0,"end_s":67.72,"text":"it has swappable opamps which means you can actually customize the sound of it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":65.6,"end_s":72.36,"text":"according to your liking so if you don't know what opamps are those are the uh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":70.72,"end_s":76.439,"text":"the components on the board that actually do the amplification for the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":74.36,"end_s":79.64,"text":"card okay so we're going to go ahead and start opening this up the reason I'm","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":78.119,"end_s":83.759,"text":"opening this is cuz we're using it in like an ultimate system build guide so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":81.72,"end_s":87.36,"text":"if I was picking an ultimate sound card for me personally this is the one that I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":85.92,"end_s":90.88,"text":"would choose let's have a look at what ASUS has to say for themselves on the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":89.119,"end_s":95.399,"text":"box here anyway though so industry leading okay with basically no","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":93.479,"end_s":99.68,"text":"Distortion built-in headphone amp provides exceptional quality even with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":97.119,"end_s":105.52,"text":"600 ohms of impedance remember guys for context a Sennheiser hd800 is 600 ohms","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":103.84,"end_s":109.88,"text":"of impedance so we're talking like spending well over a grand on headphones","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":108.079,"end_s":115.36,"text":"before you're going to run into the limits of what this can drive okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":113.079,"end_s":119.92,"text":"nickon fine gold capacitors offer great Dynamic performance it uses audio","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":117.36,"end_s":124.2,"text":"capacitors which are actually different from the kinds of capacitors that some","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":122.0,"end_s":126.84,"text":"competing products are using on sound products whether it's built into a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":125.36,"end_s":130.16,"text":"motherboard or whether it's built into a sound card where they're more like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":128.64,"end_s":135.76,"text":"motherboard capacitors different capacitors will affect the way the sound","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":133.56,"end_s":140.4,"text":"comes out of the analog signal like remember guys okay any of the music","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":138.28,"end_s":146.04,"text":"you're listening to is inherently digital any of the sound you listen to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":142.84,"end_s":148.44,"text":"is inherently analog so the process of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":146.04,"end_s":154.48,"text":"converting that digital signal to an analog sound is extremely complicated","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":151.879,"end_s":159.159,"text":"and depends on every aspect of the design of the card so everything from","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":156.8,"end_s":164.08,"text":"the processor to the Dax so that's the digital to analog converter everything","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":161.599,"end_s":167.84,"text":"to the do they have anything on here about the Emi shielding okay well Emi","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":165.959,"end_s":172.12,"text":"shielding to keep just random interference that's bouncing around","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":169.72,"end_s":177.44,"text":"inside your PC from from affecting any part of that process to the uh to the op","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":175.8,"end_s":181.12,"text":"amps as well everything affects the process so okay moving right along","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":179.159,"end_s":184.92,"text":"perfectly Shield Emi free okay there it is uh customize your sound card","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":182.8,"end_s":188.48,"text":"effortlessly with swappable app opam sockets you can just buy them online","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":186.319,"end_s":191.319,"text":"it's not a big deal uh okay in terms of driver features they'll be digital live","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":189.879,"end_s":196.4,"text":"D be headphone D be virtual speaker they'll be Pro logic 2 direct sound 3D","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.92,"end_s":200.72,"text":"vocal effect smart volume acoustic Echo oh acoustic Echo cancellation that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":197.799,"end_s":204.159,"text":"kind of neat okay and let's go ahead and check out the card itself so they have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":202.519,"end_s":210.68,"text":"like an awesome picture of the card which we'll use to help us through the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":207.48,"end_s":215.48,"text":"process oh yeah so guys if you if you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":210.68,"end_s":217.319,"text":"don't know I'm running um an ASUS uh s","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":215.48,"end_s":221.68,"text":"what am I running I'm running a Zonar zent which is a similar card to this one","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.04,"end_s":226.879,"text":"but actually not quite as good if I was going to pick my ultimate sound card","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":224.04,"end_s":231.48,"text":"this one would be it so in terms of IO you've got stereo outputs so front right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":229.56,"end_s":236.2,"text":"front left this is if you're using an external amplifier so for for Amplified","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":234.48,"end_s":240.4,"text":"speakers or something like that then you've got your amped headphone jack","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":238.12,"end_s":246.36,"text":"your line in and your spit this is your digital out so this is a headphone","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":243.36,"end_s":249.68,"text":"lovers sound card this is not for you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":246.36,"end_s":251.519,"text":"know 7.1 or you know whatever sort of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":249.68,"end_s":256.359,"text":"things that people think are fancy this is for audio files who are interested in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":253.959,"end_s":260.799,"text":"stereo speakers high quality output to stereo speakers or high quality output","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":258.639,"end_s":263.56,"text":"to headphones it does have front panel Jacks so you can still plug in your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":262.24,"end_s":267.4,"text":"front panel headphone jack and microphone Jack but honestly guys if","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":265.6,"end_s":272.32,"text":"you're not using these ports you're doing it wrong with a sound card like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":269.32,"end_s":274.479,"text":"this has a dedicated Molex power adapter","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":272.32,"end_s":278.759,"text":"or connector rather and that is because this card actually does draw some power","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":277.0,"end_s":282.24,"text":"in order to deliver that Punchy sound at a moment's notice it also has some very","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":280.56,"end_s":286.72,"text":"large caps going on which is going to help with that as well you can see that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":284.32,"end_s":290.44,"text":"while this sort of shield on here this Emi Shield looks like it has gaps in it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":288.52,"end_s":294.12,"text":"there's only very small gaps so from the inside of the case there's almost no way","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":292.68,"end_s":298.639,"text":"for any kind of interference to get in there you can see it's actually blocked there's a copper piece that's right in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":297.28,"end_s":303.88,"text":"there that makes it so that nothing can really sort of get in there it uses PCI","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.199,"end_s":308.52,"text":"or rather PCI Express 1X connectivity remember guys that can be plugged into","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":306.0,"end_s":315.72,"text":"any PCI Express slot whether it's 1X 4X 8X or 16x PCI E1 pcie2 pcie3 all of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":313.88,"end_s":319.6,"text":"those standards are are basically interchangeable for the purposes of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":317.16,"end_s":323.28,"text":"something like a sound card here's an adapter so you can take those analog","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":321.479,"end_s":328.08,"text":"outputs and you can run them to just sort of a regular stereo Jack okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.759,"end_s":333.479,"text":"here's an adapter for this so you can run uh smaller jack headphones or","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":330.68,"end_s":338.759,"text":"microphone off of this all right and then there is a oh awesome I actually","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":336.6,"end_s":342.08,"text":"didn't realize this but this coax Jack right here is actually Optical as well","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":340.44,"end_s":346.52,"text":"so you just use the included adapter and you can get an uh you can do optical","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":344.199,"end_s":352.44,"text":"audio out from there too all right included documentation audio Precision","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":348.72,"end_s":354.479,"text":"test report your individual sound card","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.44,"end_s":359.039,"text":"was actually tested and this was printed out from your sound card so this will","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":356.88,"end_s":364.4,"text":"give you the full characteristics of your card this card that's in the Box as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":362.039,"end_s":367.639,"text":"opposed to being some kind of generic you know how a lot of high-end products","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":366.28,"end_s":373.319,"text":"come with like a certificate of performance or something like that that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":369.44,"end_s":375.24,"text":"actually has no basis on this thing this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":373.319,"end_s":378.88,"text":"physical object that's in the Box not how it works with an Essence STX this is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":377.12,"end_s":383.639,"text":"a serious sound card all right we got a thing about the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":381.919,"end_s":388.16,"text":"philosophy of something in a picture of the card okay that I'm less interested","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":385.199,"end_s":391.72,"text":"in moving right along we've got uh ASUS's driver disc don't use this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":390.199,"end_s":396.68,"text":"download the latest off Theus website they're excellent also there's a third","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":393.199,"end_s":398.16,"text":"party um Universal driver for Zonar","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":396.68,"end_s":401.88,"text":"cards that actually has a couple of extra features so that's kind of cool","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":399.8,"end_s":406.12,"text":"here's a sticker that you could put on something okay uh here's a quick start","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":404.16,"end_s":409.88,"text":"guide here's a wow there's there's a lot of documentation here slick there's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":407.68,"end_s":412.4,"text":"another quick start guide I told you there's two quick start guides are these","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":411.24,"end_s":416.28,"text":"the same thing oh no they have different part numbers on them okay and then","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":414.52,"end_s":420.72,"text":"there's uh like another poster they have two posters included","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":419.08,"end_s":426.4,"text":"yep okay all right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":423.039,"end_s":429.0,"text":"cool um I think that pretty much covers","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":426.4,"end_s":433.52,"text":"it so if you're looking for a sound card recommendation my general recommendation","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":431.36,"end_s":438.759,"text":"is some kind of Zonar card if you're looking for a specific recommendation I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":436.039,"end_s":442.759,"text":"would take this one personally um I'm more of a headphone guy I don't use","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":440.319,"end_s":446.84,"text":"surround so that's that's the context of that recommendation from me but uh let's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":445.0,"end_s":450.72,"text":"just see if we're missing anything here hyper grounding circuitry design okay oh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":449.56,"end_s":456.8,"text":"I don't know if I mentioned but it uses a bur Brown PCM 1792 a digital analog","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":454.08,"end_s":461.56,"text":"converter so that's part of achieving that 124 DB single noise ratio this one","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":459.4,"end_s":466.919,"text":"can do even better than that swappable op amps perfectly sealed analog output","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":464.68,"end_s":472.319,"text":"path with all that shielding and all of that good stuff and I think that pretty","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":470.12,"end_s":476.24,"text":"much covers it thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":473.68,"end_s":478.919,"text":"Zonar Essence STX from ASUS don't forget to subscribe to L's Tech tips for more","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":477.56,"end_s":481.44,"text":"unboxings reviews and other computer videos","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"welcome to my unboxing and first look at the ASUS Zonar Essence STX now I talk about sound cards a lot and people ask me for sound card recommendations a lot and you know there's sort of lower-end ones the whole Zone R line actually is just kind of awesome so whatever your price range is just buy a Zonar and you'll be fine um but this one is like the baller Zonar this is the Zonar with all the features that you need especially if you use headphones so 124 DB sound to noise ratio which is just ridiculous I mean remember that decb are essentially a doubling of of in terms of sound to noise ratio it's a doubling of quality every time you go up 3 DB okay so think remember that so when you see something that's 110 DB sound to noise ratio that is like many times worse than this okay it has swappable opamps which means you can actually customize the sound of it according to your liking so if you don't know what opamps are those are the uh the components on the board that actually do the amplification for the card okay so we're going to go ahead and start opening this up the reason I'm opening this is cuz we're using it in like an ultimate system build guide so if I was picking an ultimate sound card for me personally this is the one that I would choose let's have a look at what ASUS has to say for themselves on the box here anyway though so industry leading okay with basically no Distortion built-in headphone amp provides exceptional quality even with 600 ohms of impedance remember guys for context a Sennheiser hd800 is 600 ohms of impedance so we're talking like spending well over a grand on headphones before you're going to run into the limits of what this can drive okay nickon fine gold capacitors offer great Dynamic performance it uses audio capacitors which are actually different from the kinds of capacitors that some competing products are using on sound products whether it's built into a motherboard or whether it's built into a sound card where they're more like motherboard capacitors different capacitors will affect the way the sound comes out of the analog signal like remember guys okay any of the music you're listening to is inherently digital any of the sound you listen to is inherently analog so the process of converting that digital signal to an analog sound is extremely complicated and depends on every aspect of the design of the card so everything from the processor to the Dax so that's the digital to analog converter everything to the do they have anything on here about the Emi shielding okay well Emi shielding to keep just random interference that's bouncing around inside your PC from from affecting any part of that process to the uh to the op amps as well everything affects the process so okay moving right along perfectly Shield Emi free okay there it is uh customize your sound card effortlessly with swappable app opam sockets you can just buy them online it's not a big deal uh okay in terms of driver features they'll be digital live D be headphone D be virtual speaker they'll be Pro logic 2 direct sound 3D vocal effect smart volume acoustic Echo oh acoustic Echo cancellation that's kind of neat okay and let's go ahead and check out the card itself so they have like an awesome picture of the card which we'll use to help us through the process oh yeah so guys if you if you don't know I'm running um an ASUS uh s what am I running I'm running a Zonar zent which is a similar card to this one but actually not quite as good if I was going to pick my ultimate sound card this one would be it so in terms of IO you've got stereo outputs so front right front left this is if you're using an external amplifier so for for Amplified speakers or something like that then you've got your amped headphone jack your line in and your spit this is your digital out so this is a headphone lovers sound card this is not for you know 7.1 or you know whatever sort of things that people think are fancy this is for audio files who are interested in stereo speakers high quality output to stereo speakers or high quality output to headphones it does have front panel Jacks so you can still plug in your front panel headphone jack and microphone Jack but honestly guys if you're not using these ports you're doing it wrong with a sound card like this has a dedicated Molex power adapter or connector rather and that is because this card actually does draw some power in order to deliver that Punchy sound at a moment's notice it also has some very large caps going on which is going to help with that as well you can see that while this sort of shield on here this Emi Shield looks like it has gaps in it there's only very small gaps so from the inside of the case there's almost no way for any kind of interference to get in there you can see it's actually blocked there's a copper piece that's right in there that makes it so that nothing can really sort of get in there it uses PCI or rather PCI Express 1X connectivity remember guys that can be plugged into any PCI Express slot whether it's 1X 4X 8X or 16x PCI E1 pcie2 pcie3 all of those standards are are basically interchangeable for the purposes of something like a sound card here's an adapter so you can take those analog outputs and you can run them to just sort of a regular stereo Jack okay here's an adapter for this so you can run uh smaller jack headphones or microphone off of this all right and then there is a oh awesome I actually didn't realize this but this coax Jack right here is actually Optical as well so you just use the included adapter and you can get an uh you can do optical audio out from there too all right included documentation audio Precision test report your individual sound card was actually tested and this was printed out from your sound card so this will give you the full characteristics of your card this card that's in the Box as opposed to being some kind of generic you know how a lot of high-end products come with like a certificate of performance or something like that that actually has no basis on this thing this physical object that's in the Box not how it works with an Essence STX this is a serious sound card all right we got a thing about the philosophy of something in a picture of the card okay that I'm less interested in moving right along we've got uh ASUS's driver disc don't use this download the latest off Theus website they're excellent also there's a third party um Universal driver for Zonar cards that actually has a couple of extra features so that's kind of cool here's a sticker that you could put on something okay uh here's a quick start guide here's a wow there's there's a lot of documentation here slick there's another quick start guide I told you there's two quick start guides are these the same thing oh no they have different part numbers on them okay and then there's uh like another poster they have two posters included yep okay all right cool um I think that pretty much covers it so if you're looking for a sound card recommendation my general recommendation is some kind of Zonar card if you're looking for a specific recommendation I would take this one personally um I'm more of a headphone guy I don't use surround so that's that's the context of that recommendation from me but uh let's just see if we're missing anything here hyper grounding circuitry design okay oh I don't know if I mentioned but it uses a bur Brown PCM 1792 a digital analog converter so that's part of achieving that 124 DB single noise ratio this one can do even better than that swappable op amps perfectly sealed analog output path with all that shielding and all of that good stuff and I think that pretty much covers it thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the Zonar Essence STX from ASUS don't forget to subscribe to L's Tech tips for more unboxings reviews and other computer videos"}