Asus XONAR ESSENCE ST, User Manual

Page 1: ...Xonar Essence ST Audio card User Manual ...

Page 2: ...MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS ITS DIRECTORS OFFICERS EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS LOSS OF BUSINESS LOSS OF USE OR DATA INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE LIKE EVEN IF ASUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY DEFECT OR ERROR ...

Page 3: ...o card 7 Connecting to a TV tuner card 8 Installing the audio card driver 9 Chapter 3 Connecting speakers and peripherals Connecting digital speaker systems Home Theater 10 Connecting stereo headphones 11 Connecting 2 2 1 channel speakers 12 Connecting a microphone 13 Connecting Line In audio sources 14 Chapter 4 Xonar Audio Center Xonar Audio Center 15 Main Setting 17 Mixer Volume 25 Effects 28 K...

Page 4: ...iv Appendix Troubleshooting and FAQs Troubleshooting 39 Frequently Asked Questions FAQs 41 ASUS Contact information 45 ...

Page 5: ...easures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help Canadian Department of Communications Statement This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise...

Page 6: ...void short circuit keep paper clips screws and staples away from connectors sockets and circuitry Avoid dust humidity and temperature extremes Do not place the product in any area where it may be exposed to moisture Place the product on a stable surface If you encounter technical problems with the product contact a qualified service technician or your retailer Trademarks Xonar and ASUS logo are tr...

Page 7: ...n Refer to the following sources for additional information and for product and software updates 1 ASUS websites The ASUS website provides updated information on ASUS hardware and software products Refer to the ASUS contact information 2 Optional documentation Your product package may include optional documentation such as warranty flyers that may have been added by your dealer These documents are...

Page 8: ...indows 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 available HDD space for driver installation package CD ROM drive or DVD ROM drive for software installation High quality headphones powered analog speakers or a Dolby Digital decoder to enjoy ultra high fidelity sound If any of the above items is damaged o...

Page 9: ...e Voltage 2 Vrms 5 65 VP p Headphone Impedance Optimized for 32 600ohms Main Chipset Audio Processor ASUS AV100 High Definition Sound Processor Maximum 192KHz 24bit 24 bit D A Converter of Digital Sources Texas Instruments PCMI792A 1 for Front Out 127dB SNR 192kHz 24bit High Fidelity Headphone Amplifier Texas Instruments 6120A2 1 120dB SNR 100dB THD N Vcc 12V RL 600ohms f 1kHz 24 bit A D Converter...

Page 10: ... environment through one signal S PDIF connection Dolby Headphone Dolby Headphone technology allows users to listen to music watch movies or play games with the dramatic Dolby Virtual Speaker Dolby Virtual Speaker technology simulates a highly realistic 5 1 speaker surround sound listening environment from as few as two speakers Dolby Pro Logic II Dolby Pro Logic II is the well known technology to...

Page 11: ... into a constant level and also enhances your 3D sound listening range and advantages in gaming Karaoke Functions Music Key Shifting Vocal Cancellation and Microphone Echo effects like professional Karaoke machine FlexBass Professional Bass Management Enhancement system Xear 3D Virtual Speaker Shifter Virtual 7 1 speaker positioning Other Effects 10 band Equalier 27 Environment Effects 3D Gaming S...

Page 12: ... 2 2 1 channel speakers to this port For multi channel speaker systems connect to the Front Left In port on the powered speakers 3 Headphone Out port Connect your headphones to this port DO NOT connect your speakers to the headphone out port The possible high driving power may cause damage to your speakers Before connecting your headphone adjust the headphone impedance settings in the Xonar Essenc...

Page 13: ...der or digital speaker systems Home Theater systems AV receivers for outputting digital audio including PCM Dolby Digital DTS and WMA Pro 6 Front panel audio header Connect one end of the front panel audio cable to the front panel audio header on the Xonar Essence ST card with the other end to the chassis mounted front panel audio I O module 7 Aux Input Header Usually connects to the Analog Audio ...

Page 14: ...nnect all peripherals connected to it Unplug the computer s power cord from the power outlet To avoid static electricity use a grounded wrist strap or touch a safely grounded object such as the metal part or the rear panel of your computer Installing the audio card To install the audio card 1 Remove the chassis cover of your computer 2 Remove the metal bracket of a PCI slot at the rear panel of yo...

Page 15: ... it back for DAC playback Select Aux In as the recording source in the Xonar Essence ST Center s recording mixer and enable the monitoring button to pass this signal to the audio output Using this setup you can even turn on sound effects such as Pro Logic IIx to expand the stereo TV audio to 5 1 or 7 1 channel surround sound This gives you a better TV audio quality on your computer compared to tha...

Page 16: ...ows 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 starts automatically If not run setup exe from your support CD 3 Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation 4 When the installation is complete you are prompted to restart ...

Page 17: ...10 ASUS Xonar Essence ST ...

Page 18: ... can carry high quality Dolby Digital or DTS 5 1 digital audio from any of your PC audio sources to any digital speakers or AV Receivers with Dolby Digital or DTS 5 1 decoding capabilities 1 Optical adapter Plug the optical TOSLINK adapter into the S PDIF Out combo connector 2 Optical cable Connect your decoder s S PDIF In port to the optical adapter with the TOSLINK optical cable You can also use...

Page 19: ...sence ST Connecting stereo headphones The Headphone Out port has a built in high quality amplifier for headphones Connect your stereo headphones to the headphone output ports on the Xonar Essence ST card Headphone Out ...

Page 20: ...ont Left Out 1 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 ST card ...

Page 21: ...rt Connect the headphone s 3 5mm plug to the bundled RCA to 3 5mm Y cable and then connect the Left Right ends to the to Front Left Right Out ports on the Xonar Essence ST card 2 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 ...

Page 22: ...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 DTS sound processing through the Monitoring path Refer to the Mixer section of the driver s user manual ...

Page 23: ...16 ASUS Xonar Essence ST ...

Page 24: ... 3 5 Minimize button Close button Chapter 4 Xonar Audio Center Xonar Audio Center The Xonar Audio Center the graphic user interface GUI of the Xonar Essence ST allows you to control the functions and features of the Xonar Essence ST To launch the Xonar Audio Center double click the Xonar Audio Center icon on the taskbar 1 Support link Click this button to go to the ASUS website at www asus com ...

Page 25: ... information window 5 Menu Open Close Click this button to display more settings 6 Master Volume This rotary knob controls the master playback volume Drag the small circle inside it to change the volume level 7 Mute Button Click this button to mute audio playback It displays a red light when playback is muted 8 SVN Button Click this button to enable the Smart Volume Normalization feature for const...

Page 26: ...your playback sources to get the best audio fidelity Even if your setting differs from the audio source s sample rate the Xonar Essence ST engine will process super high fidelity sample rate conversions with a double floating point filter which can reduce total harmonic distortion THD N by 140dB 1 1 Sample Rate Select the sample rate that corresponds to or exceeds that of your playback sources for...

Page 27: ... process the 3D Dolby sound accordingly Select the correct speaker type for your connected speakers 2 Speaker Test Click this button to show the speaker test window in the right pane Click the Play button to test each speaker one by one or click each speaker manually to test 3 HP Advanced Setting Click this button to select the gain tuning according to your headphone impedance The setting is also ...

Page 28: ... connection to carry high quality Dolby Digital surround audio from your PC to digital speakers and AV Receivers 1 2 3 1 S PDIF Out enable disable Tick this checkbox to enable S PDIF output 2 S PDIF Output Formats Functions From the dropdown list select one of these formats PCM Pulse Code Modulation which is a typical raw audio data format Dolby Digital Live real time 5 1ch encoding 3 Dobly Digita...

Page 29: ...rdance with your audio content before audio playback This setting is synchronized with Windows Vista 7 s system speaker configuration and changing this setting during playback stops the audio playback program You may have to restart the program after changing this setting 1 1 Audio Channels Recommended settings MP3 WMA AAC CD VCD 2D games 2 channels DVD Video with Dolby Digtial or DTS 5 1 6 channe...

Page 30: ... Speaker Shifter page for manual adjustments Settings will be retained even when a different Analog Output is selected 2 Drag speaker or listener You can drag each speaker or listener to a different position virtually using only your mouse The Xonar Xense card will process the sound and reposition the virtual speakers real time The Subwoofer has no directional sounds and hence can be moved only cl...

Page 31: ...r manual adjustments 2 Center Width This parameter is used to set the spread of the center mainly for the vocal signals of songs and music Drag the scroll bar to the left to centralize the vocal signal Drag to the right side to widen the vocal sound range 3 Reset Reset all settings to the default settings 4 Dimension The dimension parameter fades sounds to the front or rear of the listener 6 Clock...

Page 32: ...istening over headphones 1 2 3 4 1 Dolby Headphone enable disable Tick this checkbox to enable Dolby Headphone Click the textbar to switch the right window to Dolby Headphone page for manual adjusting 7 1 Virtual Speaker Shifter and Dolby Pro Logic IIx can be selected only when Dolby Headphone is enabled 2 DH1 Dolby Headphone DH provides three room filters that may be used with any type of audio T...

Page 33: ...al 5 1 channel surround listening experience from any high quality stereo source 1 2 3 1 Dolby Virtual Speaker enable disable Tick this checkbox to enable Dolby Virtual Speaker Click the text bar to switch the right window to a Dolby Virtual Speaker page for manual adjusting 2 Reference Mode Dolby Virtual Speaker provides two modes of virtualization Reference Mode and Wide Mode Reference mode virt...

Page 34: ...The horizontal slider controls the volume between the left and right channels 3 Volume slider Drag this slider down to decrease the volume Drag it up to increase the volume The tool tip displays percentage increments 4 Mute button Click this button to mute the audio channel Click this button again to restore the audio output 5 Source path name including WAVE All digital audio sources except MIDI f...

Page 35: ... to record The recording function on Windows is a one path selector Hence you can select only one default recording source at a time You may have to restart the recorder program if you switch to a different source On Windows Vista some programs may allow you to select the recording device path in the recording programs themselves 5 Microphone In Advanced Setting Click this button to open the advan...

Page 36: ...PS2 PS3 PSP To apply Dolby Virtual Speaker is suitable for a two speaker setup When the monitoring function is enabled audio output from HDMI output is disabled 7 Source path name This shows the source name for each volume control slider S PDIF In S PDIF digital input source Mix Stereo Mix which will record MIC AUX and digital WAVE audio you are playing on your PC Aux Recording from Aux In for typ...

Page 37: ...ptions that can be applied to all 2D sound sources such as music 1 2 3 1 Default environments These four buttons activate Bathroom Concert hall Underwater and Music Pub environments 2 More options Click this button to view more environment effects in the dropdown list which contains 23 more options 3 Environment size There are three size settings for each environment Large Medium and Small ...

Page 38: ... 2 3 4 5 6 1 Default equalizer options Click an equalizer pattern from the 12 available equalizer patterns 2 Equalier slider Adjust the gain for each band 30 16KHz 3 User Defined Click this button to view your existing customized equalizer setting 4 Save name Key in a name for your own User Defined equalizer setting 5 Add save Click this button to save your customized equalizer setting 6 Delete Cl...

Page 39: ...ff Click the switch to turn on or off the karaoke functions 2 Key Shifting Tick this checkbox to enable or disable the key shifting feature for music playback from 4 semitones below to 4 semitones above 3 Vocal Cancellation Tick this checkbox to enable or disable the vocal cancellation function and adjust the voice cancellation level from 0 to 100 100 eliminates most original vocals The default va...

Page 40: ...ects them all to the subwoofer or Large speakers 2 4 1 3 1 On Off Click this switch to turn on or off all FlexBass functions 2 Small Large speaker option Select the speaker type that you connected If your speaker type cannot perform low frequency signals bass select Small speaker type and Xonar Essence ST filters out the bass signals and sends them to the subwoofer channel If those speakers are fu...

Page 41: ... and 2 adjust to the same level for example 10dB below full scale after you turn on SVN Please note that lower volume music 2 becomes louder when you turn on SVN while higher volume music 1 becomes quieter 3 Picture for Small Large speaker Small large speakers are identified by their colors Orange large speakers Green small speakers 4 LFE Crossover Frequency Adjusts the cut off frequency 20 250Hz ...

Page 42: ...enabled this button is illuminated by a blue light 2 SVN blue light When SVN is enabled the master volume knob is illuminated by a blue light It is illuminated by a red light if the volume is muted 3 SVN display When SVN is enabled Smart Volume lights up to display the volume level ...

Page 43: ... you to run EAX HD 5 0 games on both Windows XP and Vista It provides the best compatibility with existing DirectX games GX2 0 also adds innovative VocalFX voice effects for existing EAX games or VOIP applications Besides the abundant sound effects described above the Xonar Essence ST also provides quick Digital Sound Processing modes that are configured for typical applications including Music Mo...

Page 44: ...irectX DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista 2 Hi Fi Mode This mode is set for Hi Fidelity playback where all effects are cleared to keep the original digital data and analog output quality as high as possible 3 Music Mode This mode is set for Music playback 4 Movie Mode This mode is set for DVD Movie playback 5 Game Mode This mode is set for Games ...

Page 45: ...stic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication 2 Local VoiceEX It produces realistic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication You can hear your voice from the speakers 3 ChatEX It emulates different background environment effects while you chat online 4 Magic Voice Changes your voice pitch to different types for disgu...

Page 46: ... 2 Ensure that you and your team member can talk to each other in the game For VOIP 1 Click App List 2 If you do not see your VOIP application in the list click Add Ensure that you have installed the latest version of Skype or MSN Messenger 3 Navigate to the application then click Open ...

Page 47: ...t online When you select any of the VocalFX functions this message appears This message indicates that the recording device is set to microphone Ensure that the GX function is enabled Click OK to accept or Cancel if you want to enable it later Tick the Don t remind me again checkbox if you do not want to see this message again ...

Page 48: ...sence ST Audio Center icon on the taskbar then double click the icon to launch the Xonar Essence ST Audio Center utility If the icon is not displayed on the taskbar click Start All Programs ASUS Xonar Essence ST Audio Xonar Essence Audio Center to launch the Xonar Essence ST Audio Center Try installing the driver again I cannot hear any sound from my analog speakers Ensure that the power cable of ...

Page 49: ...changing it to 44 1K or 48KHz first I cannot hear audio input Mic Line in or AUX from my speakers Go to the Mixer recording page in the Xonar Essence ST Audio Center and select the correct input as the recording source If you are using Windows Vista go to the system audio control panel to ensure that the current default recording input device is correct Remember to turn on the digital monitoring b...

Page 50: ...s Vista 32 64 bit and most key features are available In addition Xonar Essence ST supports unique DS3D GX on Windows Vista which can recover DirectSound 3D hardware and EAX gaming sound effects on Windows Vista for many existing DirectX games Why does the Xonar Essence ST support Dolby technology Dolby is the ONLY brand and technology recognized by the CE industry and available on a wide range of...

Page 51: ...Xonar Essence ST for musicians Ultimate Fidelity Xonar Essence ST has the highest quality of audio in out for the cleanest sound production Duplex HD Supports audio sampling rates up to 24bit 192KHz for all inputs and outputs ASIO 2 0 Xonar Essence ST includes an ASIO 2 0 driver for low latency low distortion music creation application Will PCM sound output through S PDIF be limited to 2 channels ...

Page 52: ...by Digital and DTS Digital Surround bit stream from DVD or Blu ray disc titles The driver does not process all the audio data that passes through this digital device In most software DVD players audio settings you could choose Use S PDIF output or HDMI for HDMI output such as on HDAV1 3 The player then passes the audio through the Digital Output Device automatically Some devices require onboard au...

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