Xonar Essence ST Audio card User Manual
E4552 First Edition V1 March 2009 Copyright © 2009 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”).
Contents Notices........................................................................................................... v Safety information....................................................................................... vi Trademarks................................................................................................... vi License......................................................................................................... vi About this guide................................
Appendix: Troubleshooting and FAQs Troubleshooting.......................................................................................... 39 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)........................................................ 41 ASUS Contact information.........................................................................
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. • 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.
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.
About this guide This user guide contains the information you need when installing and configuring the motherboard. How this guide is organized This guide contains the following parts: • Chapter 1: Product introduction • Chapter 2: Getting Started • Chapter 3: Connecting speakers and peripherals This chapter describes the features of the Xonar Essense ST. This chapter tells how to install the audio card and its driver. This chapter tells how to connect the speakers and peripherals to the audio card.
Chapter 1 Product introduction Package contents • ASUS Xonar Essence ST PCI 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 If any of the above items is damaged or missing, contact your retailer. System requirements • One PCI slot for the audio card • Microsoft® Windows® Vista (32/64bit) / XP (32/64bit) / MCE2005 • Intel® Pentium® 4 1.
Specifications summary ITEM DESCRIPTION Audio Performance Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (AWeighted): 124dB for Front-out Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (AWeighted): 118dB Output Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (-3dB) : 0.0003% (-110dB) for Front-out Input Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (-3dB) : 0.0002% (-113dB) for Line-In Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/ 96kHz format): <10Hz to 80KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage 2 Vrms (5.
ITEM DESCRIPTION I/O Ports Analog Output Jack: RCA jack *2 (Front R/ Front L) 6.30mm jack *1 (Headphone out) Analog Input Jack: 6.
ITEM DESCRIPTION VocalFX™ Xonar Essence ST provides VocalFX, the latest vocal effect technologies for gaming and VoIP, including: • VoiceEX: produces vivid environmental reverberation for your voice to others in EAX games.
Xonar Essence ST card layout 6 1 7 8 2 3 4 9 5 10 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, connect 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, connect to the Front Left In port on the powered speakers.
4 Microphone In port Connect your external PC microphone to this port for voice input. It has a built-in high-quality Microphone pre-amplifier. Line In port Through an Ultra-high fidelity 118dB SNR A-D converter, 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. 5 SP/DIF Out port Coaxial and optical TOSLINK combo digital output port.
Chapter 2 Getting started Before you proceed Read the following notes and precautions before you install the audio card. • Disable the onboard audio device in the BIOS settings or uninstall any other sound cards on your computer. • For BIOS setting or uninstallation of other sound cards, refer to the user manuals of your motherboard and sound cards. • Turn off your computer and disconnect all peripherals connected to it. • Unplug the computer’s power cord from the power outlet.
5. Connect the power cable of your power supply unit (PSU) to the power connector of the audio card. Ensure that the power cable is connected properly. Otherwise, the audio card will not work. 6. Replace the chassis cover. 7 Plug the computer’s power cord into a power outlet. 8. Turn on your computer. Connecting to a TV tuner card If you have a traditional PCI TV tuner card on your computer, you may need to connect it to the Xonar Essence ST card to send the tuner card’s sound to your PC speakers.
Installing the audio card driver Ensure that you have installed the VGA card driver before installing the Xonar Essence ST driver. Otherwise, driver installation error may occur. To install the audio card driver: 1. After you have installed the Xonar Essence ST 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.
Chapter 3 Connecting speakers and peripherals Connecting digital speaker systems (Home Theater) The Xonar Essence ST 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.
Connecting stereo headphones Headphone Out The Headphone Out port has a built-in high-quality amplifier to driver headphones. Connect your stereo headphones to the headphone output ports on the Xonar Essence ST card.
Connecting 2/2.1 channel speakers 2 Speakers 2.1 Speakers 1 1 1 Front Right Out Front Left Out 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-to3.5mm Y cable, and then connect the Left/Right ends to the Front Left/Right Out ports on the Xonar Essence ST card.
Connecting a microphone 1 2 2 1 Front Right Out Front Left Out Mic In 2 1 Front Left/Right Out port/Headphone port 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 6.3mmto-3.5mm adapter for voice communication, recording, or karaoke.
Connecting Line-In audio sources 1 1 Line In 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/DTS sound processing through the Monitoring path. Refer to the Mixer section of the driver’s user manual.
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. If the icon is not shown on the taskbar, click Start > All Programs > ASUS Xonar Essence ST Audio > Xonar Essence ST Audio Center to launch the Xonar Audio Center.
2 Display Area The display area shows the 10-band signal meter, volume level, and the status of the Dolby/DTS technologies, EQ, and DSP modes. Note: this area just displays information, but is not used to alter settings. 3 Setting Menu Panel This panel gives access to setting tabs, including Main Settings, Mixer/volume, Effects, Karaoke, FlexBass, and VocalFX. 4 Information icon Click this icon to launch driver’s information window. 5 Menu Open/Close Click this button to display more settings.
Main Setting Sample Rate The sample rate determines the number of audio samples per second that the Digital-to-Analog Converters (DAC) and S/PDIF digital interface will output. The Xonar Essence ST card can support sample rates up to 192KHz (44.1K, 48K, 96K, 192KHz). Usually audio CDs and MP3 files are 44.1KHz; DVD-Video uses 48KHz; DVD-Audio or other HD media may contain 96KHz or 192KHz high-definition audio content.
Analog Out mode 1 2 3 1 Analog Out The Analog Out setting is used to match your actual speaker setting, such as headphones and 2/2.1 speakers. Xonar Essence ST will play the channels and do the proper 3D/Dolby sound processing 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.
SPDIF Out/DDL Xonar Essence ST is capable of outputting Dolby Digital Live, which is a real-time encoder that transcodes any audio, including games and music, into industrystandard Dolby Digital bit-streams on-the-fly. This is ideal for playback through a home theater system, creating an impressive cinema surround sound experience. It enables a single digital connection to carry high quality Dolby Digital surround audio from your PC to digital speakers and AV Receivers.
Audio Channels (For Vista only) This setting only appears in Windows® Vista. Windows® Vista delivers the audio channels to the audio driver according to this setting, no matter what the original audio content is or how many channels they have. Hence, you need to set this in accordance with your audio content before you play it. This setting is synchronized with Windows® Vista’s system speaker configuration and changing this setting during playback stops the audio playback program.
7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter The 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter has the following major features: • Expanding/upmixing audio to 7.1-channel surround sound • Virtualizing 7.1 surround sound over any set of speakers • Shiftable virtual speaker positioning allows you to adjust the best sound field easily without moving physical speakers and wires 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 1 Shifter enable/disable Tick this checkbox to enable the 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter.
6 Clockwise Click to rotate all speakers, except Subwoofer, clockwise. 7 Manual Rotation Manually drag and rotate all speakers, except Subwoofer. 8 Manual Drag Mode This is the default mode that allows you to manually drag each speaker or the listener with your mouse. Dolby Pro-Logic IIx Dolby Pro-Logic IIx is a 7.1 surround upmixing technology and is widely used in home theater systems, TVs, game consoles, and car audio systems.
Dolby Headphone Dolby Headphone creates a stunning multi-channel surround experience over ordinary stereo headphones for playing 3D games, watching 5.1 DVD movies, and listening to music. Dolby Headphone produces surround sound cues so realistic that you will believe you are listening over speakers in a well-controlled studio. Dolby Headphone can also improve listening comfort and reduce "listener fatigue" from long listening over headphones.
Dolby Virtual Speaker Dolby Virtual Speaker technology simulates a 5.1-speaker surround sound listening environment from as few as two speakers. Dolby Virtual Speaker also creates a wider two-channel environment during playback of stereo CDs and MP3 content, and when combined with Dolby Pro Logic® II processing, delivers a virtual 5.1-channel surround listening experience from any high-quality stereo source.
Mixer/Volume The Mixer feature is designed to control the volume for playback and recording on the Xonar Essence ST. In addition, the Xonar Essence ST also provides a highquality digital monitoring function for hearing the recorded audio from the speakers. You can also process the input signals with all playback sound effects such as Dolby and DTS technologies. Playback Volume 1 6 2 3 4 5 1 Playback volume tab Click this button to show the playback volume page.
Recording/Monitoring Volume 1 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Recording Volume Tab Click this button to show the recording volume page. 2 Left/Right balance This horizontal slider controls the volume between the left and right channels. 3 Recording volume slider Drag this slider down to decrease the recording volume. Drag up to increase the recording volume. The tool-tip reveals the percentage number from 1 to 100 in terms of the full scale level.
6 Monitoring button Click this button to monitor and loopback recording audio to outputs (PC speakers). Hence, the recording volume influences the monitoring signals from the speaker outputs. The audio is mixed into the streams you are playing out from your PC and all DSP effects is applied to the source, too. A typical benefit is to apply Dolby Pro-Logic IIx 7.1-ch spreading for your TV audio, CD, MP3, or stereo game console audio from Wii, Xbox, and PS2/PS3/PSP.
Effects Environment Effects Use environment effects to create realistic listening experiences that mimic different environments. There are a total of 27 environment options that can be applied to all 2D sound sources such as music. 3 1 2 28 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.
10-Band Equalizer The equalizer modifies the audio output for different frequencies, and is used to compensate for deficiencies in your speakers/systems. There are 12 default patterns and you can also customize your own settings. 1 3 2 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.
Karaoke The Xonar Essence ST provides powerful features for Karaoke, including KeyShifting, Vocal Cancellation, and Microphone Echo. Key-Shifting changes the pitch of Karaoke background music, and Vocal Cancellation reduces the original vocal in songs and keep the music and symphony for karaoke. 5 1 2 3 4 30 1 On/Off Click the switch to turn on or off the karaoke functions.
FlexBass FlexBass, an advanced bass management and enhancement mechanism, allows you to select each satellite speaker’s type for optimal sound performance from the speakers. The Speaker types are: • Small: common speaker that cannot produce low frequencies. • Large: wide-band speakers that can produce low frequencies well. FlexBass comes with an adjustable crossover frequency for the boundary of the bass signals.
3 Picture for Small/Large speaker Colors for small/large speakers are different. • Orange: large speakers • Green: small speakers 4 LFE Crossover Frequency Adjusts the cut-off frequency (20~250Hz) for LFE (low-frequency effects) signals. Xonar Essence ST filters out the bass signals below the crossover frequency from small speaker channels and forwards them to the subwoofer. The higher the crossover frequency, the more bass signals are subtracted.
3 2 1 1 SVN On/Off Click this button to enable SVN. When 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.
DS3D GX and DSP Modes Xonar Essence ST is introducing an innovative technology –DirectSound 3D Game Extensions v1.0 (DS3D GX 1.0)- to restore DirectSound 3D Hardware acceleration mode and its subsidiary EAX effects on Windows® Vista for 3D games. Unlike some proprietary API like OpenAL, DS3D GX does not require games to support OpenAL API. All existing games compatible with Microsoft DirectX and DirectSound 2D/3D are supported with DS3D GX technology.
3 4 2 5 1 1 GX Mode DirectSound 3D Game Extensions mode to support EAX and DirectSound 3D Hardware extensions for lots of DirectX/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.
VocalFX VocalFX is an innovative voice processing technology to let your voice get into the realistic game landscape (VoiceEX) or to emulate the background scenes in an online chat (ChatEX). It also allows you to change your voice pitch to disguise who you are (Magic Voice). These features dramatically increase the fun for voice communication on your PC. 3 4 5 1 2 1 VoiceEX It produces realistic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication.
For 3D Games 1. Tick the VoiceEX and Local VoiceEX checkboxes. 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 Skype or MSN Messenger. 3. Locate the application from the list, then click Open to launch it.
4. Your VOIP application has been added to the list. 5. Tick the ChatEX and Magic Voice checkboxes to chat online. When you select any of the VocalFX functions, this message appears: This message implies that the record device is set to microphone. Ensure that the GX function is enabled. Click OK to accept it, 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.
Appendix Troubleshooting and FAQs Troubleshooting I cannot install the audio card driver on my computer. • Ensure that you have properly plugged the audio card in the PCI slot on your motherboard. • Check that the Windows hardware device manager has discovered a multimedia audio device. If no device is found, please try scanning for new hardware. • Try rebooting your computer. • Remove the card, plug it into another PCI slot, and try again. I cannot find the Xonar Essence ST Audio Center.
• Check if you are using a Dolby Digital Live encoder through the S/PDIF output. If this is the case, the analog output is muted to get rid of any interference between your digital speaker system and analog speakers or headphones. • Try rebooting your computer. I cannot hear any sound from the S/PDIF output. • Ensure that you have enabled S/PDIF output in the Xonar Essence ST Audio Center.
I found no sound effects when playing 96K or 192KHz sound sources. • Currently Xonar Essence ST effects including Dolby supports common 44.1K, 48KHz sound sources processing and provides high-definition audio (96K/192KHz) in hi-fidelity playback. This is also usually the behavior that professional audiophiles and musicians prefer. • If you still want to have the effects, you can use some editing software such as Ableton Live, Cakewalk, CoolEdit, or Soundforge to convert the sounds into 48KHz files. 3.
Does the Xonar Essence ST support EAX on Windows® Vista? Yes, Xonar Essence ST supports EAX2.0 on both Windows® XP and Vista through the innovative DirectSound3D Game EXtensions v1.0 (DS3D GX 1.0) technology. Why do I need Dolby for PC games? • Dolby Digital and Pro-Logic IIx are available on the latest game consoles, like XBOX360, PS3, and Wii. Dolby provides the best gaming sound experience and compatibility with home theater or TV systems.
When I selected “Digital Output device” as the default audio playback device on Windows® Vista, the sound effects and UI controls do not work. For Xonar sound cards on Windows® Vista, there are usually two audio devices: Speakers and Digital Out Device such as S/PDIF. Speakers is the default device. Use this device to fully control the sound effects on the Xonar Audio Center, the driver’s GUI.
44 ASUS Xonar Essence ST
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