Asus Xonar Essence STX I vs STX II

[Tafel_Kafel]

What's the difference? Is it worth getting the II for ATH-AD700 rather than the first version? The II is more expensive by like 63 'Murican dollars here.

[SSL]

Might as well get neither if your onboard is working and you don't hate money. Use Razer software for that echo effect in games if you're into that kind of thing.

[EmoRarity]

Might as well get neither if your onboard is working and you don't hate money. Use Razer software for that echo effect in games if you're into that kind of thing.

But muh qualities for easy to drive headphones.

[Lauen]

if my research is even remotely correct, the II is actually worse due to nearly 40 ohm output impedance, rendering it useless for headphones with less than 320 ohm impedance. an external DAC + amp setup is miles better. an example of this is Schiit Magni + Modi (or other things from Schiit) or the O2 and ODAC. or the Fiio E10K, or Syba DAC (found on ebay and amazon at least) or the new Schiit Fulla (which sadly has some issues with the first batch)

 

out of all of those, I'd get the o2 and ODAC for the adjustable gain and extremely low output impedance.

[BoredErica]

if my research is even remotely correct, the II is actually worse due to nearly 40 ohm output impedance, rendering it useless for headphones with less than 320 ohm impedance. an external DAC + amp setup is miles better. an example of this is Schiit Magni + Modi (or other things from Schiit) or the O2 and ODAC. or the Fiio E10K, or Syba DAC (found on ebay and amazon at least) or the new Schiit Fulla (which sadly has some issues with the first batch)

 

out of all of those, I'd get the o2 and ODAC for the adjustable gain and extremely low output impedance.

Let's see JJ talk his way out of that.