ASIO with Asus Xonar Essence STX

[perryoops]

I'm a newbie starting to play music server and had bought Asus xonar Essence STX sound card to play with Media Monkey
I've download and installed OUT_ASIO_full.dll from the web and it works fine, but what confuses me are

1) Xonar Essence STX also has its own ASIO? am I right? .......I saw it in the drop-down list, so should it sounds better instead of choosing ASIO?
2) I've difficulties setting up [ASIO Output Setting] page, anyone can guide me this? for example, do I have to make a tick at "Resampling"??
3) How can I know what's my file sampling rates are while playing? Can I force out every file to 24/192?
thanks

[abhiroopb]

I have similar queries.

I just installed the DLL and not sure what I should be doing to receive the "best" possible sound.

Space Audio 2.0 Satellite Speakers
JBL Power20 Amplifier
KOK Subwoofer - 16Hz - 160Hz, 6.5", 30W (RMS) 60W (Max)\
Sound Card – Asus Xonar Essence STX
MediaMonkey v3.2

I have no idea what ASIO is and how it works, so any help would be appreciated!

[Peke]

ASIO works so that output format is the same as Input format to avoid quality loss. In windows Vista and 7 WASAPI is successor of ASIO and Microsoft way of improving Direct Sound (DirectX Sound) output which is handled by driver.

Simply said ASIO and WASAPI should send non-changed Audio stream directly to sound card that passes it then to DAC (at least that is how I understand that) so no quality is lost.

[abhiroopb]

Thanks for the response!

Basically, you know what my setup is, and like I said I am trying to figure out how I can get the best sound. The variables (i.e. things I can change at this point):

1. Input codec – if there is anything better than the default MP3 codec then I’d like to try it out

2. Input format – I want to try out FLAC, but right now I want to get the best I can out of my MP3 collection (NB: 30% of my songs are at 320kbps, 60% of songs are above 256kbps, 100% are above 192kbps).

3. Media Player – obviously I want to use MediaMonkey as this is the one that works best for my 10,000+ music collection. However, if there are any useful scripts addons to make things better I’d like to know.

4. Output Codec – I have gone to this site http://otachan.com/out_asio(dll).html and downloaded the “normal” DLL file.
- What is the difference between the “normal” one and the “SSE” one?
- I tried downloading the x64 DLL file (as I have a Windows 7 x64) from here http://otachan.com/out_asio(x64).html and it came with a .exe file. I copied both into the plugins folder. MM started fine but whenever I clicked on a song to play it the song greyed out and did not play. So, I went back to the “normal” ASIO DLL. So, which is the current best one for me to use?
- Are there any other codecs I should be looking at?

5. Windows 7 x64 – are there any Windows specific settings I can change to ensure I am getting the best sound?

6. Sound Card – I have an Asus Xonar Essence STX. From what I understand ASIO support is built in, what settings should I change to ensure I am getting the best possible sound quality. Are there any new drivers which work “better”. I just went to the ASUS website and downloaded the latest drivers for Windows 7. Are there any scripts or anything I need to tweak?

Anything else I missed?

Obviously, the main thing is the ASIO driver and how that works, hence any assistance on that matter is much appreciated!