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Xonar Essence ST
Audio card
User Manual
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E4552 Second Edition V1 October 2012 Copyright © 2012 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”). Product warranty or service will not be extended
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Contents Notices .......................................................................................................... v Safety information ...................................................................................... vi Trademarks .................................................................................................. vi License ........................................................................................................ vi About this guide ...................
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Appendix: Troubleshooting and FAQs Troubleshooting ......................................................................................... 39 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ....................................................... 41 ASUS Contact information ........................................................................ 45 iv
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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. These limits are designed to provide reaso
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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 signal 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.
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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 This chapter describes the features of the Xonar Essense ST. • Chapter 2: Getting Started This chapter discusses how to install the audio card and its driver. • Chapter 3: Connecting speakers and peripherals This chapter discusses how to connect the speakers and peripherals to
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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 1.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU • 256 MB (or above
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Specifications summary ITEM DESCRIPTION Audio Performance Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A- 124dB for Front-out Weighted): 117dB for Headphone-out at 600ohms Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A- 118dB Weighted): Output Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise 0.0003% (-110dB) for Front-out at 1kHz (-3dB) : 0.001% (-100dB) for Headphone-out Input Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise 0.0002% (-113dB) for Line-In at 1kHz (-3dB) : Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/ <10Hz to 80KHz 96kHz format): Output/Input Full-S
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ITEM DESCRIPTION I/O Ports Analog Output Jack: RCA jack *2 (Front R/ Front L) 6.30mm jack *1 (Headphone out) Analog Input Jack: 6.30mm jack *1 (Shared by Line-In/Mic-In) Digital S/PDIF Output: High bandwidth Coaxial/TOSLINK combo port supports 192kHz/24bit Other line-level analog input (for TV Aux-In (4-pin header on the card) Tuner or CD-ROM): Front Panel: Shared by Headphone out/ 2 channels out/ Microphone in Driver Features ® Operating System Windows Vista (32/64-bit) / XP (32/64-bit)
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ITEM DESCRIPTION VocalFX™ Xonar Essence ST provides VocalFX, the latest vocal effect technologies for gaming and VoIP, including: • V oiceEX: produces vivid environmental reverberation for your voice to others in EAX games. • Local VoiceEX: enables yourself to hear the vivid environmental reverberation by your speakers • ChatEX: emulates dif ferent background environment effects when you chat online Smart Volume Normalizer™ Normalizes the volume of all audio sources into a constant leve
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Xonar Essence ST card layout 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 9 5 10 Front Right Out port 1 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. Front Left Out port 2 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. Headphone Out port 3 Connect your headphones
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Microphone In port 4 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. SP/DIF Out port 5 Coaxial and optical TOSLINK combo digital output port. Connect to external digital decoder or digital s
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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. • To avoid sta
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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 spe
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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. If Autorun is enabled in your sy
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10 ASUS Xonar Essence ST
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Chapter 3 Connecting speakers and peripherals Connecting digital speaker systems (Home Theater) The Xonar Essence ST supports Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive technologies, which transcode any audio, including games and music, into industry-standard Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 surround bit-streams. This makes playback through your home theater system possible, creating an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience. A single digital cable connection can carry high-quality
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Connecting stereo headphones Headphone Out 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. 12 ASUS Xonar Essence ST
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Connecting 2/2.1 channel speakers 2 Speakers 2.1 Speakers 1 1 1 Front Right Out Front Left Out Front Left/Right Out 1 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. ASUS Xonar Essence ST 13
