Dimitri’s Burson V6 Vivid Opamp with ASUS Xonar Essence STX

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I would have to say that this was quite the upgrade for my sound card. I have been using the essence STX for a while and as soon as I switched the op-amps out I could clearly tell the difference in quality, bass, and sound stage. I tested the audio with DT990 Pro 250OHM, ATH AD-700, and ATH-M50x. Every pair of cans sounded much better in all categories. Overall I would say it’s a nice upgrade if you already have a bunch of money put into your setup. I found a user who cut a chunk of the metal plate off in order to fix the 2 op-amps for headphone audio. I am thinking of doing this since I don’t use RCA much.

The System

Listening with

ASUS Xonar Essence STX · Sound card: PCIe sound card with headphone amp · discontinued
  • Frequency response: 10 Hz – 90 kHz (-3 dB, 16-bit/44.1 kHz input)
  • Output impedance: not published
  • Output voltage: RCA 2 Vrms (line out, RCA/3.5)
  • Gain: not published
  • Inputs: 1x 6.3 mm line/mic in; aux (4-pin header)
  • Outputs: 1x 6.3 mm headphone; 2x RCA; S/PDIF out (optical/coax combo)
  • DAC / chipset: TI Burr-Brown PCM1792A; ASUS AV100 processor (192 kHz/24-bit)
  • Other: SNR (A) 124 dB front-out / 117 dB headphone-out; THD+N 1 kHz 0.0003% (front) / 0.001% (headphone); headphone voltage not published

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Burson

Burson V6 Vivid Opamp

Specs from manufacturer data unless a source below says otherwise. “calc.” values are worked out from those figures (V = √(P × R); 110 dB SPL used as a loud reference level). Gear listed without specs is not in our spec library yet.

  1. ASUS Xonar Essence STX: archived page (web.archive.org)