The ASUS Xonar Essence STX comes with a lot of features for a stereo sound card.  By stereo, they mean dolby 2, not 2.1, 5 or any other number, there are a total of 2 channels which is perfect for headphones.  You can buy headphones that emulate 5.1 sound, but the tend not to be up to the quality that an audiophile demands.  If you are the type that picks up headphones worth hundreds of dollars and are looking to plug them into a source that can provide the same quality that your headphones can, check out Techgage’s review.

“The majority of the high-end PC audio cards targeted at enthusiasts typically focus on multi-channel performance, with a variety of decoding modes, DSP enhancements, and other features tossed in. The Xonar Essence STX from ASUS has an entirely different focus – delivering audiophile-quality stereo output.”

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Audio Corner