Help with Soundcard issues or Help Picking Replacement

Hey all, I’ve been having an issue with my sound card ever since I got a new PC with Windows 11 and it’s driving me crazy. I am not the most experienced with the finer points of audio. Its only the last few years I started getting into high end audio. That said, I got a Asus Essence Stx ii and I can distinctly appreciate the quality difference between it and onboard. It worked fine on Windows 10. The problem is, on the new PC, there’s this issue I have no idea how to troubleshoot. Randomly, when there is no audio playing, when a new sound/video/something with audio starts I will get this loud screeching through my headphones. I can only get it to stop by switching to another sound output and back again in sound settings. It will never happen if audio is currently playing (I’ve taken to having a minimum volume video of background fan noise on at all times). Very very rarely, this feedback will play through my microphone (mic is not part of headset; it is a Blue Yeti usb mic. when this happens people I am on call with on Discord hear the terrible screech but not me; also fixed by switching to and from the microphone as the input device).

I have seen other topics about Asus cards having a screeching issue but, as I’ve mentioned, it worked fine on my Windows 10 PC. I am not sure what could be different here, though I know there aren’t Windows 11 specific drivers. If anyone has any idea at all that could help, I would appreciate it.

Alternatively, if there truly is no solution, does anyone have a suggestion for a replacement soundcard with equivalent or better quality? I had an external Creative Sound BlasterX G6 but the audio quality to my ears is awful compared to the STX ii. And I really, really value the 7.1 effect the STX ii produces in my headset.

For reference, my headset is a Sennheiser 660s and the motherboard is a Asus Prime Z690-P

I feel reasonably confident that this is your problem. If you roll back to Windows 10, I do think your problem would magically go away.

Alternatively you could try drivers ‘modded’ to work with Windows 11, like these:

Disclaimer: I have not used these drivers myself and can’t really vouch for them. Personally I’d just roll back to Windows 10.

1 Like

I am beginning to really think that is the problem. Sadly, after trying several different variations of the UNi drivers, I have to write those off as a solution. From my understanding the STX ii has reached it’s end of life as well, in terms of no new drivers being made. I’ll keep an eye to for future updates for the UNi drivers, but I don’t have high hopes. I just dread having to order and return several different other cards/DACs until I find something that sounds like the STX ii. The directional audio on it is amazing for gaming, as is the sound quality. I’m wary of buying external devices without input after hearing the quality difference between the G6 and what I have now.

EDIT: My current PC came with Windows 11, and I no longer have my old one as I sold it to a roommate who needed an upgrade, so rolling back is sadly not an option.

Ah that is a bummer. Honestly, though, most audiophiles I know go for external devices, usually citing interference inside the chassis. Myself, I haven’t had any problem with either internal or external devices as far as sound quality goes. But then again I’m probably not as discerning as others.

I’ve only recently got super into the audiophile side of PC gaming. Always been a high spender on PC parts and monitors and finally got to the audio side. I just got a suggestion for a Sennheiser GSX 1000 on a reddit thread I made so I may try that since amazon can have it to me in a day, and I can return it if it doesn’t sound as good. While I haven’t had interference from the internal card yet, I suppose if external is better I should move to it eventually.

I have two ‘media’ PCs, one with an internal sound card the other with an external DAC/amp stack. The sound card is an ancient Creative X-Fi Music Xtreme (PCI bus, natch) but still sounds marginally better than the brand new stack on my other PC (Focusrite Scarlett Solo + Sterling SHA4 amp.) I find that audio is highly subjective though, and what I like could easily sound like garbage to someone else.

True enough. For all I know I could be getting ‘improper’ audio with the way I have the sound card setup (though I just have it in hifi mode which turns off all enhancements, I believe). All I know is it sounds better to me. I suppose I’ll have to just compare them and go from there. I do appreciate the input though. I’ll still see if I can find anything regarding Windows 11 solutions but probably just gonna drop the $200 on the Sennheiser at this point.

its a 24bit 44.1 kHz (min) - 192 kHz (max) audio solution.
a lot of modern middle to high end motherboards now have 32bit up to 384khz recording and playback.
so should actually be better apart from the high impedance output. but even then some offer that option too.

you say you like the stx ii output over other stuff you tried.
that’s likely asus’s post processing.
or your source audio is 24bit so wont hear any difference from the higher bitrate encoding.
there actually is a difference between 24 and 32bit, unlike 192khz and 384khz (just adds more electrical noise)

so in theory if you have a decent modern onboard solution, your shouldn’t need an older sound card.
and will in fact be limited by the older hardware.

as i said its likely asus’s post processing/audio modelling that’s making you think its a better solution.
its like upscaling your games from 1080p to 1440p…
it looks good but its not as sharp as it could be.
then you see it at 1440p and it looks sharp, so sharp you can now see the jaggies of the antialiasing.
and while you appreciate the clarity your kinda missing the softer image because the jaggies are so noticeable.

a solution for this is in audio is add a valve dac to your onboard chain.
the valve will give a warm valve tone which is likely what asus modelled on the soundcard to get its richer warmer tone.

edit i just checked your onboard its 24bit. 192khz too, so really should have been comparable.
if your liking one over the other then its likely down to post processing/amp modelling done on the soundcard. which as i said can be modelled with a valve dac (different valves give different tone options).

anyways… thats my 2 bob.

1 Like

Welcome to the forum @Frost_Aegis !

You never said your budget. How much are you willing to spend? Soundcards are already a “solved” problem on the motherboard side, mostly by Realtek Audio. They are “good” enough for general use but If you want something better, the old paradigm of internal PCI/PCIe soundcards is pretty much dead at this point and the prosumer has moved towards external devices like the Modi+Magni which will cost you 99+129 USD.

Alternatively, there is Fulla (109 USD, also from Schiit)

At any rate, r/budgetaudiophile is your friend.

2 Likes

Forgive my ignorance on the finer points of audio matters, but what post-processing would there be via the STX ii if I have most of the options set to off? I really just have it set to 8 channel audio because the directional sound is so much better with it. Additionally, what exactly is a valve dac and what would you recommend? I do want to learn/upgrade my audio setup, and I’m willing to spend a few hundred if necessary.

Budget-wise I am willing to spend a few hundred. I have seen the modi+magni suggestion on reddit. The only problem is I got the impression it didn’t have 7.1/directional audio, or was I mistaken? For how often I game (literally all the time) that is a facet of the STX I have come to immensely value.

if its splitting the audio into 8 channels then its post processing somewhere.
as to how, i have no actual clue other than the chips used are different so will operate differently but produce roughly the same output.

i had a quick google and there is a selection of 32bit internal soundcards.
but then i saw jame’s take and thought id share it.

Ltt James: Where did soundcards go.

his final comments say it all really.

you can now have rgb.

… anyway i concur with james. an external dac would probably be all you need.
as to which, you will have to decide what features you want.
oh and on that…
go for a 24bit one.
you wont see any benefit from using a 32bit one, and may even degrade your experience.

or if you want the full fat, get a soundcard and risk the drivers.

oh on drivers. you cant turn off uac in win 11? and install the driver with win10 compatibility mode?.
if they install you can enable uac again an the drivers still might work.

I could install the various drivers just fine, they just didn’t solve the issue. But regardless, for features I suppose it would just be 8 channel audio and the highest quality, pure sound I could get (within a few hundred dollars budget). I’m not that experienced in the audio world so I was hoping I might get a few suggestions on what may be suitable. In desperation I ordered a Sennheiser gsx 1000 as a possibly temporary replacement so I don’t have my ears destroyed since it supposedly had decently rated sound and very good surround sound, but other than that I see a lot of different, sometimes conflicting opinions on a good starting point for a DAC. I am a simple person in that I will probably never touch an equalizer, I want my audio as ‘pure’ and high quality, yet unaltered, as possible other than having the 8 channel/7.1

There isn’t enough space in your ear between the earphone drivers to properly do 7.1 audio. Schiit would lose credibility if it claims things it can’t actually do. High fidelity is what most people are after especially when it comes to music - how much can the hardware actually copy the in-person experience of hearing musical instruments. The above hardware recommendation is focused on the reproduction of studio recorded music.

Now, I understand your situation. I used to love artificial artificial post-processing. It’s like adding sugar to an already good drink. Besides, lasers, monsters and space ships are likewise make believe and equally artificial sounds. The thing is, post-processing is best done on the OS/software level. This reminds me of the old DFX plugin for Winamp:

dfx

The problem is this is just specifically for the old Winamp software and I do not know how to reproduce this on a global/OS level.

1 Like

So, if I am understanding correctly, there shouldn’t be a difference in directional audio between onboard or my STX? I definitely do hear a much better quality/ability to discern the directions of noise with the card than without. I know it’s not ‘real’ surround sound, as I would need a legitimate 7.1 speaker system for that, but I don’t know how else to refer to whatever system the card uses to produce the directional audio I have come to appreciate. Is there a solution that produces high fidelity music that also produces the seemingly accurate directional audio? That’s really what I’m looking for.

So, I wanted to post a quick update to something I discovered which, partially, makes me feel a bit dense. As well as the advice here making me second-guess my perception of audio quality. Regardless, for some reason, even though I know I checked this when I first was testing this problem, Windows was set to 16bit instead of 24bit for the onboard audio. Fixing that somewhat helped, but what really made a difference was setting it back to 5.1 surround. The quality now is comparable to the STX enough that I can use the onboard til I find a direct upgrade. Except for one problem. WIndow’s 5.1 solution has great position for every direction except directly behind me. I compared the same noise in the same situation between STX and onboard and there were sounds I could not at all hear via the onboard that I could hear (as well as distinctly tell they were behind me).

Having the onboard set to stereo has better positional audio so I can hear behind me, but then the quality is seemingly not as good, but as I said now I’m second-guessing if the audio I’m used to on the STX (and now 5.1 onboard) is true vs the onboard audio set to stereo. The easiest way I’m comparing the quality difference is through gaming (which is how I first noticed it) by switching back and forth between devices and comparing the sound of a molotov+fire in Hunt: Showdown. I don’t know if my adjectives are correct but the fire sounds more full with the STX/onboard on 5.1 whereas onboard in stereo sounds… Scratchy? Abrasive?

I am perhaps more confused now on the intricacies of sound quality than before I started.

To confuse you further :wink: - you could try to enable Windows spatial sound and see if it solves the sound stage issue in games. Usually “Windows Sonic for headphones” is build in, you can also enable a Dolby trial.

2 Likes

You need blind A/B testing to be really be sure if your preferrences are real or just preconceptions of “good sound”.

Do you prefer 7.1 audio for gaming or music? If you want it for gaming, then I would not recommend the modi+magni stack. That’s going to produce stereo sound (2.0 or 2.1). Now if you want that for music, that’s a whole different subject I can’t address.

Now for gaming, a lot of people swear by “3D audio” or 5.1/7.1 audio. In headset form, I honestly can’t tell much difference between stereo and “3D audio” which is almost always software trickery to emulate multiple drivers in your headphones instead of two.

Way back when I had a headset with 6 actual drivers in it, and it was hard for me to get a 3d effect even when there were physically separate drivers. It’s even less noticeable when there’s emulation trying to produce the effect.

Now that’s not to diminish your experience. If it works for you great, but you will need to find a solution that can provide decent 3d audio for you. Unfortunately I can’t guide you on that one, since the effect doesn’t work so well for me. Best advice would be to go online and check out reviews of audio cards, whether they’re internal or external. By far the best way is to actually audition the hardware in question and make sure it does what you expect from it. If a live audition is not possible, use a store or online retailer with a no-questions-asked return policy.

1 Like

The desire for 7.1 type effects were primarily for gaming. However, after playing around with some settings and doing some testing in games I think the positional audio of the motherboard is a lot better than my initial impression led me to believe when I first set up this PC. At the very least, it works well enough that I would rather try to invest in an objective fidelity upgrade to audio quality. I am seeing the modi+magni recommended quite often in a lot of places so I might have to look into that. It seems to be a good starting point if nothing else for getting into much better audio quality. Though I can’t tell if I should order the 3E version or wait til I can order the Multibit iteration of the Modi, as the latter seems to be a better version?

1 Like