ASUS Xonar Essence ST 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Audio Card

I've had this card for a year now and its probably one of the best/most noticeable upgrades I've done in awhile short of a SSD, I listen to alot of music and play alot of games in the later hours of the evening so headphones are pretty much mandatory so I dont wake up the entire neighborhood, I messed around with the OP amps some but kept coming back to the default ones, they seem to be the best balance for me, others might like different ones which is the best part about being able to swap them. Overall I think this card is one of the best out there for the money if your using headphones most of the time.

This is a great card I currently run it with my Beyerdynamic DT 990s and they sound great together. My card before this was a DX and there was a pretty good jump in audio quality even when not using the AMP. I knew this card would sound great with headphones because of the onboard amp but what I wasn't expecting was the added kick with my speaker, I plugged them in and while the bass has always been good with my DX as soon as I changed to the ST it had so much more power. My only real complaint is that it is PCI, yes I know there is the STX with PCIe but the sound from the ST is a bit better. A great card especially if you can find it used for $130.