said by boogi man:Ok, I'm not much of a fan of CL and thusly can't recommend them(will not side track the thread with the why's)
ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo
seems to be a good choice.
Doesn't have the burrbrowns or the op amps of the other Asus unit you'd looked at but is a full on 7.1 channel card with otherwise rather impressive features such as the emi shielding, additional grounding paths and selectable amp gain based on your needs.
OK, so in either technical or dummy language, can you explain why the Phoebus is a better choice over the ASUS Xonar Essence STX? There's a $30 difference--is it just gaming branding or are there technical differences?