How does this compare to Asus Essence STX II. I had to struggle with adding the power for the Essence sound card...but am not sure if Sound Blaster needs any extra power connection?
HohdudeCreative are the only one that still do a chunk of processing in hardware aside from just being a DAC/Amp. Asus and Power Cooler (?) seem to do sound emulation (software) for most of it. I think this is a much better product.