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Oh baby, I was about to sign on to my eBay account, but why... there's going to be a review on the Muse soon! I can't wait for your thoughts before I order mine, lol. Good man RobertTilson, do it for the team!

I'm very interested in this Muse DAC, but I also have my eye on the Zero DAC. They cost about the same. Could I expect similar performance from these two devices? I intend to hook one of these up to my computer, and amp my Sennheiser HD-580's.

The Muse Audio USB DAC-AMP I order finally came today. I've hooked it up, and have begun putting in my burn-in hours. Review to follow; sorry for the delay, but the shipping is really quite slow from Muse Audio.

If you want to get someone a DAC-AMP for Christmas, don't buy one of these on eBay: good chance it won't be where it needs to go by the 25th. By contrast Tam, who sells the Aune on eBay, uses a MUCH more expedited shipping method. Just Something to think about.

My Muse DAC also arrived today. I bought mine on 11/24/09 off of ebay. so it is a little bit of a wait, I think the seller states 15-20 working days. My first impression was "theres no feet on the unit" maybe thats common, im just getting into the headphone sence, My Grado RA-1 has feet though. I know it needs to burn in, but out of the box I like the amplification better than the Grado( More Powerfull ) I hope to check back with a reveiw once it is burned in. tonight Im checking it out with my Grado Allesandros MS2's and some Senn HD580's. My Grado HF2's are out getting recabled

Good Luck All
Djphatp

All in all, mine took about a month to arrive; it’s good to know that some people are getting them quicker.

I’ve noticed that a good number of these less expensive headphone amps don’t seem to have feet (whereas many of the more pricey ones do). I think this is a shame -- it seems to me that adding some feet to the device would increase the production costs only slightly, but improve the appearance substantially.

The first thing that caught my attention about this unit was the two bright blue LEDs on the front. I wish that electronics manufacturers would refrain from all the bright lights on the front of everything, as these can be distracting under certain circumstances. A great example of LEDs ruining a decent piece of equipment can be found in the ZVOX 425xs.

The ZVOX 425xs is a soundbar which is supposed to emulate surround sound. While, in my experience no soundbar system really does emulate surround sound all that well, the ZVOX was a fairly nice little speaker system. However, the system had, quite literally, one glaring flaw: a bright blue LED on the face of the unit which would stay illuminated while in use. Think about this: naturally, a soundbar is intended to be placed just below eye level in front of a TV screen, so anyone watching the TV (possibly in a dimly lit room) will be forced to stare at the blue light the whole time. I didn’t own this system so I couldn’t do anything about it permanently, but I did place a small piece of black electrical tape over the spot where the light shown through the grating during the week I was using it.

Sorry about the rant, this is really off topic.

Did you guys buy the Muse from this Ebay seller? USB DAC + Headphone Amplifier(PCM2707+DIR9001+PCM1793) - eBay (item 280436292958 end time Dec-14-09 07:59:47 PST)

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I did.

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So did I, last monday. Did it take yours long to arrive (to Australia I assume)?

Yes mine came from that seller also. Im done burning it in but am waiting for my Grado HF2's to come back with the Moon Black Dragon cable Installed to test it with. Cant wait

Djphatp

Front Panel
The body of the Muse USB headphone amp is virtually identical to the Aune in both construction and dimension; the principle difference between the two, at least in terms of appearance, is the faceplate and the far less weighty volume knob. Despite this, the turning of the potentiometers is about the same (meaning that turning volume up or down “feels” about the same on both devices); however, the Muse’s volume control feels far more plastic to the touch than the sturdy metal knob found on the Aune. The difference in terms of atheistic quality is dependant upon one’s own taste: many seem to find the faceplate and volume knob of the Aune to be superior in this respect to the Muse, but this is purely a matter of opinion.

Like the Aune, the Muse has two switches, two LEDs, and one headphone input on the front of the device. The LEDs and switches work in the same way on both devices. Though, as I have complained before, the LEDs on the front of the Muse are too bright. I suspect that many of the people who buy headphone amps like the Muse or Aune are planning on hooking them up in their bedrooms probably along with their desktop computer or laptop (just a guess, but I suspect that this is the case for many potential buyers). If you like to sleep in darkness you might have some problems with these lights, if you want a blue nightlight, you’ll love the Muse. The Muse does not have a power switch either, so unless you plan on unplugging the unit every night, you might need to consider the placement of your headphone amp carefully.




Rear Panel
Of much greater importance to the performance (and appearance, I would argue), is the lower quality connections on the back of the unit. In particular, the SPDIF coaxial input on the Muse seems like a cheap parody of the gold-tinted coaxial port which protrudes from the Aune. Additionally, the USB input on the rear of the Muse doesn’t seem to hold my USB cable quite a snuggly as does the Aune, but I suppose that this may be just a quirk of the individual unit and not a problem common to all of the Muse owners. Despite this, I have had no problems whatsoever with getting a decent connection; thanks in part to the digital dichotomy of “either you get it or you don’t,” I can honestly say that I have not had any issues of disconnection or quality degeneration due to the rear panel inputs -- in this respect the Aune and Muse seem identical.

The chief point on which the Muse amp can claim superiority to the Aune is that it, unlike the Aune, boast a TOSLINK input. I have brought up this point several times to Jeffery Tam, and while my campaigning for the inclusion of a power switch on the back of the Aune seems to have been successful, there is still, to my knowledge, no plans to introduce an Aune which features a TOSLINK input. To my mind, this is a clear win for the Muse: TOSLINK has become the standard digital connection on most audio devices, for connectivity reasons, you may find that NEED an optical connection even if you want a coaxial one. For the record, the Muse amp DOES NOT decode Dolby Digital of any sort -- if you are going to be using this headphone amp with your TV, PS3, etc., set the output to PCM. The issue of propriety encoding/decoding formats is one of the curses of the digital age, and I suspect that it will only get worse over the next few decades.


Peripherals
The power adapter that shipped with the Muse is clearly superior to the one Tam is sending out with the Aune, but I suspect that this will change with time. The headphone adapters (if you happen to be using a headphone set with a 1/8” plug, but don’t have an adapter for 1/4”) and USB cables shipped with both the Aune and Muse are all of fairly low quality, though I doubt this has much swaying powering for potential buyers anyway.

Packing and Shipping
Aune wins hands down. Both the Aune and the Muse were packed fairly well, but if you buy your Aune through Tam, you can expect fast delivery and good communication; with Muse Audio I can’t make any guarantees, and I’ve had difficulties in contacting them with both technical and practical questions.

Conclusion (part 1)
The Muse sells on eBay for less than the Aune. While I can’t say anything about durability yet, I will say that the Muse doesn’t seem any more or less flimsy of a device than the Aune. So if you are trying to figure out which one to get don’t worry that the Muse will be a cheaper construction simply because if cost less. It is true that some of the components are of cheaper quality, but so far these have not presented any serious problem, thus making the decision between the two more about looks than functionality. In my opinion, the Aune looks better than the Muse, but I think that depends on your prospective; the Muse has a bit more of a “classic rock” feel to it (I’m not sure I can really clarify or qualify that statement, it’s just an impression) than does the Aune. If you are planning on hooking up a TV or gaming system that needs optical do not hesitate to pick up a Muse, but if you have the extra cash, and want something that will make an impression visually, go for the Aune.

In the next section of the review I will be addressing the sound quality. I’ll test the amp out on my AKG701s, some sound-isolating headphones, and some custom speakers.

Does the muse have the opamps in opamp sockets?

the lack of a power switch in the Muse is definetly a negative for me. The idea or unplugging and plugging is not too appealing to me. But at that price point, it is very tempting.

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No.

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It's fairly easy to reach behind and flick out the plug. It really depends on how much power the Muse consumes.

Here's a couple of small points. The lights on the Muse indeed are too bright; it could be worth putting a small strip of electrical tape over them. I've found everything electrical from China glows bright blue. The lack of an on/off switch on the Muse is a pain, but apparently only mimics the original Aune. As stated, the Muse has the advantage of an optical input, and this is handy for a reason not often stated: optical connections break hum loops. That is, if there's a hum loop in your system, as there was in mine, using the optical connection in place of analogue or coaxial will break the hum loop. Plus of course these days many components have only an optical out (coaxial apparently is being phased out). Plus it means the Muse has 4 inputs instead of 3--not bad for such a cheap device.
Looking forward to the sound quality section of the review. Any chance of testing the Muse with Sennheiser 650s?