Xonar Essence One Muses Edition

Wondering the same - how does it compare to Benchmark DAC-1, 25.3, etc.?

This fellow seems quite happy with it, but he doesn't compare it to anything I'm familiar with (Lynx Aurora, Metric Halo, API) so I'm not sure what to believe.

I wonder how Asus thought that it would work to have a number of reviews come out and then not have product for sale?

I got mine today from Newegg.com and am just starting to burn it in. I ran it for a few minutes through the Bryston BHA-1 then thought to just burn it in through the headphone jack. It was a little brittle for the first few minutes,but has been clearing up going into the first hour. I have a Micromega Mydac to compare it to, so will be back with impressions after a day or two.

I've seen numerous feedback from users stating that this unit have good features, but poor SQ. Please report your findings Wfojas. 

I held off writing about the Asus Xonar Essence Muses One Edition until I had burnt it in over 100 hours (I stared Tuesday afternoon and listened Sunday afternoon), and I feel that it may need three or so more days. I will try a very brief description of the sound thus far, and defer a final opinion for another 100 hours or so.

However, my impressions as of Sunday were very, very consistent with Michael Lavorgna at Audiostream. Warm, great tuneful bass, extremely NON fatiguing, great tone and body, extremely likwable midrange, Also, it doesn't get the 'air' around instruments as well, as a tradeoff. Its as if you were sitting really close to the performers.

Mostly, no digital nasties though clipping artifacts and tape saturation still come through, if they exist.

The headphone amp works well with the Sennheiser HD-800, and I thought, very, very well with the AKG K-701. The last part was a surprise, as I could never get anything to really sound good with those. These can play loud, though I still wonder about the really hard to drive ones.

I did listen to just the dac without the headphone amp by running it to a Bryston BHA-1 , and it seems clear that they voiced it with the synergy of the built in headamp in mind. The other thing I did notice was that the line output to the BHA-1 was a little low, even with the line output volume control completely turned up. I have rarely had to run the Bryston BHA-1 past 12 o clock, and this was at 2 o clock with a balanced cable to HD-800 headphones, and was still below what I normally would run ath 10 o' clock with the Mydac.

Thats the first cut, if anyone is interested. I will get more details as it settles in, I have hopes that it will step back just a little bit, given time.

I would be very interested to hear your comments after more burn in time. have you had any issues with the unit in terms of compatibility with either Mac or PC?

Thank you

Paul

Any updates from someone with the Muses edition?  I skimmed the long thread on the Essence One.  And it seems primarily to be about those who started with the original edition and possibly upgraded with the Muses op amps.  Thanks.

I would be interested as well all of the reviews I've read have really good things to say about this dac, But finding one is another story newegg does not offer the muses edition. Even on Asus.com their is no information on where to get the muses edition thats weird to say the least.

Check antonline.com.  As of the time of this post, they claim to have 6 in stock:  http://www.antonline.com/searchinv?st=xonar+muses&x=-1124&y=-78