[Skocke]

Very interested in this and also the upcoming Teac UD-H01. Finally a few reviews on this one but still nothing on the Teac I think? They are both somehow taking a very long time to rech the market.... At this stage before they have been really compared the UD-H01 has an advantage in better more discrete looks, a more simple design imo and also a little samller it seems. But how do you guys think they will compare? Seems to be the same Dac chips right so probably the headphone amplifier that will stand for the most difference?

 

[firev1]

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USB isn't a limitation, especilly since the Essence One has a separate power supply.
 
The provided AP charts are impressive, but ultimately tell us nothing since the the measures are all expressed in dBr with the reference level NOT PROVIDED. The RMAA measures are fairly average, but I don' trust RMAA much. Finally, the best guest for the measured performance of the Essence One would be to look at the Stereophile measures of both the Benchmark DAC and the STX. They show that the DAC-1 measures slightly better that the STX which according to ASUS measures better than the Essence One.
 
 

I see, but still, highly competitive pricing especially with the circuit.... 
I think the implementation of the circuit and amp system of the Essence One versus the UD-H01 will make the ultimate difference, especially the amp section and customisability.
 

 

[gkl]

Any idea how would the Essence One compare to my current DAC - EMU 0404 USB? Upgrade? Sidegrade?

 

[Skocke]

Quote:

I see, but still, highly competitive pricing especially with the circuit.... 
I think the implementation of the circuit and amp system of the Essence One versus the UD-H01 will make the ultimate difference, especially the amp section and customisability.
 

Perhaps so, I'm not that familiar with the technicalities but that migth be so. However I dont think most people will even consider cutomising their Dac/amp so to the lot that wont matter. To me its the stock sound/price that matters the most

 

[alexk400]

WHEN THIS GOING TO BE RELEASED. I AM WAITING FOR LONG TIME. I EMAILED ASUS , NEWEGG. NO REPLY. ANYONE KNOWS?

 

[leeperry]

every press review so far has complained about the C-Media USB drivers, a wild guess would be that they're working on sorting out this problem before going live.
 

 

[DarKu]

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every press review so far has complained about the C-Media USB drivers, a wild guess would be that they're working on sorting out this problem before going live.
 

You are very correct. I've reported the problem to them that USB implementation sucked, everything else worked fine. Actually I'm very glad that they are not releasing a beta product like A-GD does. Better resolve all the issues and then launch the final product, good move Asus.

 

[derbigpr]

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Any idea how would the Essence One compare to my current DAC - EMU 0404 USB? Upgrade? Sidegrade?

Anything from Asus Xonar series is an upgrade from EMU 0404.  Even the Xonar D2X and STX are superior to EMU in every way,  and Essence one should be in completely different league compared to D2X/STX.

 

[kiteki]

 
I'm interested in this for the upsampling feature, anyone know how it sounds?
 
 
I see lots of complaints on 11 opamps, but can't we simply bypass them all, and use a different amplifier?
 
 
If someone can recommend me a different DAC with upsampling that would be appreciated thanks.
 

 

[gkl]

Quote:

Anything from Asus Xonar series is an upgrade from EMU 0404.  Even the Xonar D2X and STX are superior to EMU in every way,  and Essence one should be in completely different league compared to D2X/STX.

 
That sounds pretty awesome, thanks! And I hope its amp is comparable to my current one as well.
 
Now if only this thing was available for purchase...

 

[Mochan]

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I'm interested in this for the upsampling feature, anyone know how it sounds?
 
 
I see lots of complaints on 11 opamps, but can't we simply bypass them all, and use a different amplifier?
 
 
If someone can recommend me a different DAC with upsampling that would be appreciated thanks.
 

 
It seems like you could, and I don;'t get why everyone is so fixated on the opamps. This is a DAC first and foremost, right? And not an amp. It's a DAC with a headphone amp on it as a bonus. But if you have another amp, like most of us here do, it seems like this has balanced and RCA outputs to let you use whatever amp you want. The important thing is it has a nice DAC, and it has USB and SPDIF in. 
 
I just wish it had Dolby Headphone. 
 
 

 

[kiteki]

 
I just want to upsample youtube, movies and everything inbetween to 384kHz all the time that's all, however I need someone to tell me what the upsampling quality is like first, i.e. on paper and/or via listening.
 
If the amp section is too basshunter, then we can a) buy a mixed bag of 11 different opamps on ebay, and tailor the sound, a lot... lol, b) use a different amp.
 

 

[derbigpr]

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That sounds pretty awesome, thanks! And I hope its amp is comparable to my current one as well.
 
Now if only this thing was available for purchase...

I dont know which amp you have, but apparently, the one in Essence one is comparable to something like Burson Audio HA-160 in terms of power, and its very close in terms of sound.

 

[reiserFS]

Some shops now list the 20th December as release date, when the heck is this thing becoming available?

 

[derbigpr]

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Some shops now list the 20th December as release date, when the heck is this thing becoming available?

It should have been released already. Apparently they cant seem to fix the issues they have with USB connection.  What i'd do is make a small PCI-E card that you would plug into the motherboard, and put RCA or some other connections on that card, to plug the Essence One into it. That way they could avoid using the USB, since it obviously sucks.