[JavierS]

Quote:

 
 

The Cm 6631 is a cool little chip and is seen in a few different audio products right now.  IIRC, it is the first true high speed USB 2.0 that offers Async data transmission.
 

 
I believe XMOS and TE8802 (both true UAC2, driverless under Linux and Mac) were out way before.
 

 
 

 

[Yobibyte]

Got he ONE for my HD800, and the sound is phenomenal. The slightly bass heavy sound from the amp matches with the HD800 very well, as the 800s are a little shy the low frequencies in my opinion.
 
Few complains I have about this unit:
-Analogue volume knob suffers from channel imbalance. The headphone knob is particularly bad. Decreasing the volume will cause the left channel to be 1 "click" lower than the right channel. Turn the volume up 1 click fixes the imbalance. The center knob for the RCA outputs does not have the imbalance issue at all for my unit.
-Turning on the "upsampling" causes a LOT of loss in quality. Most noticeable for the high frequencies.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

ROBSCIX, I just finished reading your review and would like to ask about this information:
 
 
 
I currently have a Creative X-Fi, and I would imagine if I got rid of it and only used the Essence One, it would not be able to do any sort of headphone surround sound on it's own?
 

No, if you use the Essence On, it is straight stereo sound, there is no surround modelling available.
If you connected your X-FI to the Essence One through S/Pdif, then you could use the CMSS 3D or other effects if you want.
Which is what I did during part of the testing, used a card for processing and the Essence One for output.
 
 

 

[our martin]

that's what put me off getting the essence one the fact that you can only listen to stereo sound not surround sound should have been a button that swiched from stereo to surround sound who have they aimed this at i guess not the gaming market?the asus thunder fx might make headphones 7.1 i know it's got a mic but not much info yet..the new phoebus will be the one to get dolby home theatre 4 with 24 bit sound very nice..

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

that's what put me off getting the essence one the fact that you can only listen to stereo sound not surround sound should have been a button that swiched from stereo to surround sound who have they aimed this at i guess not the gaming market?the asus thunder fx might make headphones 7.1 i know it's got a mic but not much info yet..the new phoebus will be the one to get dolby home theatre 4 with 24 bit sound very nice..

This product is aimed at the music/audiophile type users, not gamers although you can use it for gaming. An external DAC is a stereo component, all of them are the same in that regard as they are meant for high quality music reproduction.
 
If you want surround modelling for your headphones using the E1 there are ways you can do that.
There are many people around here that use cards connected to DAC/amp for gaming on headphones.  This way you have all the gaming features from the card but higher quality sound from the DAC, headamp.

 

[our martin]

i am going to get myself an beyerdynamic headzone game it costs the same price as a pair of grado ps1000 headphones but you get what you pay for i thought about getting the asus essence one but it's just a dac headphone amp and i have already got a adl one of these what i am trying to say is that now asus are bringing stuff like the thunderfx out and the phoebus out because they never got it right in the first place! what i mean is that nowadays you can get some very good headsets and you could just listen to your music when you are gaming that's what i do! they have mist a trick not making the asus essence one surround aswell..that's how i see this anyway i will still be getting the phoebus though because they have hit the nail on the head with that one 24bit dolby home theatre version 4! i have got a pioneer susano av receiver and that has got a **** load of dacs in it and is 24 bit so there are not just stereo!

 

[vrln]

My E1 is ready to be picked up, will get it tomorrow. Just a heads up

 

[our martin]

vrln good luck with asus essence one i just wish they made it surround i like the way it looks aswell with the badge on top but the phoebus has sold it for me dolby home theatre 4 i can't wait for my new build but i will have to the ivy bridge and amd 7990 are not out yet i will be getting them on the day of release they say good things come to people who wait i want the battlefield to be out of this world running at 120fps on ultra with everything maxed out fingers crossed!

 

[ROBSCIX]

 
Quote:

My E1 is ready to be picked up, will get it tomorrow. Just a heads up

Let us know what you think when you get a chance to have a listen.

 

[Wage]

I left him feedback, but I just wanted to thank Rob for featuring the Asus one on a more computer-oriented website, most of which do not feature proper audiophile articles or reviews. Even [H] only did a Beats review recently, and should've slammed them with a "WORST OF" award instead of just putting their dissatisfaction in the conclusion.

Also, to Rob and anyone else reading:
 
Would you recommend keeping a separate audiocard such as an Asus Essence ST to go along with the Essence ONE? I was considering selling my Essence ST to fund better headphones and an Essence ONE, but I got it at such a great price ($120 with extra opamps, shipped) that I hate to sell it. I was also wanting to move to 7.1 physical surround someday, and I thought the extension card for the Essence ST would be an easy way of doing that (but I have no experience with surround so I don't know how good the extension card's quality would be).
 
To be honest, I don't play most of the newer FPSers except TF2 -- they pale in comparison to a good GoldenEye or Perfect Dark session -- and since I've been gaming competitively without surround for the past 20 years I can rape pretty much anyone in terms of skill using a two-channel audio setup, a 60hz S-IPS monitor, non-mechanical keyboard, and a Logitech laser mouse. (I'd still be using a Sony fw900 if it weren't too heavy for the beautiful glass desk I got a year ago -_-)

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

I left him feedback, but I just wanted to thank Rob for featuring the Asus one on a more computer-oriented website, most of which do not feature proper audiophile articles or reviews. Even [H] only did a Beats review recently, and should've slammed them with a "WORST OF" award instead of just putting their dissatisfaction in the conclusion.

Also, to Rob and anyone else reading:
 
Would you recommend keeping a separate audiocard such as an Asus Essence ST to go along with the Essence ONE? I was considering selling my Essence ST to fund better headphones and an Essence ONE, but I got it at such a great price ($120 with extra opamps, shipped) that I hate to sell it. I was also wanting to move to 7.1 physical surround someday, and I thought the extension card for the Essence ST would be an easy way of doing that (but I have no experience with surround so I don't know how good the extension card's quality would be).
 
To be honest, I don't play most of the newer FPSers except TF2 -- they pale in comparison to a good GoldenEye or Perfect Dark session -- and since I've been gaming competitively without surround for the past 20 years I can rape pretty much anyone in terms of skill using a two-channel audio setup, a 60hz S-IPS monitor, non-mechanical keyboard, and a Logitech laser mouse. (I'd still be using a Sony fw900 if it weren't too heavy for the beautiful glass desk I got a year ago -_-)

You're welcome, I have been trying to add more higher end gear reviews to our schedule.  You can always use a card to source the S/Pdif for the Essence One.  For example, if you connected the ST to the Essence, this would give DH,EQ...etc.  So you can have modeled surround sound if you used such a setup via' DH.
 

 

[vrln]

Here it is... Not many comments on sound yet as I don't have any decent headphones here, but I will be putting it in the speaker system soon as a test. Did some testing with my gaming headset and it's definately bass heavy and 3D. Burning it in now. Build quality is fantastic for the price, and the box is really heavy too. Larger than I expected as well.
 

 
WARNING TO ALL BUYERS: DOUBLE CHECK THE VOLTAGE SWITCH! Mine for example would have fried instantly as I'm in a 230VAC country and here you can see the position mine was set in out of the box. 
 

 
Haven't managed to get it working in Windows yet, I get a heavily distorted sound. Something messed up with the drivers, will need to check again. But I don't use it in Windows anyway, and in Linux it's a different story:
 
 
[37743.434455] usb 1-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[37743.541418] input: ASUS ASUS Xonar Essence One as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.2/input/input13
[37743.541566] generic-usb 0003:0B05:17A8.0005: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.00 Device [ASUS ASUS Xonar Essence One] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.3/input2
[37743.566918] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
 
In other words works without any drivers, perfectly plug & play under Ubuntu 12.04 beta. 
 
PS: Having had the normal STX in my Windows system for a long time I can already say that the brightness and ear piercing harsh treble is gone entirely on the E1. Soundstage is wider too, even on poor headphones.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Install the ASIO drivers and set your players for the Essence One ASIO mode.

 

[vrln]

Thanks, will try. Haven't read the manual yet The upsampling mode is pretty neat, makes everything sound a bit distant though. Going to leave the E1 on playing music through my gaming headset for the night, then tomorrow it's time to try it in my main speaker rig.

 

[DMarasovic]

I am new here. Thanks to all active members for sharing useful informations.
Waiting for answer from local Asus representative if they could provide Essence One to me as official supply didn't start in my country.