The STX is REALLY good from my own hearing experience. I do suggest you just go for it.   After all, it's a lot cheaper than any other options or combinations.   Trust me... ;-)

Man, finally, after using the stock OPAMP on my STX for almost 2 years, I've decided to give MUSE a try. My MUSE will be coming tomorrow, can't wait to put it on and see what's the difference.   Fingers crossed for DHL, don't you delay my MUSE dude...

It depends on your definition of "all-in-one USB" If you mean all below together 1. Headphone amp 2. Pre amp 3. USB DAC 4. SPDIF DAC   Then the Xonar Essence One should be the choice.

Asus Xonar Essence One Review (w/ Raysonic CD228 & Audeze LCD2) 1. Introduction2. Asus Xonar Essence One3. Setting up the System4. Asus Xonar Essence One (Super High Res Gallery)5. Asus Xonar Essence One Testing6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages   REVIEW SCORE: February...

I believe it's analogue. Period. If you listen carefully, it's still not that linear and presents the character of common analogue VR controller.    

It's a TEAC, is it related to Essence One? are those links all your article? Not quite sure of the point of those links.   But still thanks for sharing.

Quote: man... that's really scary, what did they sell to you at all? @@ glad to hear you liked it, but that's really really weird.  

  Quote: Cool... your friend must value your opinion very much to have you test drive his new toy. Anyways, looking forward for your opinion.                 I mean, judged by your harsh feedback for the STX/ST while you still get hold of them, it's interesting to see what...

The Astromix amp looks like a 2 piece combo, you sure that's good for travel? Perhaps just look at Asus Xonar U3 or Creative's solutions. U3 has pretty good review, and talking about portable, it's just a thumb big.

Quote: Personally I just play the files as is using my Foobar2000 using bit-perfect. cause nothing can disturb my music listening, no MSN ding-dong, or stupid flash ads  screem out of no where in the background.... I thought bit-perfect is good enough for me at least until now.  ...

hum... they must be changing or doing something there, cause I saw 2 utilities few days ago and downloaded it before I got my Essence One. One is for FW update, one is for MCU update.   Anyway, glad to hear you get it fixed.

Interesting, I upgraded the FW all on their support site. You sure you've checked it out on the official support site?   http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=21&m=Xonar+Essence+One&hashedid=r1OYJw1GHdZGIqQl       11 files found    AUDIO (1)   Firmware (2)...

hehe.. be patient, audio is subtle when up to certain level. But now that I'm home listening to both my Essence One from my laptop and my STX from my PC..   "MAN! I"m blown away by the Essence One"   haha..    but serious, Essence One's sound is indeed much more polished than STX...

Ok, I got mine arrived at my office today, tried it immediately on my laptop but haven't changed any OPAMP and haven't compared it with my STX at home.   First impression, compared with my NuForce uDAC2 HP used in office, it's really like day and night, and making uDAC2 looks like a... well...

Another Chinese review found:   http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.todayav.com%2F%3Fp%3D1816   original URL: http://www.todayav.com/?p=1816