[Tablix]

  I am sure ASUS and their dedicated team of sound engineers would love to meet up with you for a little advice on how to improve their product, after all you can criticise without ever using it then I am sure you can advise its manufacturers.  ASUS "may" be a computer manufacturer in your eyes but they are a huge multinational company that could probably buy every headphone manufacturer if they chose too.  This is not some inexperienced company playing at making audio equipment, they have been succesfully selling audio cards for over a decade.  The product is "new" in terms of being an external sound device but the people designing it are not school kids, they are specialist proffesionals with far more experience of chipset/board design than you give them credit for.  They also have the advantage of buying power to assist in keeping costs of internal systems low, as well as having a pre-existing manufacturing base to further lower overheads.  If anything ASUS can produce a product better for less by simple logic.  Whether this is case is still open to speculation, I will admit I have not tested the equipment so I cant comment on how it compairs to its competitors. 
 
After all ASUS have a very good reputation when it comes to PC hardware why would they want to risk that on a shoddy device when the two markets have a destinct crossover in terms of customers and technology.  I would say anyone reading this thread is using a PC either as a direct source, or for gathering music for their generic media player.  ASUS would not shoot themselves in the foot by releasing a product that is substandard, its counterproductive. 
 
I am not even going to speculate as to how it compares to "specialst" equipment made by "niche" manufacturers, but at the end of the day even when it comes to value I doubt ASUS is adding many $ for its name plate compared to some of the more specialist amp/dac producers.  How many $ are you paying for "Burson" on your box of tricks and is it actually worth a 100% price hike for a 1-5% gain..
 
At the end of the day this box is an all in one entry level dac/amp and is priced accordingly, if you choose not to buy one fine, but why trash its reputation before you have even testsed it, to me that is the behaviour of a forums troll, and the "headphone supremus" tag without any actual science is another clue to the bridge you live under....
 
 
 
 
 

 

[reiserFS]

But of course!
 
Quote:

Do I really need to hear both a CMOY and a Beta22 to guess which will sound better?

 
 

 

[livewire]

Quote:

 

Fabulous fairy tale, dawg!
 

Says he who rocks the HF Opamp thread!

 
Actually I do have a use for opamps - in my portable DAC/amp. The sound is "passable", I do enjoy it.
You opamp guys are gonna have lotz-O-fun rollin the Asus. Or go broke trying. 11 opa's, Sheesh!
 

 

[jalyst]

 
 
For the love of god, anybody??
http://www.head-fi.org/t/542563/asus-essence-one-headphone-amp-dac-cebit-2011/135#post_7735450
Thanks very much to anyone that can help.
 
 
 

 

[khaos974]

 
 
For the love of god, anybody??
http://www.head-fi.org/t/542563/asus-essence-one-headphone-amp-dac-cebit-2011/135#post_7735450
Thanks very much to anyone that can help.
 
 
 

Unless someone here is working for Asus or has access to privileged information, they won't have this kind of information, they'd be bound by an NDA anyway, so it's very very unlikely that someone would be able to help.

 

[jalyst]

^ I realise that, I'm not asking for all the "dirt"...
Just thoughts on if it's likely for them to head in that direction w/their next revision of ST/STX or Essence One.
 
Cheers.

 

[reiserFS]

The One is now listed on German websites as 379€.

 

[TCM]

Quote:

The One is now listed on German websites as 379€.

On the swedish price comparison site www.prisjakt.nu , the price varies from 3309 SEK to 4536 SEK (358-491 €)

 

[cer]

This would make a nice digital preamp for active speakers, but no remote - no deal.

 

[Aldighieri]

 where can I get this nice power cw
Were can I get this nice power cable? looks like ASus  branded...

 

[khaos974]

 where can I get this nice power cw
Were can I get this nice power cable? looks like ASus  branded...

It's not, it's probably something like a Shunyata, and probably sold at a dozen times the price of the DAC (not that it's nearly worth the price IMHO).

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

  I am sure ASUS and their dedicated team of sound engineers would love to meet up with you for a little advice on how to improve their product, after all you can criticise without ever using it then I am sure you can advise its manufacturers.  ASUS "may" be a computer manufacturer in your eyes but they are a huge multinational company that could probably buy every headphone manufacturer if they chose too.  This is not some inexperienced company playing at making audio equipment, they have been succesfully selling audio cards for over a decade.  The product is "new" in terms of being an external sound device but the people designing it are not school kids, they are specialist proffesionals with far more experience of chipset/board design than you give them credit for.  They also have the advantage of buying power to assist in keeping costs of internal systems low, as well as having a pre-existing manufacturing base to further lower overheads.  If anything ASUS can produce a product better for less by simple logic.  Whether this is case is still open to speculation, I will admit I have not tested the equipment so I cant comment on how it compairs to its competitors. 
 
After all ASUS have a very good reputation when it comes to PC hardware why would they want to risk that on a shoddy device when the two markets have a destinct crossover in terms of customers and technology.  I would say anyone reading this thread is using a PC either as a direct source, or for gathering music for their generic media player.  ASUS would not shoot themselves in the foot by releasing a product that is substandard, its counterproductive. 
 
I am not even going to speculate as to how it compares to "specialst" equipment made by "niche" manufacturers, but at the end of the day even when it comes to value I doubt ASUS is adding many $ for its name plate compared to some of the more specialist amp/dac producers.  How many $ are you paying for "Burson" on your box of tricks and is it actually worth a 100% price hike for a 1-5% gain..
 
At the end of the day this box is an all in one entry level dac/amp and is priced accordingly, if you choose not to buy one fine, but why trash its reputation before you have even testsed it, to me that is the behaviour of a forums troll, and the "headphone supremus" tag without any actual science is another clue to the bridge you live under....
 
 
 
 
 

I completely agree.  People who laugh at Asus Xonar products are simply ignorant, especially those who use DYI products or producs made by very small audio companies, producs that are often made by hand or in poor conditions.
Also, as you said, Asus is a company that is very highly respected in the world of PC hardware,  they build graphics cards and motherboards for gods sake,  stuff that is technically LIGHT YEARS ahead of something as simple as a DAC or a headphones amplifier, so i'm pretty sure they know what they're doing, and I trust them more than some small audio companies with questionable expertise who put price tags on their products that are 5-6 times higher than the product itself deserves.
 
 
I have an Asus Xonar D2X sound card, I payed 200 dollars for it, and i can say with full responsibility that it wipes the floor with any external DAC or DAC/amp combo in the price range that i've heard.  Compared with even the best DAC's in that price range (something like amps/dac's from nufoce , ibasso, fiio, audinst....), there simply is no contest in terms of sounds quality, features, flexibility, build quality and bang for the buck.    And the D2X is not even the top of the range card, and is not even in the audiophile category among asus audio products.
 
I'm definitely buying the essence one and replacing my D2x, i wanted an external DAC that would offer better SQ than D2X for a long time.
 
 

 

[Willakan]

Asus designs according to, you know, electrical theory. They know exactly how their designs perform and know exactly how to make them perform better. They also know when they've hit the point of diminishing returns.
 
Tiny audiophile companies, on the other hand, are led by wizards. These wizards are not held down by the things that fetter mere mortals, such as stability of their amplifiers, reading the datasheet of a component they're using or making comprehensive sets of measurements to verify the product does what it says on the tin. 
Good audio design requires lots of very expensive instrumentation to verify you haven't screwed up. So, even if these companies designed to sane criteria (as opposed to the aforementioned OMG OPAMPS ARE TEH EVILS I HATE FEEDBACKS marketing hysteria) they already can't afford the instrumentation to ensure they have a good product. As it happens, not only can they not afford this instrumentation (well, they could quite easily I suspect in many cases, but there are "other" priorities such as selling things) but they regularly throw basic design rules out of the window and then put their absence from the design in their product description as selling points! 
 
Such companies, however, are generally very good at marketing.

 

[Aldighieri]

Quote:

It's not, it's probably something like a Shunyata, and probably sold at a dozen times the price of the DAC (not that it's nearly worth the price IMHO).

Good point, thank you for suggestion..
 

 

[mikeaj]

Asus designs according to, you know, electrical theory. They know exactly how their designs perform and know exactly how to make them perform better. They also know when they've hit the point of diminishing returns.
 
Tiny audiophile companies, on the other hand, are led by wizards. These wizards are not held down by the things that fetter mere mortals, such as stability of their amplifiers, reading the datasheet of a component they're using or making comprehensive sets of measurements to verify the product does what it says on the tin. 
Good audio design requires lots of very expensive instrumentation to verify you haven't screwed up. So, even if these companies designed to sane criteria (as opposed to the aforementioned OMG OPAMPS ARE TEH EVILS I HATE FEEDBACKS marketing hysteria) they already can't afford the instrumentation to ensure they have a good product. As it happens, not only can they not afford this instrumentation (well, they could quite easily I suspect in many cases, but there are "other" priorities such as selling things) but they regularly throw basic design rules out of the window and then put their absence from the design in their product description as selling points! 
 
Such companies, however, are generally very good at marketing.

Hm, I'm not sure if I'd say "very expensive instrumentation" though you qualify that. The level of precision you need for audio measurements isn't really all that high, and in other fields you definitely need to work with much more expensive test gear and setups. (Even Hadron Colliders aside)

Small audiophile companies are often members of the community (going to meets, and so on), so it's easy to see why they can get sales and recommendations. They also know their audience better, so they can market to them better.