[Gandah]

Quote:

Congrats on your new DAC (Is the Calyx Femto based on the ES9018 dac?). What happened to your E1 did ASUS ended up refunding you or something?

Thanks man, yeah ES9018 x2. I got a refund after a month of waiting and it turns out asus had none to RMA so got full refund

 

[shyamelge]

Today some more samples of op amps (2132PA and 2017) arrived. Tried various combos in I/V and LPF stages for more than 4 hours. Feeling tired now. 
 
The best alternative was 2132 and 2107 but not for all genre of music. While 2132 and 4562/49720 combo was sounding good for rock music. But in all these combos I was missing the airyness of stock op amps.
 
Guess, what? I am back to stock 5536s which have airyness, wide soundstage and fun factor despite some shortcomings.
 
Now the urge for trying other op amps has ended. The next move would be muses.
 
Nevertheless, learnt many things in this process.

 

[DMax99]

Today some more samples of op amps (2132PA and 2017) arrived. Tried various combos in I/V and LPF stages for more than 4 hours. Feeling tired now. 
 
The best alternative was 2132 and 2107 but not for all genre of music. While 2132 and 4562/49720 combo was sounding good for rock music. But in all these combos I was missing the airyness of stock op amps.
 
Guess, what? I am back to stock 5536s which have airyness, wide soundstage and fun factor despite some shortcomings.
 
Now the urge for trying other op amps has ended. The next move would be muses.
 
Nevertheless, learnt many things in this process.

Haha...I was the same before the Muses01, went back to stock due to its airyness. With the Muses01 you will get a combination of both airyness and forward vocal

 

[TheManko]

Quote:

Funny you mention this as I was saving up for the HDVD 800 at the start of the year. Lucky for me someone on the HDVD800 thread bought one. He also had the Essence One Muses and was trying to sale it off in the trade/amp section after he bought the HDVD800. After 3-4 week, he withdraw the ad and ended up selling the HDVD800 and some other high end DAC. He stating out of the 3 he enjoy the sound from the XE1 Muses. I was so lucky to come across his post on the thread and ended up with the XE1 and had enough money to get the LCD3 instead of the HDVD800. Your comment only only cemented that I made the right decision to not get the HDVD800.
 
Thank you.

I'll be keeping my HDVD 800 since I quite like how the amp sounds with my balanced HD 800 and LCD-2. But it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up using the Essence One Muses dac the majority of the time instead of the internal HDVD 800 dac. I did run out and buy a Essence One Muses Edition, but it turned out to be one of the older ones with B10K pots and no gain switch, so I returned it to the store and now I'm waiting on them to get a newer one from Asus. I've also ordered some additional Muses01 op-amps so I can experiment with running all Muses op-amps in the Essence One.

 

[ben_r_]

Quote:

I'll be keeping my HDVD 800 since I quite like how the amp sounds with my balanced HD 800 and LCD-2. But it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up using the Essence One Muses dac the majority of the time instead of the internal HDVD 800 dac. I did run out and buy a Essence One Muses Edition, but it turned out to be one of the older ones with B10K pots and no gain switch, so I returned it to the store and now I'm waiting on them to get a newer one from Asus. I've also ordered some additional Muses01 op-amps so I can experiment with running all Muses op-amps in the Essence One.

Whats wrong with the B10K pots?

 

[Gandah]

Quote:

Whats wrong with the B10K pots?

it's the only reason and mean only reason why I no longer have the E1 anymore
 
Do a B10K search on this thread and see for yourself

 

[TheManko]

Quote:

Whats wrong with the B10K pots?

The B10K pot has channel imbalance, while the A10K pot the newer Muses Edition has doesn't. The volume scale is also different as the B10K pot is linear and A10K logarithmic, which means that there's more steps for low volume on the A10K pot. I'll be using the Essence One as a pre-amp for my speakers and with the B10K pot there just aren't enough steps for low/mid volume before it gets really loud, and the channel imbalance was clearly audible until ~9 o clock on the pot. I'm sure for some the B10K pot is just fine, but in my case it was a deal breaker.

 

[Gandah]

Quote:

The B10K pot has channel imbalance, while the A10K pot the newer Muses Edition has doesn't. The volume scale is also different as the B10K pot is linear and A10K logarithmic, which means that there's more steps for low volume on the A10K pot. I'll be using the Essence One as a pre-amp for my speakers and with the B10K pot there just aren't enough steps for low/mid volume before it gets really loud, and the channel imbalance was clearly audible until ~9 o clock on the pot. I'm sure for some the B10K pot is just fine, but in my case it was a deal breaker.

+1

 

[ben_r_]

Quote:

The B10K pot has channel imbalance, while the A10K pot the newer Muses Edition has doesn't. The volume scale is also different as the B10K pot is linear and A10K logarithmic, which means that there's more steps for low volume on the A10K pot. I'll be using the Essence One as a pre-amp for my speakers and with the B10K pot there just aren't enough steps for low/mid volume before it gets really loud, and the channel imbalance was clearly audible until ~9 o clock on the pot. I'm sure for some the B10K pot is just fine, but in my case it was a deal breaker.

Thanks. Huh, I havent noticed any channel imbalance or volume scale issues with mine, but maybe Ill give ASUS a call and see if I can get them to swap it out for me anyway. Has anyone located a source to just buy the A10K pots so we can do the swap ourselves?

 

[Mach3]

Quote:

Thanks. Huh, I havent noticed any channel imbalance or volume scale issues with mine, but maybe Ill give ASUS a call and see if I can get them to swap it out for me anyway. Has anyone located a source to just buy the A10K pots so we can do the swap ourselves?

B10K pot aren't reliable. Some are ok, some aren't (causes channel imbalance). For example on my XE1, the B10k pot on the preamp (Big knob) section has no channel imbalance issue. The headphone (smaller knob on the left) section did. So I ended up desoldering the two and swap them around. Problem solved. I always have the preamp section max out as all my stand alone amp have volume control.

 

[leon995]

I am interested about this, learning much from here. Thank you guys

 

[shyamelge]

Quote:

B10K pot aren't reliable. Some are ok, some aren't (causes channel imbalance). For example on my XE1, the B10k pot on the preamp (Big knob) section has no channel imbalance issue. The headphone (smaller knob on the left) section did. So I ended up desoldering the two and swap them around. Problem solved. I always have the preamp section max out as all my stand alone amp have volume control.

This is interesting.
 
Did it involve complicated work or I could approach local repair shop/audio technician and they could do it easily and in minutes? 

 

[Mach3]

Quote:

This is interesting.
 
Did it involve complicated work or I could approach local repair shop/audio technician and they could do it easily and in minutes? 

Do you have an imbalance issue with your pot? If no, you don't need to do what I did. Plus it void your warranty, I had no choice as I bought my XE1 second hand and the owner didn't have receipt for it.

 

[miandnan]

Quote:

Do you have an imbalance issue with your pot? If no, you don't need to do what I did. Plus it void your warranty, I had no choice as I bought my XE1 second hand and the owner didn't have receipt for it.

Strange, at least with ASUS's pc products which does include the Xonar STX warranty is based on the Serial number.
 
If you have the reciept the warranty period begins on the purchase date, if no receipt it defaults to start counting down from the date of manufacturing. Though there is a chance this audio centered DAC has a different warranty setup I would doubt it.
 
I have needed to RMA an ASUS tablet, 4 monitors and a sound card (STX) all with in the past year and I never needed my receipt. I did need to give CC for temp hold on my card as they advanced RMA'd for me so that I knew the replacement was working !!! They also usually covered shipping both ways (even if they did not have to) ASUS is top notch with this kind of stuff. If anyone here has different info please correct me
 
That said I am waiting to hear back from the ASUS rep on here about my E1 as I have the imbalanced B10K pot on my headphone section and a grinding B10K pot on my preamp section 

. If I don't hear from him I will contact Asus General support but would rather speak to the AUDIO SPECIALIST hehehe
 
P.S. WISH the Muses edition was out when I bought my E1 !!!!!!!!
Have some Heir Audio 8.A's and 6.A's on their way and want BALANCED channels and OPAMPS worthy of those great CIEMS !!!!
 
edit: spelling and typos

 

[Mach3]

Quote:

Strange, at least with ASUS's pc products which does include the Xonar STX warranty is based on the Serial number.
 
If you have the reciept the warranty period begins on the purchase date, if no receipt it defaults to start counting down from the date of manufacturing. Though there is a chance this audio centered DAC has a different warranty setup I would doubt it.
 

 
Not possible in my case as one of the WIMA 8200pF had sign of soldering iron damage/melting. I asked the original owner about it and he stated that how he got it from the shop. I tried RMA with ASUS, but they refused as they said it was physically damage by customer. Which lead me to mod the XE1 as much as I could. Can't really complain much as I got the DAC pretty cheap.