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[size=12pt]So long as you don't get any jitter which the E1 doesn't, USB output is 100% perfect. It is only very poor USB audio equipment that would benefit from a SPDIF converter, not the E1. Most of those articles you read saying SPDIF is "better" than USB are ancient and used inferior equipment. I'd wager starting with USB at the PC and then changing to SPDIF midway with some piece of electronics mid-stream would make the sound worse. [/size]
I'm not saying that an SPDIF converter will be beneficial to the Essence One, but
ANY digital system will have jitter. Numerous (quite high end ~$1000+) DAC's that implement USB-->I2S-->DAC can be improved with an external SPDIF or I2S converter (the latter being technically superior in most cases) for various reasons from the various electrical components used, to the power supply setup, to the drivers, internal and external buffer etc. Asynch does not guarantee superiority over adaptive, and does not guarantee equal performance to other asynch setups. One thing for sure though is that any external USB-->SPDIF is surely overkill with the Essence One and not guaranteed improvement. USB from the Essence One though will surely be better than SPDIF from onboard though.
For those looking to buy one, they cost around $400 in Australia:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18862&cPath=211&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=export_feed#googlebase
Don't be fooled that this is the only unit available at this cost tier though - if you are spending ~$600 and ONLY need a DAC with SE outputs the JK DAC should do very well. For $250 the Emotiva XDA-1 is a crazy deal also and has balanced output and headamp (but you might need a soldering iron to change opamps). If you are after something a bit smoother/ less dry, Audio-GD offer some excellent products with plenty of power for headphones (but no opamp rolling here)
I can't say any of these will be better or worse than the Essence One as I haven't directly compared any of these, but some of them will be more suitable for certain headphones (but probably not opamp rolling freindly)
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many dedicated reviewers looking at the Essence One so it is hard to say how it stands against the competition, but Leeperry's comment on the soundstage sounds promising. On that, how does it compare to your Stello Eximus DP-1?
Getting back to my main point - USB on the Essence One is 100% certifiably guaranteed to have SOME intrinsic and random jitter which may or may not be better or worse than an external SPDIF solution. Secondly jitter is not a universal evil just the same as distortion is not universally evil. Less jitter will allow more detail through, but other technically inferior solutions may sound smoother, more present, richer etc. To say the One has no jitter is 100% technically incorrect, esp without any measurements of the digital output of the USB implementation - it could be better or worse than a good external SPDIF converter.
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