[pumbaa32]

Quote:

I was thinking of essense One, it is featured packed but never used it.  I had a burson HA-160 and I love how it sounds with k702. I tried many headphones, the D5000 and HD 600 to me akg k702 is what I liked. I sold the HA-160 due to finance issues and bought a bresford caiman later. I love the DAC and I use it mostly as a preamp but it just doesnt do justice to the k702. Now I have the cash to spend it. I can spend up to $900. I need both and amp and a DAC.  I dont need a preamp.

Currently owning both the STX and the One, i find the headphone amp on the One while powerful enough to drive almost every headphone, too bassy even when compared to STX's (maybe it's because of the DAC too). The volume knobs feel very low quality on hands and the headphone one has channel imbalance at low volume.
 
For 900$ i would go with the AudioLab MDAC which is more neutral sounding, to my ears ofc.
 

 

[JavierS]

Can anyone owning a One please confirm whether it accepts 176.4KHz sampling rate through USB in ASIO/bit perfect mode?

 

[audionewbi]

^anything over 96 from what I have read must be bypassed using the c-media software. Anything less than 96 resolution can be done without the need to install the c-media software.

 

[audionewbi]

Quote:

Currently owning both the STX and the One, i find the headphone amp on the One while powerful enough to drive almost every headphone, too bassy even when compared to STX's (maybe it's because of the DAC too). The volume knobs feel very low quality on hands and the headphone one has channel imbalance at low volume.
 
For 900$ i would go with the AudioLab MDAC which is more neutral sounding, to my ears ofc.
 

thank you. 
 
 

 

[JavierS]

Quote:

^anything over 96 from what I have read must be bypassed using the c-media software. Anything less than 96 resolution can be done without the need to install the c-media software.

 
The question was precisely if those drivers work as asked, I know you need UAC2 drivers for Windows to support >96KHz but there are some others devices based on the same CM6631 C-Media chip stating no 176.4KHz support but I'm not sure if that is only through SPDIF or if affects USB too even with drivers. 
 
 

 

[silverbox]

Is this a good dac/amp for PRO 900?

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Currently owning both the STX and the One, i find the headphone amp on the One while powerful enough to drive almost every headphone, too bassy even when compared to STX's (maybe it's because of the DAC too). The volume knobs feel very low quality on hands and the headphone one has channel imbalance at low volume.
 
For 900$ i would go with the AudioLab MDAC which is more neutral sounding, to my ears ofc.
 

And people wonder why I keep recomending just using the digital volume control. You will never get channel imbalance with a digital volume control. Channel imbalance is just one problem with analog volumes, There is a host of them actually but not present in every system. I've been over them before so I won't go into them here. Analog volume in a perfect world  with perfect manufacturing & tolerances as well as execution by the final product manufacturer would yeald as good as if not better performance in many areas but we don't live in a perfect world & digital volume controls offer a ton of real world advantages over the more common quality & execution of analog volume control in this day & age.
 
I've been around audio including high end audio for a good 30 years so I've tried a lot of things & have found what works best for me at least. I'm sticking with my Essense STX digital volume control & all as with very minor & very inexpensive mods it rises to a level of sonic performance that would leave most even "high end DAC's" in the dust.
 

 

[Gabrielisc]

So I have had the essence one for a few months now, personally im going to recommend you guys to get a seperate DAC (whether its the STX or the Schiit Bifrost or whatever you think is best for you) and get a lovelycube/matrix m-stage.
 
The essence one is strong enough to power my HD800, but its def not the same as when I used a Lehmann Black cube.

 

[yodjone]

Am I missing something here? Installed the drivers, I can get upto 192 but can't get bit perfect even when i install asio for foobar etc. I can't see an option to enable asio or to confirm asio is enabled even when I run ASIO4ALL
 
I am aware there is no software driver settings for EQ, and these types of amps are probably not for what I want (i wanted similar sound to my essence STX, with volume control for my meridian M33 speakers) I get volume control now, but even with software EQ's my sound still sounds quite 'flat' and not as sharp as my essence stx
 
What am I doing wrong to not be able to get bit perfect? Any suggestions welcome. PS. i didnt uninstall my past drivers but I don't think that will prevent me from getting bit perfect?

 

[yodjone]

edit: got bit perfect working for winamp, good guide here if anyones interested http://www.aqvox.de/Asio-USB-Audio-installation-e.htm
 
however, i can still not get foobar2k working with bit perfect, despite using the DLL plugin provided

 

[jigsawPB]

Quote:

So I have had the essence one for a few months now, personally im going to recommend you guys to get a seperate DAC (whether its the STX or the Schiit Bifrost or whatever you think is best for you) and get a lovelycube/matrix m-stage.
 
The essence one is strong enough to power my HD800, but its def not the same as when I used a Lehmann Black cube.

So again two different devices are better than one (One)?
 

 

[yodjone]

Ok so now that I finally have bit perfect mode working, i noticed it takes a good 1-2 second each time i switch a track, is this normal processing speed times? Any way to speed it up? Also if i switch a track too fast the bit perfect light drops off (although it may still be playing in bit perfect mode) i have to take my time between switching them (ie. stop one track, wait a second then press play on new track - may be something to do with the resampling?) before the light will show. Do you think running it through a coax SPDIF STX before i put it through the essence might help things or would the delay still be there? And would there be any difference in 320kb mp3 playback on 44.1khz/bit perfect vs 192khz/bit perfect?
 
also, does anyone think asus will ever add a native driver EQ? because having flat sounds for everything unless its an application specific like foobar or winamp sounds can be a bit of a drag! As some people stated though it definetly sounds 'warmer' when playing tracks in an optimized EQ - I do prefer my sounds to be distinguished with clarity though. 

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Ok so now that I finally have bit perfect mode working, i noticed it takes a good 1-2 second each time i switch a track, is this normal processing speed times? Any way to speed it up? Also if i switch a track too fast the bit perfect light drops off (although it may still be playing in bit perfect mode) i have to take my time between switching them (ie. stop one track, wait a second then press play on new track - may be something to do with the resampling?) before the light will show. Do you think running it through a coax SPDIF STX before i put it through the essence might help things or would the delay still be there? And would there be any difference in 320kb mp3 playback on 44.1khz/bit perfect vs 192khz/bit perfect?
 
also, does anyone think asus will ever add a native driver EQ? because having flat sounds for everything unless its an application specific like foobar or winamp sounds can be a bit of a drag! As some people stated though it definetly sounds 'warmer' when playing tracks in an optimized EQ - I do prefer my sounds to be distinguished with clarity though. 

Try adjusting the buffers to improve response times.
 
As for the EQ, once you apply any effect such as EQ your audio is no longer  bit-perfect. 
However, for sake of discussion you could use an internal sound card to send S/Pdif sgnal to the Essence 1 as this would give you the ability to have EQ or other effects.  So it is possible to get EQ..etc.
 
 

 

[Gabrielisc]

Yes, pretty much, I believe the asus essence one is mostly an external dac with capabilities of a headphone amp.
Dont think you can compare the amp on the essence on with the amp on a Lehmann black cube/lovely cube

 

[kabukiman]

I'll be receiving my XO soon and would like to listen to my turntable through it if possible. Given that it has not line inputs, what would be the best way to connect a turntable to the XO?