[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

I kept my Essence STX for my headset with microphone that I use in games. 
Do you think the best way to get good sound is to connect the  Essence One with the USB or connect to my Essence STX? 
Thank you specify because I'm confused.

If I am understanding what you are asking correctly, you can use on device for input and the other for output providing they play nice together.
 
What you would do is:
Connect your headphones to the Essence One and set the Essence One for output in the Windows control panel. 
Connect the mic to the STX and set the Essence STX for input (recording) in the windows control panel.  .
 
Hope that helps.
 

 
 

 

[trazom]

Thank you for your response Robscix.
I wanted to know if it was better to connect  the Essence independently or connect  the One Essence with STX. 
Excuse my English very clumsy.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Thank you for your response Robscix.
I wanted to know if it was better to connect  the Essence independently or connect  the One Essence with STX. 
Excuse my English very clumsy.

I think it would be better to connect the E1 independently in your situation but there are many ways you can go.
 

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

Isn't the AD797 design available in a normal DIP-8 package? I am asking because a Danish site is listing some AD797ANZ and I am very tempted.
 
I am sorry if it is a stupid question.
 
Cheers,
Fred

 

[leeperry]

the stock opamps are duals, AD797 is a single...you have to use two of them soldered onto an adapter or you will fry the ONE.

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

Is there any place online where you can buy them presoldered and tested?
 
Cheers,
Fred

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Is there any place online where you can buy them presoldered and tested?
 
Cheers,
Fred

The AD797 are single channel opamps in DIP8 and SOIC8 package chips.
 
The units you mentioned the AD797AN are DIP8 chips so you require 2 and a dual DIP8 adapter.
You can find the AD797 in DIP8 and SOIC 8 and there are adapters available for each type of chip.
 
To note, many suggest the AD797BR for audio use which are SOIC (surface mount) devices so again for the Essence, you would require 2 chips and an adapter for each position you want to change.
 
If you need further clarification, let me know and I can send you some pics of both types of chips and adapters.
 

 

[leeperry]

 
Quote:

Is there any place online where you can buy them presoldered and tested?

Got mine off ebay. These were used, though(but at least they're fully burned in ^^). AD797BRZ is pricey if you buy it new...and good luck soldering the 22 chips and 11 adapters 

 

[vrln]

Any updates on the review? I got a good trade in deal for a HD 800, so it looks like I'm in need of some headphone gear again. I miss late night listening, even though otherwise I'm happy having gone the speakers route.
 
By the way, on paper at least the Essence One looks like a nice budget combo for a HD 800: good bass and slightly recessed treble. That's exactly what the HD 800 needs. Anyone tried the Essence One with the Sennheiser flagship yet?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Any updates on the review? I got a good trade in deal for a HD 800, so it looks like I'm in need of some headphone gear again. I miss late night listening, even though otherwise I'm happy having gone the speakers route.
 
By the way, on paper at least the Essence One looks like a nice budget combo for a HD 800: good bass and slightly recessed treble. That's exactly what the HD 800 needs. Anyone tried the Essence One with the Sennheiser flagship yet?

I used the HD650 on the unit to test the power on the amp circuit and the E1 drives the 650's great. 
I am not sure if that info helps with your questions or not.
I wouldn't say the E1 has "recessed mids" but it does have a balanced more laidback smooth signature in comparison to some other sources so it should be a good match with the HD800's.
 

 

[leeperry]

 
Quote:

on paper at least the Essence One looks like a nice budget combo

Once you install top of the range opamps, bang for bucks is stellar to my ears. The only drawback would be the cheap pots when using low impedance/highly efficient headphones, but hey a good stepped pot costs +$100 and many fairly expensive amps use ALPS pots...can't get it all I guess, and you're already getting a killer sounding package for the money 

 
the SS is as 3D sounding as you could possibly dream of, the headamp is very very capable, the coax input is reclocked by a fairly high-end DSP and doesn't glitch like hell when you switch sample rates(which is one of the reasons why I started to hate coax more and more..CS841x and DIR9001 do make very nasty glitches IME)....Asus did a "coup de maître" IMHO, I could only hope for a single better stepped pot w/ a relay that would disable the line-out when the HP out is in use(like on the DP-1)...that would save them some money, and we'd be better off w/ one single stepped pot instead of 2 ALPS.
 
But, hey, that's their FIRST standalone DAC....and the imaging is really world class. Dual mono from start to end(it's using two LME49600 high current buffers on the HP out) pays in cash 

 
The mids are ANYTHING but recessed when using AD797B's, but I'm an ortho head so my phones have very upfront mids anyway 

 
And ppl can rave about async USB 2.0 all they want but at the end of the day, coax/I2S and USB 1.0 are the only ways to have proper galvanic isolation. The non-glitchy coax input is a God send to my ears...you can go for the whole shebang: ADuM4160/ADuM5000/TE8802L and you get glitch-free isolated 44.1/48/88.2/96kHz all the way..Mr Dan Lavry has repeated many times that anything >88.2kHz is overkill, so it doesn't really get any better than that to connect a computer to a DAC IMO...especially when the DAC reclocks internally.
 
It's also a monitoring grade DAC to my ears, so the GIGO principle very much applies. It doesn't have the sweet sound of the Stello Eximus DP-1, the harsh truth will hurt your ears if your source material is not up to par.

 

[puzl]

Sorry for being a little lazy and not searching through all the pages, but can someone answer this as simply as possible: is is worth upgrading my current STX to the Essence One? I'm in the market for a non-PCI-E computer DAC, for use in a production studio environment (all software, no need for external midi/cv devices) and I want the option of portability. I LOVE my STX and it is by far the best computer DAC i've heard. Sell it to me people!

 

[vrln]

 
Quote:

Once you install top of the range opamps, bang for bucks is stellar to my ears. The only drawback would be the ALPS pots when using low impedance/highly efficient headphones, but hey a good stepped pot costs +$100 and many fairly expensive amps use the same ALPS  pots...can't get it all I guess, and you're already getting a killer sounding package for the money 

 
the SS is as 3D sounding as you could possibly dream of, the headamp is very very capable, the coax input is reclocked by a fairly high-end DSP and doesn't glitch like hell when you switch sample rates(which is one of the reasons why I started to hate coax more and more..CS841x and DIR9001 do make very nasty glitches IME)....Asus did a "coup de maître" IMHO, I could only hope for a single better stepped pot w/ a relay that would disable the line-out when the HP out is in use(like on the DP-1)...that would save them some money, and we'd be better off w/ one single stepped pot instead of 2 ALPS.
 
But, hey, that's their FIRST standalone DAC....and the imaging is really world class. Dual mono from start to end(it's using two LME49600 high current buffers on the HP out) pays in cash 

 
The mids are ANYTHING but recessed when using AD797B's, but I'm an ortho head so my phones have very upfront mids anyway 

 
And ppl can rave about async USB 2.0 all they want but at the end of the day, coax/I2S and USB 1.0 are the only ways to have proper galvanic isolation. The non-glitchy coax input is a God send to my ears...you can go for the whole shebang: ADuM4160/ADuM5000/TE8802L and you get glitch-free isolated 44.1/48/88.2/96kHz all the way..Mr Dan Lavry has repeated many times that anything >88.2kHz is overkill, so it doesn't really get any better than that to connect a computer to a DAC IMO...especially when the DAC reclocks internally.
 
It's also a monitoring grade DAC to my ears, so the GIGO principle very much applies. It doesn't have the sweet sound of the Stello Eximus DP-1, the harsh truth will hurt your ears if your source material is not up to par.

Thanks for the reply! From what I´ve read it sounds pretty good even with the cheap stock opamps, that is a serious testament to the SHARC DSP/dual mono design. I´m also seriously impressed by their component choices (SHARC DSP, fully dual mono, nice transformer), simply put this would easily be more than 1k if it were hand assembled by some niche audiophile company. Perhaps even more actually, not to mention if it were made by some of those mysterious forest elves... As a consumer who has limited money, for us asian mass produced gear is just fantastic value. Asus also deserves kudos for their op-amp swapping documentation, just checked their site. It seems 8 pairs directly affect the headphone output, so if you aren´t using the DAC outputs you can get away with 16 high end single opamps... I wonder if it works with the best stereo opamps, that would be a pretty cheap upgrade, just 8. And less risk to install too, as you don´t have to order ones on adapters, the ones that you always have to double check unless you want to fry your DAC and headphones. Sure that can happen with stereo opamps too, but at least they are easier to install as you don´t have to solder the adapters.
 
By the way, have you double-checked the pots? I´ve read, and looking at the pictures, I think they are ALPHA Taiwan, not ALPS ones. No idea how they compare to ALPS blue though. With a stepped volume pot (anyone tried to replace it with a DACT yet? ) this would be just unbelievable value.
 
Agreed on the coax / HD music comments, I think people are so used to the standard DIR9001 etc that they think the glitches are a normal part of computer audio (which they aren´t of course). I also don´t buy music over 92kHz, no point there as it´s way beyond audible limits anyway.

 

[leeperry]

 
Quote:

From what I´ve read it sounds pretty good even with the cheap stock opamps,

 
Well, "pretty good" is highly subjective. I guess it depends on your expectations and personal taste. I've rolled all the usual suspects, and nothing really compares to AD797B to my ears. A french review of the ONE came to the same conclusion that the opamps had to be swapped FWIW. AD797 based DAC's usually cost $1K/1.5K so we should thank Asus for allowing us to swap them that easily IMO. Swappable opamps cost money to manufacturers, due to the ppl who fail installing them properly and later on play stupid when the magic smoke's gone out 

 
Quote:

have you double-checked the pots? I´ve read, and looking at the pictures, I think they are ALPHA Taiwan, not ALPS ones. No idea how they compare to ALPS blue though. With a stepped volume pot (anyone tried to replace it with a DACT yet? ) this would be just unbelievable value.

 
Well, they are not up to the usual top of the range +$100 stepped pots...these are the Achilles' heel of the ONE. The PCB is prolly 4 layers and I think you would have a hard time finding a compatible stepped pot w/ the same footprint...but if you find one, please let us know.
 
I think the best bang/bucks stepped pot would be this one: https://www.google.com/search?q=2CP601S
 
Firestone Audio put it in their "Little Country III", and it did a wonderful job there 

 

[ROBSCIX]

@vrln on the subject of opamps, you will find that many that have knowledge surrounding this topic, will opt for dual single channel opamps on an adapter instead of a single dual channel chip.  The merits of this type of module have been mentioned in the opamp thread many times.
 
You will also find that many of the higher end opamps are single channel and SOIC.  If you are interested in getting into opamps, adapters and soldering go along with it.  If you just stick to simple Dip8 dual channel opamps, you will be limited in what you can find and use.
A dual single channel module will have improved aspect such as crosstalk over a single dual channel chip.
You can always find a person to build modules for you, if you are not into doing the soldering.