acidic
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2013
- Posts
- 32
- Likes
- 11
Hey JustinGN and welcome!
I more than happy to give you my thoughts about the Essence One.
I own the HD 800 for over a year now. I used to amp them with the Fiio E9 as well and I pretty much enjoyed that combination (especially for their price - the amp of course^^). But after quite some time I was looking for an improvement over the Fiio E9. I have tried the Lehmann Audio Rhinelander and the Xonar STX, both were quite the some sounding as the Fiio E9 or worse. I knew I had to spend more on an amp to actually hear an improvement. So I had an eye on the more "higher-end" amplifiers out there such as the Lehmann Audio Black Cube Linear, Woo Audio and some more (sorry I forgot their names).
Luckely I've came across the Xonar Essence One. Freshly announced an all in one amplifier with swappable opamps and an extremly low price for their specs. I have ordered my E1 from Amazon for about 340 euros only. Amazon Marketplace, used but good as new (just the package got opened once but I think the device never actually got used once ) .
As I'm mainly listening to electronic music I wanted to have bit more bass emphasis in my music and an overall smoother sound over the Fiio E9 - the E9 always were a bit to harsh and fatiguing to my ears. I still got them though. For 1:1 comparision for example .
I can tell you, the E1 delivers! They are such a great match with the HD 800 you will love them. Lack of bass on the HD 800 almost everyone is talking about? Not with the E1. The Sennies are very amp picky thats for sure and I think they may best harmonize with a tube amp as well. The HD 800 (for my ears), need an amp that produces a more smoother and analog sound just what a tube amp delivers (in theory). It's diffrent with solid-state-amps as they normally tend to be more "harsh" for the ears but the Essence One is an exception! The built in NE5532's opamps on the stock E1 delivers a really nice warm sound, less fatiguing over the Fiio E9 and a more deeper bass. I even find myself not touching the Equilizer anymore as I used to on the Fiio E9!
So my recommandation is, go with the standard Essence One and if you feel like you want to step a bit higher, change the opamps on them (you will find tons of reviews from users on which combination sounds best and which not). And if you want to test the sound on the MUSES, you can easily buy the MUSES 01 opamps later and save yourself some money too! Don't worry we will explain you how to
Many head-fiers upgraded their standard E1 to a MUSES later (stares at Tim :tongue_smile: ).
There's just one reason why you would need an original E1 Muses Edition - 1. if you desperately need a gain switcher (for IEM especially) and 2. you prefer the black chime tiger :atsmile:
Hope I could help you a little with your choice
That's very true and I'm one of the user that's heading the muses direction. I need the gain jumper feature (not the black tiger - ha!) for my JH16pro but its not in my base version of E1. I tried online searching and looking at those muses version internal view also can't find that gain jumper. Does this jumper actually exist during the final production for muses E1? Even the asus official website didn't state this feature.... Hmmm...