[mwindham08]

http://www.excaliberpc.com/622377/asus-xonar-essence-one-muses.html
 
They only have 1 left in stock so better hurry!

 

[Quaintative]

Quote:

Can someone please recommend from their own experience reputable NA store that ships official "proper" Muses edition with the gain switch, not too noticeable channel imbalance issues, etc? Amazon has a few sellers, but the price seems higher than retail (1000 instead of 900). Newegg out of stock.

http://www.compsource.com/pn/XONARESSENCEONEMUSE/Asus_46/Usb-Dac-Headphone-Amplifier--Premium-Muses01opAmps-Reproduction-XONARESSENCEONEMUSE/
 
I got mine here. The only problem was that it came with european cables... which for me wasn't really a problem.

 

[serg472]

Quote:

http://www.excaliberpc.com/622377/asus-xonar-essence-one-muses.html
 
They only have 1 left in stock so better hurry!

Thanks, but have you actually bought from them? 

 

[mwindham08]

Quote:

Thanks, but have you actually bought from them? 

 
No I have not. I have known about excaliberpc for a couple years though
 
They have a good ranking with the BBB and resellerratings.com so they seem legit if that is your concern.

 

[xneakers]

Final result... The next frontier probably the Muses...
 

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Final result.

The real question is: will it blend?
 
Ah, your blog is quite something http://jimmyauw.com/ 

 
Now to make a new top cover in order to make it WAF compliant again ^_^

 

[xneakers]

Well, if it can match or at least a bit close to Lynx HiLo, then it deserves a complete new chassis...

So far, the improvement over the standard version is significant. But 200 hours is a long way to go to before we can take the final judgement.

Maybe a set of Muses will be interesting before a new chassis arrives... and a new stepped attenuator although I experience no channel imbalance, but those green alps is out of my standard.

thanks.

 

[turokrocks]

Quote:

Final result... The next frontier probably the Muses...
 

 
O
MG....
 
Please more pics.....
 
Any impressions about how this changed the sound?
 
edit:
 
quote:
 
http://jimmyauw.com/2013/05/12/asus-xonar-essence-one-e1-finally-its-done/#more-3083
 
So, how does it sound?
Well, I was shocked a bit when I powered up the unit but all the controls were not functioning. Only power LED lit up. I quickly realized that I wrongly inserted the cable from the audio board to front panel board. The cable was reversely connected (the connector that should be connected to the audio board was connected to the front panel board and vice versa). Unit powered up, but no function onthe buttons (I started to sniff around to see if I could smell some smoke ha~~~). ****, this gonna be my first failure when modify the gear (knocked the wood!!!). But luckily I realized that and after reversing the cable, everything worked fine (as expected!).
During first hour, I can hear that so many Cerafine’s sound around. The mid is impressive (where the hell those sibilance?). The low is well controlled (much better than the standard/original). Well, it must be the Black Gate contribution.
High is very clear, detail, crisp, but still natural and musical. I think Os-Con and Black Gate FK/N combination is DAC supply is well worth combination, plus low impedance Rubycon ZA in internal PCM1795 feedback. No more such ‘hi-fi’ sound as usually heard from the original Asus Xonar Essence One (E1).
Listening Barb Jungr – Love Letter never sounds so good in my living room.
I’m still thinking if the final capacitor shouldn’t be Cerafine, but will see after 200 hours of playing. Probably some op-amp will be tweaked a bit.

 

[Quaintative]

I'm not going to quote xneakers' whole post, but I will say this:
 

 

[xneakers]

I think this is a must have upgrade (if you have guts to do it)... The improvement is very significant... I can't hear the original E1 any longer for sure.
 
Will see how this will compete against Lynx HiLo (at 2500 USD MSRP) later after I pass the 200 hours.
 
I'm quite sure can improve the headphone out also, but since I have given up with headphone for quite some time, sorry no such test at present time.
 
Thanks.

 

[Gandah]

Quote:

Final result...

Man that's hardcore moding if I've ever seen it... Did you design it yourself or follow a plan? ether way looks awesome, wish I could take it for a test drive

 

[xneakers]

Hi Gandah,
If you follow my blog, I traced one by one (some guides there if you understand what I'm talking about).
 
This is because Asus use all 25-35VDC capacitor, while on some section, the high quality capacitor only available at 6.3V (like Os-Con or Black Gate NX Hi-Q). But putting low voltage capacitor on high voltage rail will result a 'small party' inside your room  
 
The DAC section will use max 5 VDC, so 6.3V capacitor should be more than enough. But to find which capacitor that related to that one is another (pain) story.
 
Thanks to Asus for such high quality PCB and also very well layout of the component. 
 
It's kind of pain and confusing at first, but well worth the result. 
 
Thanks.

 

[ASUSXONAR]

My personal mods here Xneakers - Siemens stacked film caps directly on op-amps between -ve and +ve. 1uf is enough. Saves from modding the PCB and provides most of the sonic benefits needed easily. 

 

[xneakers]

Hi ASUSXONAR,
Stacked Capacitor is a good one. I use Duelund VSF Cast Silver on my preamp also. Hard to return to original round winding caps one you like the Stacked Capacitor.

But I have a big doubt single decoupling could do that much against all capacitor replacement (and ribbon cable modification). Yes it will improve, but the pain of the original Capacitor still there if we dont remove them. It's kind of waste if we only do that, as I think E1 has so much potential.

I would suggest to change all the WIMAs (maybe to your Siemens or Vishay) but that would be a big pain...

Thannks.

 

[ASUSXONAR]

I think the ribbon cable mod isn't needed - there's a chance you will worsen the SNR of the unit with those cables in that fashion. 
 
As for the cap mods - the siemens 1uf caps have a very low inductance and impedance. The capacitors only decouple at frequencies where the regulators become ineffective and this will mostly be at higher frequencies.