Asus Xonar essence one Muses edition- still relevant?

[Bransondk44]

Hi,

I have been without a dac/amp for a while, but have been waiting to get my old AKG 601's playing again. For some years I have been looking at the Asus xonar essence one Muses edition, but until now it stayed at thought level. Now, the other day I was looking at eBay in Germany and noticed I could pick up a new one for around 360€ This got me thinking is this the time to try it? But is actually still relevant, or is there better things out there today in the same price range?

 

[raoultrifan]

Hi,

It's a huge thread here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/asus-essence-one-headphone-amp-dac-cebit-2011.542563/.

Back to your question, you can't tell for sure the inside opamps are indeed MUSES, so I'm not sure the price is right if the opamps are fake. For 260 EUR I would be inclined perhaps, but 360 EUR is a bit too much (unless you're 110% sure inside there are original MUSES). However, I do like my E1 and it still works fine, but a brand new Burson PLAY costs 299 EUR and has better capabilities, it can natively decode DSD x64, x128 and x256 and has a more powerful on its internal amplifier. Also, if you're looking to something balanced, perhaps you may find a combo DAC/headamp on the MATRIX or TOPPING manufacturer (DX7S perhaps).