borizm
Head-Fier
No, I and my friend (owner of E9) don't like FiiO E9 because of low audiophile value it represents.
wow it's that bad? i wonder why they cost so much then...
...your Xonar essence should sound transparent and you have nothing to gain from upgrading it.
The M-DAC has similar noise level to what Stereophile measured for the Xonar STX (in fact, the RCA output is more comparable to the cheap Xonar D1). Then again, the actual performance of the card may vary due to PCs with very noisy components, problems related to the power supply or motherboard, ground loops (especially with an external AC powered amplifier), or incorrect usage. Of course, if the differences are not measured, or proven with blind tests, they may not even exist.
The Dac does make a difference but it is usually small enough that you would never pick up on with normal computer speakers as they aren't revealing enough. What you pay for with better DAC's is for the very subtle things that usually take very revealing equipment to bring out. That said I like the sound that I get from properly setup Burr brown DAC's over say the Cirrus Logic DAC's. Better dynamics & less conjestion in the sound. More open soundstage. These are all things that normal computer speaker lack the ability to expose. I use modified biamped studio monitors that are extremely revealing.
Originally Posted by adamlau /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I would consider the entire setup a lower-noise-than-average PC build. The introduction of an external DAC clearly lowered the noise floor even further. Again, the OP will have to demo an external unit himself in order to determine whether there would be any justifiable gains in his setup, or not.
In fact, the Benchmark DAC1 does indeed sound like the ST/STX! I have always thought that ASUS modeled the sonic signature of the ST/STX after Benchmark.