ASUS Xonar Essence One USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier
Introduction
Before diving straight to ASUS Xonar Essence One review, I would like to share a little about my Audiophiles adventure here. I started using ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard since 2010, and I liked it very much! I would say that it the best soundcard I’ve ever had! For starters, it uses high grade quality electronic components match while the DAC is well balanced and it produced excellent SQ. Then I started rolling quite a number of op-amps and finally I favourite pairings are OPA2312 + LM4562, and LME49720HA + LM4562.
- OPA2132 – warm, wider sound stage(than stock), fluid/bright vocal
- LME49720HA – widest sound stage, clarity, analytic and punchy bass
- ASUS Xonar Essence STX + RudiStor NX-03 + AKG K701
After a while, I heard that ASUS will be launching a new Xonar Series sound card, known as Xonar Essence One (E1). This time is an USB DAC rather than the PCI type like STX. It made me thinking, “ASUS produced one of the best sound card. What’s next? What would it sound like? Would it be better than the STX?" It got me excited just thinking about it.
However, the E1 retail price is USD599 (around RM1800). Judging from the price difference, one would naturally assume that the E1 should be must better than the Essence STX. Of course the E1 has plenty more features but end of the day the most important factor of a soundcard/DAC is the sound it produced.
After the E1 was finally announced officially, plenty of reviews popped out! Looking at the discussion on the E1 in reviews and forums, the feedback was kind of divided. Some said that the E1 is just a notch better compared to the STX while some were very impressed by it. Nevertheless, majority agreed that the build quality is top notch. After going through enough of reviews, I found myself itching to test the E1 to compare it with my STX.
Finally ASUS Malaysia announced the availability of E1 sold in Malaysia and “sadly” it is priced at RM1,899. For that price tag you can get decent HiFi-grade DAC and headphone amplifier combo. However, ASUS Malaysia representative contacted me whether I’m interested to review the ASUS Xonar Essence One and they are willing to ship it to my doorstep. Of course, I said yes!
The ASUS Xonar Essence One
Similar to most of the reviews out there, the first impression was pretty shocking after looking at the size of the retail box and its weight. As usual at the front of the box contains the tiger symbol reference to Essence series product. At the back contains all the specifications.
Let’s look what’s in the retail box:
- ASUS Xonar Essence One
- Power Cord
- USB A to B cable
- 6.3mm to 3.5mm adapter
- User Manual
- Driver CD
- Audio Precision (AP) test report
The build quality
No doubt that the ASUS Xonar Essence One has the premium finishing. I like the body and knobs build very much!
Front view
From left:
- Power button
- Upsampling button and LED indicator
- Input button and LED indicator for Coaxial, Toslink and USB
- Mute button
- DAC Volume knob
- LED indicator for bit perfect and sample rate
- Headphone volume knob
- Headphone 6.5mm output
Back view
From left:
- Unbalanced output (RCA)
- Balanced output (XLR)
- Digital Input
- Coaxial
- Toslink
- USB
- Voltage selector: AC 115V or 223V slide switch
- AC in
“Teardown” on the ASUS Xonar Essence One shows the components on the DAC & Headphone Amp unit. From the left is the power section, with huge transformer connected to the board. The board will clean and conditioning the power source. At the top right is the audio section which contains DAC, caps and op-amps. Let’s take a closer look.
That is where un-balanced (RCA), and balanced (XLR) output section
- 2 x Texas Instrument PCM1795 DAC (1 Right + 1 Left)
- 4 x NE5532 I/V stage (2 Right + 2 Left)
- 2 x NE5532 Low Pass Filter (1 Right + 1 Left)
- 1 x LM4562NA un-balanced buffer
- 2 x LM4562NA balanced buffer (1 Right + 1 Left)
That is where headphone output section
- 2 x LME49720NA buffer (1 Right + 1 Left)
- 2 x LME49600TS headphone amplifier (1 Right + 1 Left)
This post has been edited by xEDynamics: Aug 29 2013, 02:23 PM