Snuck
Active Member
Hey everybody,
I am gonna review the too few known or appreciated Asus essence one mkII, a DAC made by a computer components making company and some of the finest sound cards for computers. Basically, a sound card is a DAC so there was just a step between audiophiles DAC and soundcards designed for sound lovers.
Asus DAC didn't come just with that : they came with the thought that everyone can improve their own gear according to their own money, maybe here was a first mistake : not to have speak enough of it, through advertising or whatever since reception wasn't much ready for that. It splitted users between those who wanted final product and those who liked that improvement ability. That added to the fact they come to a new market where brands have to say they do only hi-fi, where customers wanna more likely dreams than real sound till they wake up.
I don't say all the gear high end sold is bad, I say it could be sold way less if wasn't the whole picture over the brands that can make them even do bad products that'll make people just buy the higher version instead of asking back the money loss. But I digress.
So, here we have a DAC covered of a solid aluminium shell, to reduce perturbations, a good alimentation and some nice chips coming into three different flavors, depending on your wallet size : the basic one, the plus, and the muse with the top of the barrel muse 01 op amp inside.
Let's be clear : I had only the Asus Essence One basic version but I tweaked it a bit. I'll speak later of the tweaks costs and improvements, and also, what could have Asus done to make it jelly because some improvements were reached without a penny, just a mail to asus support.
So, first of all, the DAC is able to handle 24 bit / 192hz as any currents DAC in the market, that's very usual, but where it gets interesting, the DAC can reach 32 bit and max 384hz or less, depending on the sample quality since it oversample it 8x symetricaly (can I say that?). The main problem of a CD is that the poor encoding compare to vinyle (who said majors wanted to save money on easy cd encoding? They wouldn't dare, noooo), that's why we've been always trying to improve the resolution and 32 bit 384hz is the max we can do so far. Should be top of the barrel! But it's not, let's see out why and how to solve it.
So, u plug ur nice fancy DAC with the usb plug, for mac users, u're fine, no need of anything, for windows users.....u need to install first the driver and also look for the usb 3.0 driver only available for win 7 but which works for win 10 too that'll boost up the sound quality with more breathing, power and natural sound. I can't tell u why but it seems the usb receptor of the DAC needs to be installed as well. Fine, but Asus could warn about that instead of hiding it by shame. Many people would have shout over them but in the end, the result would have make everyone agree. And come on, as if big brands of hifi weren't forgiven for bigger mistakes than those.
Once, it's done, u'll see that ur computer is already set on 24 bit / 192hz and here comes the troubles : the DAC works fine at this rate but activate the oversample and u'll lose some details, some character in the voice, overall it's improved, more tonical and taking, natural sound but it lacks those details that got erased in the smoothing of the waveform. Why? Simple : if u turn back system and software to 16 bit / 44.1 khz and then oversample again, the sound will be transcended because the signal will come without any tricks before it, any oversample : keep in mind u'll oversample twice a signal if u use 24 bt /192khz and then oversample. The DAC seemed to have been made just for that case actually : so make sure to use well that thing, which Asus could have easily warn us about.
It looks like they were so scared of making any annoucement about how to use the product that it became counter productive. Another example of the lack of speaking and that I fixed with a solution told in a mail : if u do this trick : https://www.asus.com/fr/support/FAQ/1015745/
It'll allow the speakers (for those who works with speakers or low impedance headphones - but what's low impedance to Asus?), u need to switch the jumpers as told from rhi/lhi to rlo/llo to remoe the impedance and there, to make the sound more detailed again. like having more amplitude in the sound, more development and making the overall more present, more wild because the sound is more refined.
With those two easy tricks, u can already improve the sound, onr one if u're on mac depending on ur system and the sound is already good, even with the first entry level of the One serie : u can access to details, the sound spatialisation is ok, and balance is good. But now comes the changing op amps part, just the op amp? Why just those actually? Op amps are 6 chips over 11 removable chips, all influencing the sound : some are working the outgoing of the sound through RCA, XLR and headphones outpout. So if u change just the Op Amps, u'll get an improvement sure, but nothing in compare with changing it all the elevens one.
Here I advice to get some muse chips, I personnally got the muse 8920 for the price first but also because they're a big part of the muse 01 abilities. Remember, for chips, A-L-W-A-Y-S go for official sellers, don't even try ebay or else, u can never know where they come from.. So, first I changed 6 OP amps because the provider didn't have anymore enough so I received 8 on 11, but wnated to see if the 6 only would make all the change, so if I wasted the price of 5 chips or not.
The sound had more backstage power, much more details, more naturals, it was improvement in all ways, the main problem with sound is that u don't know what u'll get till u get it and once it's done, u can't look back. So it was cearly worth the expense even if I regret not to had the money fo muse 01 but I clearly recommand users to go for muse chips, instead of any others. U won't regret it, better economise a little and then do it.
Later, I received the last 3 chips and installed them , with the 2 waiting, and after burning in, it became quite clear it was again an improvement. So why does Asus speak of just 6 when the 11 worth a replace? That means a muse edition could also be improved since the chips dealing with the outputs are less quality even if still good compare to muse 01 or 8920.
Finally I changed two fuses for AMR fuses and here too, for 15-20 euros, it was a real nice change to do . But the fuses changes isn't reserved to Asus only. This isn't a view of mind, u hear the difference, it's again improve the sound quality, especially in an amplifier, my system for instance isn't anymore so far from valve amp sound on some I could hear. Not saying I reach high ends valve but, it definitely help.
Now to the drawbacks of the Asus, which came because of expenses reductions and finally works again the product since instead of showing a perfect craftmanship, it shows it's better but when u go into a market, u have to make the product not just good, u have to make it great when it comes to a so closed market where brands don't wanna see the computer world coming into their market, giving their a lesson kinda like Asus did with an excellent price / quality ratio (especially that they're way more turned on competition).
So, the first main drawbacks comes from RCA quality, whyyy oh why, the product is designed and thought by sound lovers, u can feel it but it seems the commercial leader came and said stop, so instead of having copper RCA, we have brass. It wouldn't have been much more pricy but eh, same for the power plug that is brass nickel receptor but that is way less issue. Xlr's and headphone output have the same issues. It's picknicking but all added to lack of communication, of sharing,instead of a fancy website I loved, the money could have been used for more explanation to the people.
And it makes me have one regret also : the lack good anti vibration pads, not undersized plus the fact that the speakers and headphones aren't with seperated impedance, just turning it to low helps a lot speakers, making me wonder what could have it given if it was just designed for speakers?
Pros :
- Build quality
- Chips changing
- Sound quality
- Reliability
- Oversampling if well used
- Excellent product for the price
Cons :
- Poor explanations and communications
- Some choices to reduce expense that aren't understandable when u do a product that good
- The tweaks, even if easy, not hard, some ways trough buttons would have make it clearer
Thanks for reading!
I am gonna review the too few known or appreciated Asus essence one mkII, a DAC made by a computer components making company and some of the finest sound cards for computers. Basically, a sound card is a DAC so there was just a step between audiophiles DAC and soundcards designed for sound lovers.
Asus DAC didn't come just with that : they came with the thought that everyone can improve their own gear according to their own money, maybe here was a first mistake : not to have speak enough of it, through advertising or whatever since reception wasn't much ready for that. It splitted users between those who wanted final product and those who liked that improvement ability. That added to the fact they come to a new market where brands have to say they do only hi-fi, where customers wanna more likely dreams than real sound till they wake up.
I don't say all the gear high end sold is bad, I say it could be sold way less if wasn't the whole picture over the brands that can make them even do bad products that'll make people just buy the higher version instead of asking back the money loss. But I digress.
So, here we have a DAC covered of a solid aluminium shell, to reduce perturbations, a good alimentation and some nice chips coming into three different flavors, depending on your wallet size : the basic one, the plus, and the muse with the top of the barrel muse 01 op amp inside.
Let's be clear : I had only the Asus Essence One basic version but I tweaked it a bit. I'll speak later of the tweaks costs and improvements, and also, what could have Asus done to make it jelly because some improvements were reached without a penny, just a mail to asus support.
So, first of all, the DAC is able to handle 24 bit / 192hz as any currents DAC in the market, that's very usual, but where it gets interesting, the DAC can reach 32 bit and max 384hz or less, depending on the sample quality since it oversample it 8x symetricaly (can I say that?). The main problem of a CD is that the poor encoding compare to vinyle (who said majors wanted to save money on easy cd encoding? They wouldn't dare, noooo), that's why we've been always trying to improve the resolution and 32 bit 384hz is the max we can do so far. Should be top of the barrel! But it's not, let's see out why and how to solve it.
So, u plug ur nice fancy DAC with the usb plug, for mac users, u're fine, no need of anything, for windows users.....u need to install first the driver and also look for the usb 3.0 driver only available for win 7 but which works for win 10 too that'll boost up the sound quality with more breathing, power and natural sound. I can't tell u why but it seems the usb receptor of the DAC needs to be installed as well. Fine, but Asus could warn about that instead of hiding it by shame. Many people would have shout over them but in the end, the result would have make everyone agree. And come on, as if big brands of hifi weren't forgiven for bigger mistakes than those.
Once, it's done, u'll see that ur computer is already set on 24 bit / 192hz and here comes the troubles : the DAC works fine at this rate but activate the oversample and u'll lose some details, some character in the voice, overall it's improved, more tonical and taking, natural sound but it lacks those details that got erased in the smoothing of the waveform. Why? Simple : if u turn back system and software to 16 bit / 44.1 khz and then oversample again, the sound will be transcended because the signal will come without any tricks before it, any oversample : keep in mind u'll oversample twice a signal if u use 24 bt /192khz and then oversample. The DAC seemed to have been made just for that case actually : so make sure to use well that thing, which Asus could have easily warn us about.
It looks like they were so scared of making any annoucement about how to use the product that it became counter productive. Another example of the lack of speaking and that I fixed with a solution told in a mail : if u do this trick : https://www.asus.com/fr/support/FAQ/1015745/
It'll allow the speakers (for those who works with speakers or low impedance headphones - but what's low impedance to Asus?), u need to switch the jumpers as told from rhi/lhi to rlo/llo to remoe the impedance and there, to make the sound more detailed again. like having more amplitude in the sound, more development and making the overall more present, more wild because the sound is more refined.
With those two easy tricks, u can already improve the sound, onr one if u're on mac depending on ur system and the sound is already good, even with the first entry level of the One serie : u can access to details, the sound spatialisation is ok, and balance is good. But now comes the changing op amps part, just the op amp? Why just those actually? Op amps are 6 chips over 11 removable chips, all influencing the sound : some are working the outgoing of the sound through RCA, XLR and headphones outpout. So if u change just the Op Amps, u'll get an improvement sure, but nothing in compare with changing it all the elevens one.
Here I advice to get some muse chips, I personnally got the muse 8920 for the price first but also because they're a big part of the muse 01 abilities. Remember, for chips, A-L-W-A-Y-S go for official sellers, don't even try ebay or else, u can never know where they come from.. So, first I changed 6 OP amps because the provider didn't have anymore enough so I received 8 on 11, but wnated to see if the 6 only would make all the change, so if I wasted the price of 5 chips or not.
The sound had more backstage power, much more details, more naturals, it was improvement in all ways, the main problem with sound is that u don't know what u'll get till u get it and once it's done, u can't look back. So it was cearly worth the expense even if I regret not to had the money fo muse 01 but I clearly recommand users to go for muse chips, instead of any others. U won't regret it, better economise a little and then do it.
Later, I received the last 3 chips and installed them , with the 2 waiting, and after burning in, it became quite clear it was again an improvement. So why does Asus speak of just 6 when the 11 worth a replace? That means a muse edition could also be improved since the chips dealing with the outputs are less quality even if still good compare to muse 01 or 8920.
Finally I changed two fuses for AMR fuses and here too, for 15-20 euros, it was a real nice change to do . But the fuses changes isn't reserved to Asus only. This isn't a view of mind, u hear the difference, it's again improve the sound quality, especially in an amplifier, my system for instance isn't anymore so far from valve amp sound on some I could hear. Not saying I reach high ends valve but, it definitely help.
Now to the drawbacks of the Asus, which came because of expenses reductions and finally works again the product since instead of showing a perfect craftmanship, it shows it's better but when u go into a market, u have to make the product not just good, u have to make it great when it comes to a so closed market where brands don't wanna see the computer world coming into their market, giving their a lesson kinda like Asus did with an excellent price / quality ratio (especially that they're way more turned on competition).
So, the first main drawbacks comes from RCA quality, whyyy oh why, the product is designed and thought by sound lovers, u can feel it but it seems the commercial leader came and said stop, so instead of having copper RCA, we have brass. It wouldn't have been much more pricy but eh, same for the power plug that is brass nickel receptor but that is way less issue. Xlr's and headphone output have the same issues. It's picknicking but all added to lack of communication, of sharing,instead of a fancy website I loved, the money could have been used for more explanation to the people.
And it makes me have one regret also : the lack good anti vibration pads, not undersized plus the fact that the speakers and headphones aren't with seperated impedance, just turning it to low helps a lot speakers, making me wonder what could have it given if it was just designed for speakers?
Pros :
- Build quality
- Chips changing
- Sound quality
- Reliability
- Oversampling if well used
- Excellent product for the price
Cons :
- Poor explanations and communications
- Some choices to reduce expense that aren't understandable when u do a product that good
- The tweaks, even if easy, not hard, some ways trough buttons would have make it clearer
Thanks for reading!