ASUS Xonar Essence One MUSES Editio

Asus Essence One Muses Edition ImpressionsSETUP 1PC – USB – Asus Essence One Muses – Project Ember – AVI ADM 9RS / Sennheiser HD 650SETUP 2PC – SPDIF – AVI ADM 9RS via Internal DACSETUP 3Asus STX – Project Ember – AVI ADM 9RS / Sennheiser HD 650DACThe Muses Edition is a huge improvement over the other two setups above.Pros over AVI DAC / STX DAC: (Also, AVI DAC >>> STX DAC)Way more articulate, not even close, a night and day differenceFar more spacious, wider, deeper, tallerFar more natural and lively without being brightFar more rich, detailed as well as lushImmerses you in the music and makes you want to dance, unlike the other setups which are more analytical but not as good in the above ways.Imaging is much betterDynamics are betterCons over AVI DAC:Not as transparent or cleanPLEASE NOTEI prefer the Muses to the AVI dac by a huge shot, not even a comparison, especially for the mids and sound stage and because it actually sounds like music with emotion and depth!With HD 650:It feels as if the music is floating around my head rather than just sitting over there.Imaging and dynamics are better as I said above.Melting delicious sound presentationMore balanced yet better all aroundAbove pros as wellNo cons over STX DACAMPNot tried much, just for a few seconds. Sounded very good, but not in the same league as the DAC. My Ember sounded slightly better but I haven’t tried the amp much anyway! So can’t really say…ImpressionsIt doesn’t sound sterile or dead like the other setups. It sounds like music and real, something which immerses you.The AVI DAC is very good, but not in the same league as this DAC (though it is more transparent and cleaner).This DAC sounds rich and lush while being powerful and articulate.The bass isn’t as prominent as the AVI DAC which isn’t bass heavy either.I never got the WOW effect, not even when I went from Aktimates to AVI ADM, or from Bravo to Ember, and both above are night and day upgrades. But this upgrade gave me the WOW effect that was I missing all along. Now my setup feels complete and truly end game without any upgrade itch in me. Don’t get me wrong, AVI ADM and HD 650 and Project Ember are all excellent at their price points and work exceptionally, but I was probably missing the Source I needed and this Source brings out the best within all my devices/setup and makes them really sing.With Muses, HD 650 sounds like a flagship headphone, not as detailed as the HD 800, but definitely truly end game and the sound presentation is to die for!

I intended to buy this and researched for almost a month because I have wanted to upgrade from my Asus Xonar Essence XT card. Apparently the sound on this DAC is exceptional. Everyone seems to love the sound quality when it works. But many of the users report frustrating technical problems and that the Asus company does not back up its customers. I dealt with ASUS technical support in India and it is awful. A technician was upset that I did not want to allow this unknown tech support contractor to take over my computer for a problem that clearly had nothing to do with either my internal hardware or software. And then I found comments, supposedly from actual or former employees, suggesting that there are serious internal conflicts at Asus and that it is consumer unfriendly. I have also been told by American sources (all of those for sale on Amazon are in Japan) that the unit has been discontinued which may or may not be true. Not sure what to believe but, much as I wanted this Asus DAC, I am afraid to buy it and have serious reservations about the company.

I have this unit for 8 months now... It really performs well at any level with streaming radio or .flac - .mp3 files. I must advice owners of this unit to check your driver settings specially with windows and to go to playback devices find Asus xonar essence - properties - advanced - and set the sample setting to 24 bi, 192000 HZ otherwise you'll be limiting the potential. windows defaults @ 16 bit....the quality of the interconnects is very important as well, it should be plugged to a UPS or have a good AC line filter. The quality of sound produced is equally good to a high end turntable just great. A lot of performance for the money.

I'd ignore the one star review, its got nothing to do with the products itself, just rumours of how Asus might operate etc. ASUS is a huge computer company, like any company you can find Customer suppport issues, though don't base it on rumours.As for the product itself, is a great DAC/AMP for the price. I read a lot of reviews before purchasing it, and its rated highly in the Audiophile community. Of course you can get better combos, but not at this price, bang for buck it is excellent. Its my go to Amp on my desk, mr reliable.I believe there is also an upgrade kit out for DSD.

Very solid DAC. I have this paired with DT990 and sound quality is exceptional. So far no issues with drivers or the DAC itself (running on Windows 8). I have not ordered it through Amazon and had to go through another dealer who back-ordered it for me. It took a month for it to finally ship but it was well worth it.