ASUS plans to release a new DAC + headphone amp

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titana

titana

Forerunner
Asus is planning to release a new balanced DAC and an inbuilt headphone amp. Considering the success they had with XONAR sound cards , this new product should be worth waiting for.

The new DAC is called Xonar Essence "one"

This thing looks awesome. It does bit-perfect 192Khz. Should be around around $300 on release.

best part is, it features balanced xlr out..

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more to read

New Xonar Essence "One" - XtremeSystems Forums
 
^^ Wow ! That looks good. :)

However I will stick with my MS 2 for the time being since I dont have any balanced amps or headphones to use that with. Nor do I have any 192 khz tracks. :P
 
Balanced , hmm.

i wonder how much it will cost ??

considering the cheapest good balanced DAC is yulong D100 @450-500 / MSII pro.

if the inbuilt headphone amp is also balanced , then we are talking :D ( but i doubt that will be the case. :( )
 
Excellent find titana......just a few days back I found myself asking that its been a long time since Asus came out with a new Asus Essence product for audiophiles and here it is. :D
 
Ooh! That is damn sexy!

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toxicdrift said:
awesome find titana!, might just pick this up and used xlr out's for my krk's :D
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Exactly my thoughts :D Hope they roll it out quickly.
 
Looks like the Essence One is to be rolled out very soon and the specs are very promising. The initial pictures suggest a very nice looking DAC with a built in headphone amplifier. it has both balanced and unbalanced outs as they had showcased. The build quality is excellent and the components used are top tier, this might very well compete with $1000 DAC's in the market. It also provides the option of swapping the Op-amps...

Considering its build and specs, it would be interesting to see how ASUS prices this product...if it comes for 20k in indian market it will be a big hit, though i really doubt a 20k pricepoint..

more to read

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I see a Xilinx USB chip so it means it'll have an async USB implementation. However I see lots of shitty op amps both in the i/v conversion and output stage.

The input/output RCA's don't inspire too much confidence in me either.
 
I am a bit disappointed about opamps as well since the newer TI opamps not only offer great performance but are also quite cheap. But any way the opamps are swappable.

About the usb receiver, it is debatable whether an async implementation would be better than a well designed synchronous one. The USB chip is from C-media BTW.

Things that interest me are.

1) One DAC per channel unlike STX (32 bit pcm1795)

2) Wima polyester & polypropylene caps

3)LME 49600 as headphone amp

4) Torroidal transformer which means a decent regulated power supply unlike the smps that we have to use in STX

5) Balanced outputs
 
Vasishta.Sushant said:
Chuck that out. DacMagic FTW !!! I waited so long for this one. Tried Arcam rDAC and finally settled at DacMagic.
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The DACMagic is a pure DAC. This one has a powerful headphone amp to boot ! How they both sound is something I don't think anyone can answer at this point.
 
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