New Xonar Essence "One"

[SabreWulf69]

Otherwise ground loops will form, no? As the devices most likely already share a common ground elsewhere.

[cyberspyder]

http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphon.../NFB11.1EN.htm
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphon.../SparrowEN.htm
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/FUN/FUNEN.htm

Not to worry, I am quite content with my Benchmark DAC1 PRE hooked up to my mono-block Gainclones.

[EniGmA1987]

^^^^^
Except that the DAC1 isnt anywhere close to the $300 price point of this ASUS. I posted those links because someone said "Im sure there are plenty of better alternatives for the same price"

[STEvil]

Shields should only be grounded at one end

who said to ground the shield? I said to common-ground the devices. You could ground the shield at either end to see what works better for you though.

[Raja@ASUS]

who said to ground the shield? I said to common-ground the devices. You could ground the shield at either end to see what works better for you though.

solder a shielded wire to the ground leg of the onboard audio device (or usb controller) and string it out along the usb cable to your external sound device and solder it in the appropriate location to eliminate the antenna/ground loop effect

A shield would dump any RF pickup over the external line to the audio ground at the PC end which is fair enough if its sole purpose is to be used as a shield. Why you would also want to connect any receiver side device or element to this shielded ground wire is beyond me - such grounding (if needed) can be taken care of at the common ground of the receiver, keeping things short and avoiding any kind of loop possibilities. Connecting another ground like this is going to create a loop because you now have two grounds from the PC connected to the outboard device (the USB ground that runs with the +5V line and this "new" one - remember there is a ground wire in all USB cables!).

In any case this doesn't solve the problem of pass through ground noise at all - you want to keep the digital and analogue ground at the outboard transceiver side free of PC ground noise. The USB ground is required for initial handshake with most receiving devices - you can either lift that connection after the handshake (if the outboard transceiver device is NOT USB bus powered) or you can use a small transformer to provide isolation when connecting to PC side S/PDIF.

-Raja

[SabreWulf69]

Transformer it is then. Lets all hope for this.

[STEvil]

A shield would dump any RF pickup over the external line to the audio ground at the PC end which is fair enough if its sole purpose is to be used as a shield. Why you would also want to connect any receiver side device or element to this shielded ground wire is beyond me - such grounding (if needed) can be taken care of at the common ground of the receiver, keeping things short and avoiding any kind of loop possibilities. Connecting another ground like this is going to create a loop because you now have two grounds from the PC connected to the outboard device (the USB ground that runs with the +5V line and this "new" one - remember there is a ground wire in all USB cables!).

In any case this doesn't solve the problem of pass through ground noise at all - you want to keep the digital and analogue ground at the outboard transceiver side free of PC ground noise. The USB ground is required for initial handshake with most receiving devices - you can either lift that connection after the handshake (if the outboard transceiver device is NOT USB bus powered) or you can use a small transformer to provide isolation when connecting to PC side S/PDIF.

-Raja

The reply was assuming a ground-loop was needing to be eliminated:

Originally Posted by SabreWulf69 View Post
So I'm guessing noise introduced via the ground in the USB affects the analog circuitry which unless correctly eliminated with transformers would be no better than having a card inside the PC. Too bad there isn't some sort of XLR USB crossbreed that eliminates noise in the ground.

[LightSpeed]

Lots of information in this thread but any estimates on price and release date?

[SabreWulf69]

A bump to this thread, regarding the lastest hype around the net on this recently.

[emoners]

forgot about this thread posted a while back... anyways, maybe these threads could be merged - LINK?

[jalyst]

^ Agreed. Modz? TIA!

[Amnesia87]

Why would anyone buy this thing when you can have real schiit:

http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?mai...&products_id=7

[jalyst]

^ ot?

[bamtan2]

essence one is coming out this year.

[SabreWulf69]

Why would anyone buy this thing when you can have real schiit:

http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?mai...&products_id=7

Apples and oranges? Doesn't have a headphone amp does it?

[emoners]

Why would anyone buy this thing when you can have real schiit:

http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?mai...&products_id=7

honestly, i would have to agree...if the Xonar One costs as much as audiophile-grade DACs, i would rather get the latter

[BrowncoatGR]

So why would i pick this over a EMU 0404 USB?

[jalyst]

honestly, i would have to agree...if the Xonar One costs as much as audiophile-grade DACs, i would rather get the latter

Of course....
Dedicated top-grade DAC + dedicated amp will always trump an AIO, but that's beside the point
They're diff. beasts, targeting a slightly more budget conscious user etc.
Can almost guarantee it'll be cheaper than a equivalent specc'd set-up that uses discrete DAC/Amp.

I don't care really, as I'm not that interested in either...
I was hoping the Essence One would also have 7.1 analog-out & digital out.
More akin to the Essence ST + H6, but in an external enclosure.

Just gunna have to stick with my essence ST + H6 + discrete (multi-ch) amp.
Hopefully they'll finally come out with an upgrade for it soon.
Sick of the two cards, want it all integrated into the one card.
They've been out for freaking years now, c'mon Asus!

[eXa]

Why would anyone buy this thing when you can have real schiit:

http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?mai...&products_id=7

450$ and not inkluding the amp. Not really comparable...

[Kallenator]

This might be a worthy opponent to the Asus:
http://audinst.com/en/bbs/board.php?...HUDmx1&wr_id=5

I bought this some months ago, and have been using it with my AKG 701. Haven't done any major listening/sound evaluation of this as the upgrade from the former Sennheiser headset was absolutely insane.
The difference between the Audinst and the DAC's on the MB would't be something I would call huge, however the Audinst seems to have a fair amount of extra muscle.

[jalyst]

^ Nice, also has digital-out....
Wish it did 7.1 analogue-out too, instead of only stereo.
Then I could ditch my essence ST + H6, & mount it somewhere in my case

[CJ145]

Use the 'Uni Xonar drivers'. They work great, and fix all those problems ASUS never seemed to have addressed

I love you man! These drivers fixed my audio quality issue I was having. I was about to sell my damn sound card and buy something else! I was having feedback on 5k-10khz signals about 4k higher than the signal and now it's completely gone. Spent hours looking it up on google and was unable to find any fix.

[jalyst]

Yeah, the default drivers blow compared to Uni-Xonar.
Another happy Uni-Xonar user, donate if you're really impressed.

[Bojamijams]

The marketing on that product leads me to believe its crap, sorry to say... for example

"featuring 24bit/96kHz supported USB2.0 audio controller and Wolfson’s WM8740 (117dB), the highest quality D/A converter in the market today."

Ummm.. what? WM8741, PCM1704U, ESS Sabre9018 are all better chips then the 8740... so already they're lying

This might be a worthy opponent to the Asus:
http://audinst.com/en/bbs/board.php?...HUDmx1&wr_id=5

I bought this some months ago, and have been using it with my AKG 701. Haven't done any major listening/sound evaluation of this as the upgrade from the former Sennheiser headset was absolutely insane.
The difference between the Audinst and the DAC's on the MB would't be something I would call huge, however the Audinst seems to have a fair amount of extra muscle.

[Kallenator]

Read a fair bunch of reviews from users having compared to more expensive DAC's. That included with the device being fairly cheap, I thought I would have a go It would be interesting to do some tests to compare this DAC to others though.

I am absolutely sure you will find lies in marketing in every single business on earth, especially in the hifi department, now you might even be able to tell different DAC's apart with your ears, but to tell you a secret, some people also likes carrots!