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Essence One Series

Audio Precision Test Report

Version 1.0

2011/07/01

•  Disclaimer: The information and contents contained in this test report are for Essence 

One Series user’s reference only and may not be altered in any manner. Test results 

may vary with different testing environment and equipment.

Summary of Contents for Essence One Series

Page 1: ...Essence One Series Hi Fi USB DAC Digital to Anolog Converter User Guide ...

Page 2: ...CHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS ITS DIRECTORS OFFICERS EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS LOSS OF BUSINESS LOSS OF USE OR DATA INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE LIKE EVEN IF ASUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY DEFECT OR ERROR IN ...

Page 3: ...igital to Analog Convertor 13 2 Stand alone DAC 14 3 Headphone amplifier 14 Front Panel 15 Rear Panel 16 Connections 18 Input 18 1 NB PC USB connections 18 2 Toslink and Coaxial S PDIF audio input connections 19 Output 20 1 With Amplifier and Passive Speaker System 20 2 With Active Speaker directly 21 3 With Headphone Headset 21 Specifications 22 Opamp Swap Guide 24 1 Disassembly 25 2 Swap Guide 2...

Page 4: ...a frequency range of 47 5 to 52 5 or 57 to 63 Hz At 115 the Essence One Series will operate normally over a range of 95 to 132 VAC At 230 the Essence One Series will operate normally over a range of 190 to 264 VAC CAUTION Always insure that the voltage setting is correct for your locality Incorrect configuration may blow fuses or cause erratic operation 230 230V 115V 115 VOLTAGE SELECTOR VOLTAGE S...

Page 5: ... third prong is provided for your safety If the provided plug does not fit into your outlet consult an electrician for replacement of the outlet 8 Protect the power cord from being stepped on or compressed particularly at the point where it exits from the apparatus 9 Only use attachments accessories approved by the manufacturer 10 Use only with the cart stand tripod bracket or table specified by t...

Page 6: ...e world s leading audiophile brands Design Story ASUS has an eclectic group of visionaries and acoustic engineers coming from the art user experience and the entertainment industry with a shared passion for music Knowing that digital media constantly changes and evolves based on our personal experience the ASUS team constantly evaluates the design segments with different outlook and perspective st...

Page 7: ...lowing audiophiles to enjoy high fidelity audio 384kHz 24Bit 8X Symmetrical UpsamplingTechnology to restore lossless audio The Essence One Series series can support up to 384kHz for multiples of 48kHz and 352 8kHz for multiples of 44 1kHz This ensures that all sample rates are symmetrically upsampled without any loss of resolution that provides pure representation of audio content Built in 600ohm ...

Page 8: ...ayed as its original sample rate without any potential quality loss during sample rate conversion The ASIO 2 2 driver simplifies the process of multiple audio streams bypassing latency issues in Windows to deliver a low latency high fidelity sound file that is identical to the original audio file Dedicated volume controls Most USB DACs on the market only comes with one or no volume control for bot...

Page 9: ...h 11 swappable Op Amps focusing on 6 key Op Amps Op Amp Tweaking Kit with additional TI 2132 4 pcs and NS 4562 2 pcs and tweaking tool set Unimaginably heart touching and spacious sound powered by MUSES 01 Op Amp 6 pcs Customizable tone characters with 11 swappable Op Amps focusing on 6 key Op Amps Unimaginably heart touching and spacious sound powered by MUSES 01 Op Amp 6 pcs Powerful Headphone A...

Page 10: ...iginality of your music collection It also upsamples bit rate to 32bit corresponding to the original contents Note 44 1x8 352 8kHz 48x8 384kHz NOTES Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per second measured in Hz or kHz one kHz being 1 000 Hz The more samples per second the higher the sample rate the better the quality Bit rate measures how much data is transmitted in a given amoun...

Page 11: ...DSP 21261 High performance audio processing capabilities and strong reliability for handling upsampling and DSD support WIMA FKP2 FKS2 High temperature tolerance with robust performance Swappable Op amps NE5532 Swappable Op amps LM4562 for Speaker out Swappable Op amps LME49720NA for Headphone out Headphone Amplifier NS LME49600TS for Headphone out Package contents This package should contain the ...

Page 12: ...enables the Essence One Series to work with Windows operating system NOTES The driver is only needed when you connect ASUS Essence One Series with PC NB The version and content of the support CD are subject to change without notice To install the device driver 1 Insert the ASUS Essence One Series support CD into your optical drive If Autorun is enabled the ASUS Essence One Series driver screen app...

Page 13: ...tor Clear detailed life like sound for your digital music collection in PC NB with all the connection XLR RCA you need for end devices Steps Connect PC NB with an USB cable Need to install driver in your PC NB to work Select USB in front panel as the input source USB or NB PC ...

Page 14: ...ith S PDIF input by Coaxial Optical cable Select COA coaxial input or TOS optical input in the front panel as the input source 3 Headphone amplifier Grants 100 performance of ALL hi end headphones even with impedance up to 600ohms providing extra dynamics and sound details Steps Connect with high quality headphones headsets UNBALANCED OUTPUT BALANCED OUTPUT DIGITAL INPUT USB L R R L TOSLINK COAXIA...

Page 15: ... is disabled 3 Input selection Press to select among USB Toslink or Coaxial Inputs The corresponding LED will light up to show which source has been selected 4 Mute Press to mute headphone and speaker output again to unmute 5 SpeakerVolume control The Volume Control controls the output level of the balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA analog outputs 6 Bit perfect sample rate indicator 1 The relevant LE...

Page 16: ... Ground Typical connectors used are RCA phono connectors and 1 4 6 3mm or 1 8 3 5mm jack plugs sockets Unbalanced audio works well for short cable runs in low noise environments For long distances connection or complex setups where RF noise may be a problem Balanced XLR Output is recommended to eliminate unwanted noises 2 Balanced XLR Output line out ASUS Essence One Series also features true bala...

Page 17: ...re that the sound output of your player is set to two channel PCM 5 USB port Connect a PC via a Type B to Type A USB lead NOTES The Essence One Series s operation is independent of your PC soundcard it will operate whether your PC has a soundcard or not Please select Essence One Series as the default audio playback device in your system This can be confirmed in the Control Panel s Sounds Speech an...

Page 18: ... B A type lead as illustrated at left from the Essence One Series s USB input to one of the USB ports on the PC NB 2 Turn on the Essence One Series using the front panel On Off switch and make sure that the USB input is selected USB LED lit 3 Install the device driver that enables the Essence One Series to work with Windows operating system USB or NB PC ...

Page 19: ...croll down the device manager window and expand the heading Sound Video and Game Controllers to display a list of the connected devices The Essence One Series will be listed as ASUS Essence One Series Click on this description to highlight in blue and then click on the Disable icon at the top of the window A warning message will appear Disabling this device will cause it to stop functioning Do you...

Page 20: ...E It is possible to use the RCA phono connections and the XLR balanced connections at the same time e g for connecting to different amplifiers or multi room operations However no same audio quality is guaranteed as using RCA and XLR output non simultaneously Amplifier Passive Speaker System L R L R Unbalanced Input Balanced Input UNBALANCED OUTPUT BALANCED OUTPUT DIGITAL INPUT USB L R R L TOSLINK ...

Page 21: ...ence One Series with a set of active speakers directly 3 With Headphone Headset 1 Connect Essence One Series with high quality headphones headsets directly UNBALANCED OUTPUT BALANCED OUTPUT DIGITAL INPUT USB L R R L TOSLINK COAXIAL VOLTAGE SELECTOR AC IN 230 Active speaker ...

Page 22: ...61 D A Converter for Analog Inputs TI PCM1795 OP Amp Headphone I V NE5532 LPF NE5532 Current Buffer LME49600 Balanced Un balanced I V NE5532 Balanced Un balanced LFP NE5532 Clock Crystal clock 12MHz For USB 24 576MHz For S PDIF Oscillator 45 1584MHz for 44 1 88 2 176 4KHz sample rate 49 152MHz For 48 96 192KHz sample rate Sample Rate and Resolution Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution 44 1K ...

Page 23: ...Jack IEC AC Inlet Volume controller Balanced Output Quad Units Taper B Potentiometer Headphone Output Quad Units Taper B Potentiometer Voltage Selector AC 115V 223V Slide Switch Accessories Accessories USB cable B A type x1 Power cord x1 Some versions may have 2 power cords for different countries 6 3mm to 3 5mm adaptor x1 Quick Start Guide x1 User Guide x1 Installation driver CD x1 ...

Page 24: ...Essence One Series Hi Fi USB DAC Digital to Analog Converter Opamp Swap Guide ...

Page 25: ...30 Front Panel Rear Panel 2 Push the power connector on the rear panel to remove the machine bed including the PCB board and power module from the machine housing UNBALANCED OUTPUT BALANCED OUTPUT DIGITAL INPUT USB L R R L TOSLINK COAXIAL VOLTAGE SELECTOR AC IN 230 2 Swap Guide Change all the OP amps of the same types in the same slot For example if you need to change DAC I V slot 1 you would need...

Page 26: ...ut RCA output and XLR output 2 Serves as Low Pass Filter that filters background noises Changing this will affect all outputs including Headphone output RCA output and XLR output 3A Serves as buffer that enhances the output signal for the speaker Changing this will affect the RCA output 3B Serves as buffer that enhances the output signal for the speaker Changing this will affect the XLR output 4 S...

Page 27: ...above combination and more detailed with less but tighter booming sound NS LME49720 NS LM4562NA Less warm than stock OP amps more extensive detailed and dampened mid range Essence ST STX style NS LM4562NA NS LM4562NA Wider sound stage but less detailed than the above combination NS LM4562NA NJRC MUSE02 Powerful punchy sound with good sound stage less detailed present NS LME49720NA NJRC MUSE02 Brig...

Page 28: ...ersion 1 0 2011 07 01 Disclaimer The information and contents contained in this test report are for Essence One Series user s reference only and may not be altered in any manner Test results may vary with different testing environment and equipment ...

Page 29: ...nse test Noise Level SNR 120dB Audio Precision 07 15 11 10 34 20 A A FFT SPECTRUM ANALYSIS 160 0 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 d B r A 2k 24k 4k 6k 8k 10k 12k 14k 16k 18k 20k 22k Hz Frequency Response Audio Precision 07 15 11 11 11 49 5 0 4 3 2 1 d B r B 5 0 4 3 2 1 d B r A 10 50k 20 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k 20k Hz ...

Page 30: ...n 07 15 11 10 40 54 120 0 110 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 d B r A 20 20k 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k Hz THD N 1KHz 0 0003 110dB 997Hz Audio Precision 07 15 11 10 37 25 A A FFT SPECTRUM ANALYSIS 160 0 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 d B r A 2k 24k 4k 6k 8k 10k 12k 14k 16k 18k 20k 22k Hz ...

Page 31: ...10 35 38 A A FFT SPECTRUM ANALYSIS 160 0 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 d B r A 2k 24k 4k 6k 8k 10k 12k 14k 16k 18k 20k 22k Hz Crosstalk 132dB 1KHz 142 115dB for 20 20KHz Left Audio Precision 07 15 11 10 46 20 160 0 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 d B 20 20k 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k Hz ...

Page 32: ...ch filter then measuring the remaining signal which consists of harmonics of various order This implies the linearity of the audio converter and the lower the better Frequency Response A measure of a device s ability to respond to a fixed input voltage at different input frequencies and the difference in amplitude reproduced for each frequency The flatter curve at wider frequency range is better D...

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