Asus Essence III - Personal Experience or "It Can't Be!"

A high-tech device with an attractive design that combines a preamplifier, headphone amplifier and USB DAC, designed for a modern home.

• Support DSD (Direct Stream Digital)
• Headphone amplifier with balanced and unbalanced connection
• Step attenuator with remote control
• High-precision quartz clock with low phase noise and USB support in asynchronous mode
• Separate power supplies for left and right channels
• Analog, digital and power parts of the device are made on separate printed circuit boards to minimize interference
• Symmetric wiring diagram based on two mono AD1955 digital-to-analog converters
• High quality operational amplifiers AD827Q and MUSES 02
• Linear power supply with a toroidal transformer for several separate power buses
')
This or almost such information is met by the section of the ESSENCE product line - High End Hi-Fi Audio , dedicated to this device on the official website Asus.com.

At the end of 2013, Asus announced the release of the flagship of its Essence line, and in 2014 several reviews of this device were published, in particular on Stereo.ru, Salonav.com, Ixbt.com and other resources. At the end, the device received the title of “Best Product” in the European USB DAC 2014-2015 category from EISA.

Quite an active discussion of the product among digital audio lovers and supporters of sound devices from Asus before its appearance on the shelves and after. The impression was that the whole world already knew about this device and even knew about it before its birth, ALL ... except me))

Therefore, the whole subsequent story of my acquaintance with Essence III reminded me of a Soviet film by Leonid Gaidai in 1975 based on the works of Mikhail Zoshchenko - “It Can't Be!”

And everything is so grandly noble! The old way!

It was in such ignorance that my acquaintance with this device began.

The issue with the USB DAC for myself, I decided back in 2010 and more in this direction did not move for various everyday reasons.

A review of headphones for gamers gave reason to think about finding a USB DAC with a less decent headphone output that would correspond to the given price category of these headphones. Just at the same time, I got rid of a list of Asus devices that could be taken for tests. From the entire list I was interested in only two sections, headphones and USB-DACs. If I were more knowledgeable in terms of actual products from Asus, I would not have made the mistake that later filled my life with the joy of being))

But at that moment I looked at the list of devices from the USB-DAC series, and pointed my finger at the top of the list, making sure that there is an output to the headphones. Quickly jumped into the search engine, I quickly looked at the alleged candidate and visually making sure that there is still a headphone jack, I confirmed that I am taking! To my further regret, firstly, I looked not at Essence III, but at Essence STU, and secondly, I naively thought that I would take a device from the price category of 15-25 thousand rubles and my equipment should be enough for tests.

I ask - daughter where? Not the second, but this one.

And then one day the chief calls me and says that the device can be picked up. The first thing that alerted me at the time of receiving the device was the size, and most importantly the weight of the box. I did not have time to consider the packaging itself, since the box itself was wrapped in a bag. But there was no time to understand, I took the box without long dialogues.

After some time, I found time to quietly start to deal with the received device, unpacking the box, I began to understand that everything would not be as simple as I had originally thought))

By the way, the packaging was already in combat condition, apparently it was the very device that had once made a circle on the hands of the researchers, the surface of the outer wrapper and the box itself was wiped, the corners of the box cover were torn. Later I even had to glue them together in order to give a cultural look for a photo))

But the device itself was in perfect condition, from which I concluded that the quality of the case materials is very serious!

Only the device was not what I expected to see, but more sophisticated.

I was especially puzzled by the back panel, which is abundantly littered with “adult” interfaces for connecting cables and a number of switches and small “twistors”.

Looking at all this beauty, I began to feel some kind of trick)) But since I had already reached my device in my research, I decided that for the sake of interest I would connect what was already available. And there was a rather meager set from the budget line of a CD player and a stereo amplifier from NAD.

I performed the first connection version according to the classical scheme:
CD player - coaxial cable - DAC - Amplifier - Speakers, took out a proven brand disc from TELARC and tried to listen to this bundle. At the first volume control, I realized that when switching, I made some kind of mistake. Rechecked, found that the DAC, can work in two modes, as a preamplifier and as a normal DAC. I switched the VR bypass switch to the “on” position, so that two preamps would not work in the path. I include again, all the same, some component is lying.

Of course, I knew the capabilities of my path, and it was clear that the amplifier was the weak link in the whole structure. For the CD player in this case was used as a transport and the flaws of its sound should be minimized by not using the internal DAC, the speakers were initially taken for components of a higher price category, technically it is an analogue of the Dynaudio Focus 160. Think about the DAC? Yes, it is unlikely, but it costs ... by the way, and how much does it cost and what did I get at all? Has written out from packing the name.

“OK Google - what's my thing?”

Found a review on IXBT really knocked me down, especially after the indicated cost of this device. It was here that the realization of complete hopelessness in the current situation came and ... panic, because there was nothing of the suitable components for further testing.

Having a little brought myself to life, it was clear that with the source itself one couldn’t particularly bathe, the laptop, thank God, is at hand. The CD player will work as a transport and even with the worst scenario, there should not be much sadness, even in conjunction with the “monster” from Asus, which I got))

The main problem was the lack of a suitable stereo amplifier or power amplifier and headphones.

Next time - do not get married quickly!

I call the chief, I explain the whole tragedy of the situation, I confess, please understand and forgive, and generally, they say, take your work of art back, and give me something simpler))

To which they calmly replied that they would not take anything back, but the kit would be supplemented with the necessary minimum. In general, I begged the Sennheiser HD650 headphones, I think I would at least check the sound quality in my ears.

I may have been preparing for the mystery of marriage for a month! Maybe, in six months I went to the hairdresser, to the bath! ..

While waiting for headphones, he began to prepare material for listening. Having rummaged in zagashnik, I found several high-quality compact discs, this should have been enough to work with a CD player.

Well, DSD run c laptop.

Additionally, I remembered that my NAD C 326BEE amplifier is technically broken into a preamplifier unit and a power amplifier, which are interconnected by bridges. As well as recalling the old discussions on the thematic forums of his amplifier, he recalled that just the main complaints were about the quality of the preamp.

And this fact gave a weak hope that the helper himself should give a chance in the current situation for a certain success. Of course, this helper is not enough to unleash the full potential of a top-end DAC, but a steady desire has arisen to minimize losses, having thrown out a deliberately weak preamplifier from the path and check the work of the resulting path.

As a result, the audio path has acquired the following structure: CD player - Essence III as a DAC and preamp - NAD C326BEE as a helper - Sound Sound ML-1 speakers.

Having started listening to this bundle, I was amazed at the changes that Asus made to the sound on the components and materials that were once painfully familiar. Of course, I will be fair, the system has not evolved into the High End level system, and it did not migrate to the top Hi-Fi line, BUT, its quality level really went up a notch and it was clearly audible!

For a while, I enjoyed the resulting transformation of my system, putting the testing itself aside. For me, it was a free bonus in the form of an opportunity to hear the results of such an upgrade, and realize what exactly my system lacked for a qualitative increase in its sound.

Next, it was necessary to prepare a laptop for playing files with a DSD stream, which, as you understand, at first I absolutely did not count. But since DSD support was voiced for me, it was impossible to ignore this feature, as they say, otherwise “the boys will not understand”))

Honestly, I have never been interested in playing DSD files. Well, there simply wasn’t such a need in life, and here such a “physicity” filed out! The good of Google has not been canceled, and some of the gaps in my knowledge, after a while, have been filled.
By the way, there are instructions on how to configure Foobar on the Asus site itself.

I actually installed the painfully familiar Foobar, the necessary plugins for it and the drivers for Essence themselves. By the way, Essence itself managed to update the firmware for the latest versions, from those that are available on the official website. By the way, is also a plus in Asus karma.

The case remained small, it was necessary to find the files themselves of the required format. Where they take this, I guess you don’t need to tell;)

However, I was surprised, as it seemed to me, by a rather meager amount of requests for DSD files that I was looking for on a known resource. I sincerely hoped that I would see a rich choice of assortment in this format. More precisely, the diversity was, but the DSD discs removed from the SACD discs were not much of the repertoire that was interesting to me. And everything interesting was the digitization of vinyl. Checking the sound quality, I came to the conclusion that digitizing from vinyl had a low level of low-frequency range and for full sound you had to use a subwoofer. The subwoofer in the arsenal was represented by REL, namely Stampede, from the musical series “S”. But at this stage I did not plan to use it. Therefore, selected rips from SACD discs with well-written bass.

As a result, the following materials were selected for the tests:

Lars Erstrand - The Lars Erstrand Sessions (DSF, DSD64) Jazz
Malia, Boris Blank - Convergence (DFF, DSD128) Electronic, Jazz
Masanori Ikeda - The Loud Works (DSF, DSD64) Electronic, Deep House
Rochester Chamber Orchestra Brian (DSF, DSD64) Classic

After installing the latest “bare” version of Foobar, as well as all the necessary plug-ins for Foobar and Asus drivers for playing a DSD stream, I got the following with the following customization options:

Looking ahead, I’ll say that as a result of the further tests of the two ASIO Driver variants, I still stopped at Asus' relatives.

Also cleared all DSP

A little about the laptop, the old HP nc6320, with an updated processor to the C2D T5600, 3 Gb of RAM and SSD128Gb. Wireless interfaces were turned off, all the material was flooded on the SSD. The laptop worked from the internal battery.

As a trial experiment and taking into account the set of equipment that is at hand, I decided to compare with which source the sound would be better, from a CD player or laptop. WAV files that had previously been ripped from CDs that should have been played in a CD player should have been played from a laptop.

The CD player was connected with a coaxial cable. The laptop connected with a USB cable not from the kit, but which I used on my old DAC, with “gold-plated” contacts))

It turned out pretty funny and very interesting test for me.

Once again, I was struck by the pleasant transformation of my system by replacing the preamp. Very pleasant sound, detailed, open, with a good stage (as part of my room), beautiful bass, open vocals and emotional. In general, the sound is very balanced, I have never regretted the absence of a timbreblock in the path!

I can recognize her - but in a coat!

Finding the difference in sound between the two sources took a little longer than I expected. I had to listen to several different materials, and here the recording from Audiophile Vocal Recording with the song “Fever / Valerie Joyce” clearly showed a somewhat simplified scheme for transmitting sound from a CD player. This was expressed in a slightly more simplified and somewhat harsh transmission of the mid-frequency range, in particular, the difference was well read when playing the saxophone. It was also possible to note a slightly different structure of the stereo panorama, which was somewhat blurred or, as they say, less fleshly, the extreme sounds a bit more stuck to the speakers. The scene itself had a slightly smaller depth.

On some materials, for example, The Best of Pink Floyd "Hey You", I have long caught specific reasons for which there was a feeling that the sound from the laptop was more attractive to me.

But it was enough to listen to several tracks from Pink Floyd on the CD player, and this difference was already lost.

And by the way, the main reason for such torment was the lack of direct selection of the source from Asus Essence III! To be honest, I consider this deficiency to be the largest for this device. For this fact has constantly complicated all comparative tests!

In general, by the arrival of the headphones, it became clear that the main source for testing the performance of the headphone amplifier would be a laptop connected via USB 2.0.

Headphones finally arrived, and it was necessary to move on. But it was already clear that just some headphones for some usefulness of the review can not do. However, the headphones, or rather the headphone amplifier built into the Essence III, also needed to be given appropriate attention.

Do you hear the boots roar?

The test of the headphone amplifier built into the Essence III seemed to me rather uncomplicated, since I didn’t need either an amplifier or speakers.

~~Rum, pork belly and scrambled eggs - that's all I need.~~ In fact, I needed a sound source, Essence itself and headphones - everything is so simple!

Having connected the Sennheiser HD650 to the Essence III, I, of course, was impressed with the sound level of the headphones themselves.

Detail, openness, pleasant soft bass and dynamics I was very pleased. True, to the detail and dynamics, I also noted a certain brightness of the sound, but referred it to the account of the headphones themselves. But, as you know, first impressions can be false.

And having devoted a significant amount of time to headphones, I began to understand that there are some flaws in the sound of this bundle. However, these problems were related to the headphones or the amplifier itself for them, I could not say at once with some certainty. In fact, I needed some more headphones of at least the same level, but there wasn’t one at my disposal that actually was an alternative headphone amplifier.

Having a little thought about how to act in this situation, I decided to conduct some rather adventurous experiment. Namely, it was decided to use the second, existing Sennheiser RS180 wireless headphones that I connected to the Essence III line output by switching the “VR bypass” toggle switch to the “ON” position, since the headphones have their own amplifier with volume control.

The disadvantage of this experiment was in the lower class of the RS180 headphones themselves, plus was the moment that it was possible to switch between two outputs (linear - headphones) rather quickly.

As a source, at the beginning, I used a laptop from which WAV and DSD were played. A little bit later, I repeated the tests several times, but already using the CD player, since this was a definite convenience for me, namely the presence of a remote control.

If we omit the technical difference between the headphones, then the sound of the RS180 from the line-out was more interesting, in terms of sound structure, of course, the HD650 outperformed the younger model with sound quality, dynamics, and drawing instruments.

Listening to the material from the two outputs, despite the fact that the HD650 itself sounded better, technically, subjective sympathy was in the direction of the line output, even with simpler headphones.

This caused me to associate the play of two musicians, a beginner, but on an expensive instrument and a master, but on a simpler instrument. Of course I'm exaggerating here, but that would be better to convey my idea))

For example, at first I used wav, in particular Cafe Zimmermann - Johann Sebastian Bach - “3-5 Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in D Minor, BWV 1043” showed, as I heard, a more simplified diagram of the construction of the scene and the structure of sound transmission. Those. I'm not talking about sound quality, but about structural features, since it’s already clear that the HD650, on its own, played better.

A little later, I returned to this recording, but I already used the CD player and also concluded that from the headphone amplifier (i.e. in the HD650), the depth of the stage was somewhat lost, lost or, as they say, washed up the top of the third plan, but foreground was given more attention, because of this, the depth was lost. There were also questions to the low-frequency component, a certain bass tightness was felt, the RS180 felt more relaxed in the lower register.

Dave Brubeck Quartet "Park Avenue South" - On the Sunny Side of the Street - also has a less dense bass at the headphone output, i.e. it is textured, soft but not so deep and there is no such volume as at the linear output. Maybe all the same headphones?

The last thing I had to do was pass the “headphone” test on DSD material. To be honest, the whole picture is improved at the expense of the material itself, yet the high resolution improves the overall impression of the sound quality of the headphone output, while the RS180 transmitter is limited by the resolution of the CD. Nevertheless, I continued to use them.

Say, while listening to Lars Erstrand - The Lars Erstrand Sessions “Afternoon in Paris” (DSF, DSD64), the perception of the scene, through the headphone output and the HD650, was a feeling that the scene was slightly reduced. Through my line-up with the stage, in my understanding, everything was fine. But the overall impression of listening in the HD650 was much better, here the RS180 could not be any alternative, well, only for a schematic analysis of the sound.

I decided to move away from the designated list and included PINK FLOYD - Wish You Were Here (DFF, DSD128) into the test. All the same, DSD saves in a certain sense the state of affairs with headphones, but to be honest, I would like more.

According to the results of the total listening of all materials, I had an unequivocal opinion, and like the Essence III is a serious device, and the presence of a balanced headphone output is present, which somehow suggests that this part of the device, from the point of view of marketing, places a certain emphasis, however There are questions about the sound quality in the headphones. It is also possible that the HD650 headphones themselves are not the best option for the Essence III, but there was no possibility to test any of the alternatives in the same price range.

In general, listening to DSD through headphones is very nice. It is strange that so little attention was paid to the headphone amplifier in this ASUS model. This applies to both the above points of sound, and the "usability" of this interface, which consists, for example, in the absence of volume control through the remote control.And apparently, I am not the only one who kicked Asus for this shortcoming, because with this moment there were some inconveniences.

Perhaps replacing the OU will help to resolve the issue with the sound quality of the headphone amplifier, as was the case with the same-name Asus sound cards. But with the remote volume control of the headphones, in any way))

Actually, as far as the situation allowed, with the headphone amplifier, the last series of questions remained. Namely, it became interesting to me in which price category are the components that would be worth connecting to the system and say that the system is now balanced.

A relatively reasonable option for me was a trip to some Hi-Fi salon. So we had to take the DAC with us, the Sennheiser HD650 headphones, and also taking our friend along the way, we went to one of these salons.

Angry joker, mischievous Cupid

At first they came in light, “hands in trousers”, the devices were left in the car and tried to pretend to interested buyers. But the consultants were all busy, who were sitting on the Internet, someone had already discussed with others idly staggering "how the space ships plow the expanses of the big theater," who had already helped people listen to the technique.

I waited a bit, coughing in the palm of my hand and kicking one of the "knowledgeable" slightly, began to explain the situation that, they say, there is a DAC, I want to select the appropriate source and power amplifier for it in order to get some kind of balanced system.

I asked about what exactly the DAC is it? Said that the ASUS DAC.

In general, I was first offered to go to the “Computer World” for multimedia speakers, I certainly made a distressed face, supposedly already, nothing came up, only you are my last hope))

Looking at me with a hopeless look, the consultant gave birth to his approval, they say , come here, what have you got there? Okay, I say, I'll bring it now.

He brought the boxes, began unpacking the DAC, while unpacking, the consultant glanced at the box with a cursory look, and saying, on the background of preparing the source and the cables, that Asus had nothing worthy, and that is, so-so and in general that we are suffering nonsense. The fact that I suffered from nonsense was already understandable to me, but it didn’t have a direct relation to Asus))

At first, I decided to choose a source using my headphones for picking, and then go to the selection of a power amplifier.

The first candidate offered me a SACD player from (it seems) Denon at a price of about 40 pre-crisis rubles, as something more or less adequate for “not big” money. After listening to the CD through the figure, I got the impression that it was some kind of divorce))

Honestly, I didn’t like the sound, even though the problems with the headphones were already known and I perceived the sound, comparing my homework and even from memory, but still did not like it.

I say, not, but there is something normal, otherwise this one is worse than my budget CD. Oddly enough, but the consultant did not argue, he agreed that yes - this option is so-so. Therefore, the SACD Yamaha CD-S 1000 player was proposed and a story was told about what a wonderful transport there is, that this is not just pathetic computer drives, but a weigh!

I had to agree that this thing, and we began to prepare a room for wiretapping.
Yamaha, I personally liked it and, for my part, there were no special questions. Definitely it was much better than the first option.

By the way, while listening to the headphones, I managed to get a couple more, Audio-Technica from the same price category and relatively not cheap Audio-Technica W5000. What I liked, all the same headphone output still showed the difference between the headphones. On this occasion, I made a mark for myself that maybe there is a chance to tinker with the choice of suitable headphones.

Before listening to clarified what kind of acoustics we prefer, I asked the bookshelf DynAudio Focus 160.
Then the matter went for the amplifiers. The proposed first couple like Maranz MM7025 and Anthem PVA 5, in the price range of $ 1200-1700, I was not impressed. There was a difference in sound between the amplifiers themselves, but there was no expected high-quality increase.

In the meantime, the consultant began to wonder at the number of exits, the number of twistors and switches on the back of the Essence, this apparently began to destroy his myth about multimedia speakers. I suspect that after that he went to look on the Internet, what are we dragging this about? And in the future, a slightly different attitude towards the device was felt))

I had to ask for an amplifier of the next price category, after which amplifiers from $ 2000 to $ 2500 were used.
And I started to like Vincent SV-234. The next level in the cabin was already from $ 7,000, and I refused this price level, also taking into account the geometric dimensions of these chests. And in general I thought that the Essence III is the same device for the “modern home”, in which there is no room, and here amplifiers are the size and weight of a bank safe. With my joke and the mention of the size of these amplifiers, they suddenly remembered the small, I would say compact and very modern in appearance, Luxman components, as if miraculously lying around in the cabin.

I liked the idea of components with small dimensions, and the Luxmann M-200 stereo amplifier, which fell into the category from $ 2500, was included in the system. Honestly, I liked the sound of this amplifier, and considering the size and price is quite optimal. I was also offered to compare the Essense with the Luxmann D-200 DAC. This component was in the same price category, and then when comparing it turned out that the linear output of the Essence III produces a relatively weak signal. There was no time to deal with the reason for this, or it was so set up from the factory or was already screwed up to me, but this fact was present.

By the way, in these tests, the advantage of using balanced cables was definitely heard!
So if it is possible to use them, it is desirable to use it.

- Just think, three days are familiar.
- Not three! - How much? - Four!

In fact, the time spent on acquaintance with Essence III was not three or four days))

The amount of material heard is also greater than and much larger than indicated in the review list. Also, Flac was used for the tests, and the listened material included heavy styles of music. I did not describe the tests using Flac, since the main highlight of Essence III is its ability to work with DSD. This fact should attract buyers to look at this model.

Unfortunately, we failed to carry out a couple more tests with the use of active acoustics, and using Essence III in my friend’s already tested setup, which consists of components of the upper HI-FI segment with an additional Asus and Hegel DAC comparison test in terms of use for CD players . Did not work out.

But let's go back to the Essence III and some of its nuances regarding the amenities, and even more precisely the "non-convenience" of using this device. So to say - I will step twice on the sore corn.

Consider the front panel:

I’ll say right away that from far (1 -1.5 meters) the signatures to the LED indicators read poorly, and with my usual, not bright light in the room, they are not read at all.

The three buttons on the left are the same, and if the far left is clear that “Power”, then I sometimes confused “Output” and “Input”, even sitting quite close to the DAC. Those. Before you press the desired button, you need to read the signature to make sure that this is the right button at the moment, God forbid, instead of Output, click Input;)

Now, the main trouble of Essence III in terms of usability is a step-by-step algorithm for switching signal sources, which takes a very long time for this switching. Considering that there are as many as 5 of them, switching (with that same Input button) from Coax to USB seems like an eternity! When conducting a comparative test is just a disaster.

What prevented the direct selection of the source of the signal by individual buttons or the selector knob as we say in TEAC UD-501, I do not understand.

Now about the motorized volume control. I have never liked these “fashionable” motorized volume controls, or rather, they are not unique to the regulation in the field of low volume. In my case, the sound in the speakers appeared in the position of the regulator for almost 9 hours, and sometimes the next volume step appeared after two presses of “+”, sometimes after one, there were cases when you turn up the volume, and after a while it went down by one step.

At one time I had similar problems on the Pioneer A-6 amplifier, as a result of the inconvenience of using such a regulator, I had to sell this amplifier.

It is especially inconvenient to use these controls to adjust the volume in small rooms and a quiet time of day due to the limited range of adjustment in the low volume area.
During the day I did not experience any problems, since the working position of the regulator was in the area of 12 hours.

Now about the headphone volume control, I don’t know what the manufacturer was thinking about, but it’s not very convenient to rush up to adjust the volume of the headphones when you are sitting on the sofa and the device is in the “stand”! Oh, at least electronic, but could implement.

As a result, the whole part allotted to the headphones turned out to be some kind of incomplete. The volume from the remote control is not adjustable, there are complaints about the sound quality. I agree with the previous speaker, it would be better if the Asus balanced outputs to the headphones thrown out, but at least it would bring to mind. After all, notice, not a single domestic test, where would you use headphones with a balanced connection, and what is the probability of their use by the end user?

Actually, this list of afflictions ends for me))

Both volume knobs are illuminated by LEDs, the backlight is not bright and gives a rather noble look.

About the material of the “crutistors” of loudness, they are plastic, but for all the time of operation I have not experienced any negative sensations from this. To be honest, I accidentally remembered that, unlike the Essence III case itself, made in metal, the handles are made of plastic. You can only find fault with the notches on the side of the handles, the dust that gets there is a bit annoying, but you can’t wipe it with a cloth, you can only remove it with a brush or by removing the handles.

The following is our remote control. In general, its appearance does not cause melancholy, comfortable, pleasantly in the hand, gray, i.e. does not pay much attention to itself.

The only thing is that when you change the batteries, you will see that it is still painted plastic.

The form factor of the device is an unanswered question, it is not for a rack format and not half like, say, Cyrus, something average.

Of the big advantages for my part, I note the build quality of the device itself and the quality of materials. Here, in my opinion, everything is fine.
A large number of interfaces to connect sources, the ability to adjust the signal level, even switchable USB mode from 2.0 to 1.0, I wonder who needs it? For some reason it seems to me that a person who has enough money for Essence III should also have enough money for a new laptop))

Well, the sound quality when using the line-out, and even more when using the balanced output is a very strong side of Essence III! Also note a good level of pre-amplifier.

Well, in conclusion, consider the scenarios for using Essence III.

Option 1

If you recall this illustration from the Asus website, where Essence III is positioned as a high-tech device designed for a modern home, and judging by the cost of the device, it appears in the room is not the smallest area (well, again, judging by the picture).
We immediately recall the lack of volume control on the headphones))

Option 2

The location of the device on the desktop, here the volume control for headphones is not needed, because the DAC will be within reach, the acoustics used are quite high-level active acoustics. As it seems to me, in this situation, there should be enough space around the desktop, because such acoustics sometimes have large dimensions. The use of such acoustics on a small desktop in my opinion is meaningless, if only the listening area of the monitors is behind the chair or chair itself, i.e. somewhere further. Here, in this situation, the functionality corresponds to common sense. The most meaningless use of this device, in my opinion, is its use only as an amplifier for headphones, even for listening to DSD.

But the use of Essence III with active acoustics having the size of full-fledged polochnik, in my opinion the most interesting both in terms of sound and in terms of price. As shown in practice, Essence III feels pretty comfortable in a bundle amplifier - speakers with a total cost of $ 5000, active acoustics will be cheaper. In addition, when choosing it, there will be no such problems as when selecting individual components, i.e. You will not need to spend so much time on the individual choice of the amplifier, and then another column (or vice versa).

- Well, narrow to me, narrow!
- Yes, where is narrow? I would even say - widely!
- Yes, I say: wide to me.

Indeed, the above mentioned Essence III cons, such as the lack of a normal source selector and some flaws in sound quality through a headphone amplifier, can change priorities when considering this device for purchase. The price tag for the device assigned is not small, respectively, and the requirements of the buyer will not be modest!

However, if you are looking for a DAC to work with DSD, then the picture may change. Let's say the number of competitors is not so great. The first mentioned TEAC UD-501 comes to mind first, but it does not have a preamplifier for line-out, on the other hand, when using active acoustics, this does not matter, and the price tag is lower.

In the direction of Asus calls for a balanced headphone output, which unfortunately no one in the reviews has not tested and whether it will be so much in demand by users is also not known.

But if the user has already formed a Hi-Fi or High End system, with a power amplifier, then the choice in the direction of Asus may turn out to be of higher priority.

Well, the main trump card from Asus, perhaps, will be a proprietary chip for easy replacement of operational amplifiers, for the selection of the desired character of the sound. Perhaps for someone this moment will play a major role. And maybe even disappear all the questions with a headphone amplifier.

In addition, do not forget about the software update from Asus, someone is also a nice bonus.

Notes:

When considering the purchase of Essence III, be careful to check both the headphone amplifier and the headphones themselves, since the main reviews were made using the HD650, which in fact may not be the optimal choice.

When the laptop was working from the power supply, there were obvious interferences through the speakers, but they could not be heard in the headphones either from the headphone output or from the line output to the wireless headphones. Therefore, all tests were carried out when the laptop is running on an internal battery.

The most interesting point for me was the possibility of fixing the level on the linear output when the “VR Bypass” switch is set to “ON”. I found this opportunity at the very end of the test, when I carried out an additional test of the RS180 headphones at the Essence III line-out. The point is that you can set a fixed but necessary level of signal at the linear output. This is done as follows: Turn the “VR Bypass” toggle switch to the “OFF” position, turn the preamplifier's volume control to the desired level and turn the “VR Bypass” toggle switch to the “ON” position, as a result you will receive a fixed signal level from the line output but with the necessary you amplitude.

I did not take pictures of the insides of the devices due to the fact that there are plenty of them in other reviews and on the ASUS website itself .

A short video, for example, is HERE

I did not begin to paint the charms of various microcircuits used in the device due to the lack of knowledge in this area, for me, as for the end user, the main thing was the quality of the sound itself. After all, besides the capabilities of the DAC or OU chip, the moment of the quality strapping of those will be important, and I don’t have a clue how they were tied technically. Therefore, the sound quality in my opinion, the main criterion in this review.

By the way, I didn’t do the charts either, because Asus made them himself and designed them in a little book, the booklet is included, but if you are interested, I post it: