USB inpUt: 16/24-bit, 44.1k/48k/88.2k/96k/176.4k/192kHz S/pDiF Digital inpUt: 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz @ 16bit/24biti/O: USB input, coaxial digital input, optical digital input, 2 x RCA unbalanced output, 2 x XLR balanced output, 1 x 6.5mm headphone outputDimenSiOnS (whd): 260 x 230 x 60mmWarranty: One year

COntaCt: ASUS tel: 1300 27 87 88WeB: www.asus.com.au

ASUS Xonar Essence Oneprice: $549

Verdict

ASUS Xonar Essence OnePrice: $549

86 We test this hugely powerful subwoofer!

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We’ve been surprised by some ASUS audio products recently, and the arrival of this substantial standalone

DAC and headphone amplifier might be considered another shocker, except that, of course, the company has made well-regarded audio cards to go inside PCs for years. This standalone unit takes many of its cues from the company’s Essence ST PCI soundcard.

Still, ASUS has certainly undertaken the externalisation process with considerable panache — this is one of the physically largest DACs we’ve ever tested, and certainly the most stylishly packaged, providing not the usual pseudo-Apple white box, but rather a luxurious multilayered and ribboned spot-glossed black carton, endorned with a Shang Dynasty tiger emblem taken from an ancient ‘chime stone’ (one of the oldest substantial musical instruments ever discovered). Nice.

The DAC itself is equally well presented, with a lozenge-curved frontage offering input selection and separate volume controls for the headphone socket and the main outputs, which can be taken from the rear RCA phono sockets or, impressively, as balanced XLR outputs. For inputs there is a choice of USB,

optical digital or electrical digital — one of each, selectable from the front panel.

The specs are impressive — it can handle files up to 24-bit and 192kHz from any input, and is able to implement 8× symmetric (i.e. exact multiple) upsampling to a blistering 32-bit 384kHz, courtesy of a powerful CM6631 audio processor from a fellow Taiwanese company, Cmedia.

First up a message to Mac users — stop reading now; the ASUS simply doesn’t work with Macs; we tried. It produces a strange periodic ringing sound when run from a Mac’s USB output; we tried bypassing the USB input using Musical Fidelity’s V-Link USB-to-SPDIF converter, but the ASUS gave silence from that unit’s optical output (and we couldn’t get the front selector to choose the electrical input at all, see below). So, be warned, no Macs allowed.

PC users will need to install the provided driver (a choice of XP, Vista or W7 drivers are provided), after which the device appears under Control Panel/Sound; you may need to adjust its preferences and options to allow the higher file types to flow. The ASUS driver not only enables asynchronous conversion (see previous issue), it enables the Xonar to take the file direct from a PC’s ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), which is preferable in purity to either DirectSound or WASAPI (the Windows Audio Session Application Programming Interface) since ASIO avoids the PC’s kernel mixer entirely.

With the driver installed we were soon enjoying a superb presentation of our high resolution files, right up to the few 192kHz recordings we have, including the new Naim release of Antonio Forcione & Sabina Sciubba. No Mac-style ringing here, just beautifully crisp and clean guitar plucking and a razor-sharp central vocal.

We should mention that on our review sample, the selector switch ‘stuck’ regularly on the optical input, requiring a reboot to get back to the USB input, and never managing to select the electrical input at all. Also, bear the non-Macness in mind, lest you ever considering switching computing platforms. Those points aside, this unit moves all the expertise of ASUS’s soundcard designers into this truly hi-fi-yielding box. At the price, it’s a real contender. Jez Ford

dAcs to the max