I had before a Creative X-Fi Elite Pro sound card which in principle was not bad either, but the driver (Windows 7 x64) This was such grottig that most Regeler / remote control did not work properly and it often was noise at games. Eventually I was only annoyed them that I ordered the Essence One.
I operate with the following setup:
- USB to PC with Windows 7 x64
- SDPIF on TV
- Toslink to Multimedia Player
- Neumann KH 120 boxes via XLR
- Headphones Beyerdynamic DT990 600 ohm
I welcome:
- Good sound quality (with foobar2000 and ASIO plugin)
- Good and robust build quality (even compared to the Creative, which cost even the häfte)
- Separate control for the headphone (very good idea)
- Replaceable op amps (not tried)
Negative
- The blue LEDs on the front glow extremely bright and can not be switched off / regulate. For my taste they are too bright and distracting / dazzle.
- When changing the tracks it comes with me under foobar2000 ASIO often to unangebehmen pops. I hope that I still find it a solution or it will be fixed with an update
- The feel of the volume control could be better (feel a little spongy)
- Sound quality via Toslink / SDPIF with multimedia player as a player is no longer as good as BigPerfect on PC (but may be with setter ?!)
Schön would have been even a remote control, several digital inputs and Midi been, but at this price I will not complain here.
Overall, however outweigh the positive characteristics, which is why the Essence is allowed to stay for now. Maybe I'll update later on a Mytek converter, but this is again a different price range ...
