Essence (1)

Audio is now more important than ever. From your regular built-in sound cards for the average consumer, to the dedicated bits of hardware that can now be purchased for cleaner audio, there are plenty of options out there. But what if you want the very best? What if money isn’t an issue for you? That’s where the Asus Essence Mark II comes in. It’s high-level audio at a high-level price. But sweet Dolby, does it deliver on that price tag.

Looks do matter

As far as looks go, the Essence Mark II has a “less is more” design ethos. You’ve got your unit, a matte silver finish and enough knobs and switches on the front end in order to get you rolling. It’s a simple, but attractive piece of kit. It’s also reassuringly hefty, and could easily be used to inflict massive blunt force trauma on anyone who tries to rob you of it. We’ll get into more detail soon with the various inputs, but for now…

Technical, I want to get technical

Essence (3)

Here’s the description via the box:

  • Native Direct-Stream Digital (DSD) support via DSD over PCM (DoP)
  • Profound musicality and spacious sound thanks to six MUSES 01 op-amps
  • Top-class headphone amplifier drives up to 600ohm-impedance headphones with a dedicated gain jumper
  • Ultra-fidelity 120dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with true balanced design
  • Jitter-free precision clock via asynchronous USB audio
  • Linear power supply with toroidal transformer to ensure clean power to all circuits
  • 8X symmetrical upsampling technology restores lossless audio

Which reads rather fancy then. So what does it all mean actually? What it means, is superb audio. The Essence Mark II sounds damn good. It sounds phenomenal. It sounds like R14 000 worth of hardware, making sweet audio love to your ear canals and promising your eardrums diamonds and a honeymoon in the Bahamas.

The DAC is clearly built with some quality hardware, resulting in a crisp and audible sound experience. It’s like going to the movies, and being blasted with Dolby Surround Sound that drowns out the incessant wailing of a baby who has no idea why its parent thought a dark and loud venue would be a good idea for a newborn infant. And that’s thanks to the amplifier, which makes the more ambient noises of films filter through naturally. Every chirp of a bird, every clink of a bullet shell casing hitting the ground and every screech of a tyre could be heard. And it was all in a manner that was non-intrusive.

Testing 1 2 3…

Essence (4)

Native DSD support was high on my agenda, resulting in a weekend or two of audio tests, to see if the device did indeed support 2.8MHz DSD through DSD over pulse-code modulation (PCM), known as DoP. For the sake of clarity, here’s a list of the Blu-Ray films I used for the multimedia test of the Essence Mark II, where I focused on big budget flicks and a few smaller audio-heavy movies:

  • Pacific Rim
  • Iron Man 3
  • The Avengers
  • Tron: Legacy
  • Dredd 3D
  • Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

In total, if you’re looking for a device that does particularly detailed soundstage depth and layering, the Essence Mark II will handle that with ease. Music was also a plus on the device, with the results being natural and more in-tune. The ambience once again comes into play, but that just resulted in cleaner audio and music tracks where bass guitars were actually audible, drum solos were filled with all manner of percussion licks and guitar riffs were turned up to 11. For even more clarification and terrible taste in music, here’s a list of the albums I used to test the Essence Mark II at, which were sourced and uncompressed audio files to boot:

  • Dethklok – The Doomstar Requiem
  • Mass Effect 3 – Original soundtrack
  • AC/DC – Back In Black
  • Tron Legacy – Daft Punk original soundtrack
  • The Offspring – Rise and Fall
  • Guns ‘N Roses – Greatest Hits
  • Tenacious D – Rize of the Fenix

As a headphone amplifier however, the Essence Mark II is dependent on some decent gear around your head as well. To a point that is. I used two headsets that I could get my hands and head on, for a mid and high-range test. For the mid-level audio test, I plugged in the Gioteck EX-05m while the Razer Kraken 7.1 fulfilled the high-level audio sessions adequately. The audio was better, but unless you’re a keen audiophile, it would be difficult to discern how much better it was than the mid-range Gioteck. Volume control also had a very solid range from soft to loud, with no hiss whatsoever emanating from my headsets.

The built-in amplifier was just superb, thanks to a dedicated gain jumper that delivered between 600 and 16 ohms of independent audio. Throw in the high fidelity audio output which clocks in at 120dB SNR, and the audio was also magnificently balanced. It’s safe to say that any decent surround sound headset, will function rather admirably on the Essence Mark II. Mind you, these were gaming headsets and I unfortunately did not have access to more commercial brands at the time of review. But ye gads, I wish I did just for the sake of a more detailed comparison. I can only imagine a set of Sennheiser headsets getting the most out of this device.

Fiddle with my knobs

Essence (2)

The Essence Mark II is also particularly versatile. Despite the need for a separate power supply, it’s portable enough to cart around, while the USB,stereo out and XLR inputs provide enough connection options for either consumer or pro grade speakers. Up-sampling resulted in high-quality even-order multiplication to improve from your usual 44.1/88.2 /176.4kHz inputs to 352.8kHz@32Bit and even 48/96/192kHz sources all the way up to 384kHz@32Bit, without compromising on the sample rates which usually leads to jittery audio and laggy transfers. Fortunately, that’s an issue that the Essence Mark II doesn’t have to worry about at all.

For the folks who like to tinker with their device, the Essence Mark II was also easy to just open and fiddle around with. I preferred to just gaze at the innards, but if you’re more adventurous, you can play around with the 11 swappable op-amps. That allows consumers the chance to craft and amplify their analogue signals and fine-tune the performance overall.

 

Last Updated: October 20, 2014

Asus Essence Mark II
The Asus Essence Mark II is simply amazing. It’s also the kind of device that demands an equally amazing price tag of around R12 000 to R14 000. It’s a device for the audio professionals, for the people who make magic out of sound for a living. Do you need the device? Maybe not. Will you want it after spending a session with it? You bet your audiophile ass that you will.
Rad

26 Comments

  1. Dethklok!!

    Reply

    • z1n

      October 20, 2014 at 13:20

      Because who else can title a song “I ejaculate fire”!?

      Reply

    • The D

      October 20, 2014 at 13:25

      MERMAIDMURDER MERMAIDMURDER MERMAIDMURDER MERMAIDMURDER MERMAIDMURDER!

      Reply

      • Mossel

        October 20, 2014 at 13:41

        I am so psyched to go watch Metalocolypse now!
        William Murderface Murderface Murderface.

        Reply

  2. ReaperOfSquirrels

    October 20, 2014 at 12:41

    Holy mother of price tags Batman! That price isn’t ACTUALLY that bad for what it delivers.

    Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 20, 2014 at 12:46

    I don’t think I’ve ever read quite so much without knowing what’s going on. :/

    Reply

    • ReaperOfSquirrels

      October 20, 2014 at 12:49

      Thankfully I did some sound engineering a few years back, so I understand.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        October 20, 2014 at 12:57

        I have a hard time reading menus that don’t come with pictures.

        Reply

    • Thats_how_I_Troll

      October 20, 2014 at 13:04

      Hahaha, I thought it was a Motherboard review for most of the article…

      Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    October 20, 2014 at 12:47

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      October 20, 2014 at 12:52

      Reply

      • Lord Chaos

        October 20, 2014 at 12:53

        Speechless for the second time today, impressive…

        Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

        October 20, 2014 at 13:09

        wow….. The pun is strong with this one

        Reply

    • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

      October 20, 2014 at 12:53

      lol

      Reply

  5. ReaperOfSquirrels

    October 20, 2014 at 12:52

    Hey, it’s an audio device that costs the same as the iPhone 6!

    Reply

    • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

      October 20, 2014 at 12:53

      And can probably do more than the iPhone too

      Reply

      • Jedi Consular Kromas

        October 20, 2014 at 13:00

        No you can’t cause it will bend before you get to use it. 😛

        Now an android device on the other hand …

        Edit: Whoops I am tired and have a headache and read you comment like a mentally challenged boss!

        Reply

        • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

          October 20, 2014 at 13:08

          Lol I was so confused while reading your comment. Thankfully I see I am not losing my mind. Phew

          Reply

  6. Sir Rants A Lot Llew

    October 20, 2014 at 12:54

    So in short this would make my Logitech Z-5500’s sound epic beyond belief or not?

    Reply

    • The D

      October 20, 2014 at 13:25

      Most likely, yeah it totally will!

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

        October 20, 2014 at 13:30

        Sweet! I will go spend all my money right now!
        *realises I probably don’t have enough even if I wanted to*
        *cries*

        Reply

    • boondocksaint87

      October 20, 2014 at 13:42

      The sad part is, they won’t make a big difference to the Z-5500. I have the Z-5500 as well, and I love them. If you speak to real audiophiles, they laugh at our puny pc speakers 🙁 If you buy a decent set of heaphones, you will hear a big difference though, but very dependant on what you listen to. Decent amps with decent speakers works a lot better than having something brilliant of the one, and crappy of the other.

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

        October 20, 2014 at 13:50

        Fair point

        Reply

  7. MakeItLegal

    October 20, 2014 at 13:16

    Oh my word , I need this in my life … 14k is about 7k outside of my budget

    Reply

  8. Kikmi

    October 20, 2014 at 15:18

    Balanced XLR? On a consumer SC? Well fuck me sally, thats pretty swanky.Though to be absolutely honest, you would be able to get away with better sound quality by getting an entry level studio AI. 12k is a bit much to ask but the 32bit audio you cant beat at cheaper. Interesting conundrum but this will fall on deaf ears as I doubt enthusiasts will consider sound upgrades as most audio (unless raw) is rendered at 128cbr/320vbr mostly.

    Reply

  9. Martinpr

    October 28, 2014 at 10:35

    A pity Asus did not offer a more cost effective version like they did with Essence Mk1. For upgraded opamps and DSD support the increase to R14k is going to make it a tough sell. Most PC gamers are frankly better served by the original Essence Mk1. You would need some serious audio equipment and headphones to justify the spending.

    Reply

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