Review: Essence HDACC HDMI DAC

Excellent DAC! Firstly, it strips the hi resolution Blu-ray stereo audio from the HDMI output of my Oppo 83SE converting it to pristine analog while passing a perfect video signal to my tv. Excellent sound, better than the Oppo, and great video images. But it does much more. It’s a headphone DAC and can upsample any digital signal. I’ve had my eye on this for some time. Paid $400, direct fr the company. I bought it mainly because I wanted to get off the high priced universal player addiction. When my old Oppo starts to die, I’ll buy an inexpensive Blu-ray player and use the DAC. It also does SACD in PCM. It gives my Schiit Bifrost Multi serious competition on CDs although I give the Bifrost the edge, just barely. All in all, totally happy. I gave the owner, Bob Rapoport a call for some assistance while setting it up. He stayed on the phone with me for an hour. Totally knowledgeable guy w an obvious passion for good sound and very interesting to talk to. Highly recommend.

 

Just caught this thread. I currently have a Marantz HD-DAC1 for headphone amp needs and Oppo 103 Blu-ray player which is my SACD player as well. My problem with the Marantz is it doesn't have analog L/R individual stereo inputs for say analog turntable audio (just a single crappy mini stereo analog input) or a digital input for hirez SACD audio options. Thus, I'm looking for a Headphone DAC that has an HDMI and analog stereo inputs as well as the usual digital co-axl and optical inputs. So far, this is one of the few DACs that looks close to ideal for my needs.

Can anyone chime in as to whether this DAC outputs to headphone true hirez audio from the HDMI input or is it downsampled and how the sound is compared to most comparable DACs to the Marantz. Also, will it accept iPod Classic audio (a nice feature of the otherwise excellent Marantz HD-DAC1) through the USB input? As for headphones, I'm using either Denon AHD 7200s or Audeze LCD-XCs.

 

I love the way the DAC sounds. Detailed and smooth as silk. As for your questions- the best thing that I can advise is that you call the manufacturer. Just google Essence audio. The owner Bob Rapoport loves to talk audio. Check out their website. There are also reviews on line. Again, the DAC sounds and works great. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the response. I'm in the very early stages of changing out my HD-DAC1 and have a lot of reading up on what my options are. But the Essence definitely seems to fit most of my needs.

 

Hey, thanks, this is just what my friend needs!