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I spend more time (and money) than I would like to admit buying and playing with audio equipment. I also have a substantial collection of headphones, such as the Audeze LCD2/3, Sennheiser HD800, Fostex TH900 and Stax 009 electrostatic models. When I am not reviewing products or managing KitGuru, I will often be listening to 24bit high res music via my Icon Audio valve (tubes to the Americans) monoblocks and Audiovector speakers.
While I could just focus on testing the Xonar U7 Echelon Edition today purely with sub £150 PC oriented headphones, the true test of an amplifier is when you are able to partner up with some high grade headphones or speakers, even if they cost 23 times more than the ASUS product we are reviewing today. We paired up with the Grado PS1000 headphones for this section of the review – they retail on Amazon for around £2,000 inc vat. These are GRADO's flagship headphones.
The Grado PS1000 headphones are truly fantastic when paired up with a quality amplifier, and although naturally they can sound a little ‘bright' they have bass heft which can really rattle your head. They are not the most neutral sounding headphones you can get but I really do love them for rock/pop music.
As the Xonar U7 Echelon Edition has only a 3.5mm connector we had to use the Grado adapter cable to convert from the native 6.3mm cable supplied with the headphones.
My chosen ‘portable' configuration consists of the Astell and Kern AK100 24 bit capable portable player hooked into the ALO Audio RX MK3 amplifier. We will refer to this as ‘ALO/AK' from this point onwards.
This pairing costs well in excess of £1,000, so while it would be unfair to directly compare against the ASUS Xonar U7 Echelon due to the massive price differences, it does give us a solid reference point.
Over the years I have invested heavily in thousands of high resolution audio files purchased from HDTRACKS and Linn Records. These range in quality from 24bit 44.1KHz to 24bit 192KHz. Even though I have not went down the vinyl route in recent years, I really do loathe compressed MP3 audio.
We selected a series of high resolution audio tracks to test the ASUS Xonar U7 Echelon with the Grado PS1000 headphones. We turned off all audio enhancements such as compressor, perfect voice and noise gate but opted for the rock equaliser setting to boost some of the frequencies. We like the fact that ASUS have included a BASS boost option in the driver.
While we haven't discussed onboard audio comparisons in detail below, the ASUS Xonar U7 was simply leagues ahead of the SupremeFX onboard audio on the Asus Maximus Hero VI motherboard.
Anita Baker's 24 bit 192KHz ‘Sweet Love' sounded fantastic through the Xonar U7 Echelon. The headphone amplifier delivered a beautifully pure rendition of her silky tones. When compared directly to the ALO/AK combo, the Xonar U7 put up a good showing, but lost out a little on some of the fine detail and depth. Bass response was also reduced, although there is obviously the option to tweak the settings in Sonic Studio Pro.
We listened to several tracks from David Bowie's last album ‘The Next Day' recorded at 24 bit 96KHz. Again, the Asus Xonar U7 was able to produce a very dynamic rendition of the tracks ‘Boss Of Me' and ‘Heat‘, pinpointing Bowie's vocal between the musicians on either side. This wouldn't be my favourite Bowie album, but the recording is actually very good and the Xonar surprised me considering the very low price point. When compared to the ALO/AK combo there was again a loss with some fine detail and track ambiance. Bowie's voice also sounded a little more natural and realistic when moving to the more expensive pairing.
We then listened to the 24 bit release of Fleetwood Mac's ‘Rumours' album. This is an exceptionally well recorded album and tracks such as Christine McVie's ‘SongBird‘ were given plenty of life via the Xonar U7. Stevie Nick's ‘Dreams‘ was incredibly tightly focused, and her husky, sexy vocals featured high in the mix, prominent and easy to pick out. By comparison, the ALO/AK combo took the recording a stage further, removing a fine veil across the mid range and allowing the wonderful production quality to shine.
Mark Knopfler's recent ‘Privateering‘ double album release was a high point for me last year. The recording is fantastic and it is some of his best work in years. The Xonar U7 dealt well with Knopfler's distinctive vocal style and during tracks such as ‘Kingdom of Gold' his guitar playing was sublimely presented perfectly in the mix. The ALO/AK combo was able to drive more bass through the headphones, and the mix was given a little more ‘air' with a broader scope of dynamic range.
