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Nitsch Pietus Maximus with ESS Sigma Delta DAC with Unison card in mint condition. I bought this new a few weeks ago. It comes with the original box and accessories. Works and sounds great! I have too much gear so letting this one go.I ship the lower 48 US states only. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. Thanks for looking!
At US$500, this is well above the recent used-market median of US$127 and even the 75th percentile of US$342, so it reads as an ambitious ask rather than a fair-market bargain. For a buyer, that means the listing only makes sense if it’s unusually complete, freshly serviced, or includes meaningful extras that justify the premium.
The upside is that this is a respected high-end headphone amp/DAC combo, and the Pietus Maximus platform has a good reputation for strong dynamics, clean drive, and a very competent ESS-based DAC stage. If the unit is genuinely clean, original-owner, and comes with the right accessories and packaging, it can still be a worthwhile buy for someone specifically after this sound and form factor, but at this price I’d want clear proof that it’s in excellent condition and not just a standard used piece.
Independent perspective — not a price guarantee. Always verify condition, accessories and provenance before purchase.
ESS is best known as ESS Technology, a U.S. semiconductor company founded by Forrest Mozer in 1983 as Electronic Speech Systems. It began in California and grew from speech and multimedia chips into a specialist in audio conversion silicon, with its later identity strongly tied to digital audio technology rather than finished consumer hi-fi products.
The company’s core focus is audio DACs and ADCs—especially the SABRE family—used by manufacturers in audio, mobile, automotive, and professional equipment. In hi-fi terms, ESS is not primarily a maker of amplifiers, speakers, turntables, or headphones; instead, it supplies the conversion chips that sit inside many third-party components.
In the market, ESS has a technical, high-performance, component-supplier reputation rather than a consumer brand identity. Among informed audiophiles it is often associated with high-end and upper-mid-tier digital playback, while also being somewhat niche because its name usually appears inside other brands’ products rather than on the front panel. It is a respected engineering brand, but not a vintage collector name in the usual sense.
See all ESS listings on RADAR.
