exaSound e18 - e20 - e28 - Info and Experiences Post All Here

[Bob Stern]

• DoP support, if anybody needs it.
  

My understanding is that Mac users need DoP to play native DSD if we want to use a player other than HQPlayer or Decibel. Because neither of these supports plugins, I prefer Audirvana.

 

Plugins are the only way to implement on-the-fly parametric EQ, which I find useful to tame screechy old recordings. It amazes me that so few audiophiles take advantage of user-adjustable EQ (as opposed to fixed room EQ). Somehow the old hairshirt mentality of analog preamps has carried forward unnecessarily into the digital age.

[Bob Stern]

Addendum to preceding post:

 

I realize EQ plugins require floating point arithmetic, so native DSD files would have to be converted to PCM to use an EQ plugin. Nevertheless, it would be a nuisance to switch back and forth between HQP to play DSD tracks natively and Audirvana when you want to use EQ.

[Bob Stern]

HQP will also play PCM/EQ.

What do you mean by "PCM/EQ"? I was expressing a desire for parametric EQ that is user-adjustable on-the-fly. HQP can implement EQ only via a convolution filter, not a plugin.

 

To approximate on-the-fly PEQ adjustment, I could create a library of convolution filters with different PEQ settings. However, I believe selecting a different convolution filter in HQP requires stopping and restarting playback, which would be an annoying interruption if I'm experimenting with tailoring the EQ for the particular track I'm currently listening to. (As opposed to room EQ which remains mostly fixed.)

 

Is there a smoother implementation that I'm overlooking?

[Bob Stern]

Thanks, Kal. I hope I didn’t sound unappreciative. Your advice here and your reviews in Stereophile are invaluable!

[Bob Stern]

Apologies if I am dragging this off-topic, but Audirvana alone allows you to do all that.

To close the circle on how this relates to the exaSound e32, I was responding to the post by exa (presumably George Klissarov himself) that DoP is supported "if anybody needs it". I was attempting to illustrate to George why DoP is not a mere stepchild but is vitally important to those of us having good reasons to use Audirvana rather than HQP.

 

Many users value Audirvana's powerful music library manager and plugin support enough to forgo the reported advantages of HQP's upsampling over Audirvana's iZotope upsampling.

 

Therefore, I hope George will continue to devote effort to making the DoP performance as good as possible.

[Bob Stern]

Thanks for the clarification, George. Perhaps you forgot to update the Mac e32 user guide to state this.

 

The e32 user guide, page 12, says your Core Audio driver supports "DSD over PCM 1.0", and only your Mac ASIO driver supports native DSD.

 

Also, your online Guide on Audirvana configuration (last updated Jan 2015) requires setting Audirvana to use DoP.

Configuring Audirvana Plus 2 for Bitperfect DSD/DXD Playback with exaSound DACs

[Bob Stern]

13 minutes ago, GUTB said:

Considering how bare-bones the ExaSound DAC circuitry is ...

 

Sabre DACs from China have much more robust circuits

 

@GUTB, can you please explain:

(1) In what respect the exaSound circuit is "bare bones".

(2) Likewise, how Chinese Sabre DACs are "robust".

 

(Please consider this a question, not an attack.  However, your post is meaningless without clarification.)

[Bob Stern]

@GOTB:

 

In my opinion, comparing the performance of the Gustard and exaSound DACs by visual inspection is ridiculous.

 

You deduce from their larger physical size that the Gustard's aluminum capacitors are electrically superior as decoupling capacitors to exaSound's low-ESR polymer tantalum capacitors?

 

exaSound's specs describe numerous design features intended to minimize jitter induced by the USB receiver, ground plane noise, etc.  Do you think a photo meaningfully reveals the effectiveness of these features compared to the corresponding features of the Gustard?  Can you analyze the usefulness of Gustard's separate analog and digital power transformers compared to exaSound's 11 power filtering stages, etc?

 

I know nothing about the Gustard, so I'm not asserting it's inferior, but I think it's absurd to claim the exaSound is poor value based on the evidence you've cited.

[Bob Stern]

8 hours ago, Robert van Diggele said:

As I have not received the log in for the drivers yet, it is 2 channel toslink for now.

 

Did you email exaSound?  I received my login within 24 hours.

[Bob Stern]

1 hour ago, Bob Stern said:

Did you email exaSound?  I received my login within 24 hours.

 

Correction:  I purchased directly from exaSound, and I received a login username and password within my shipment confirmation.  I don’t know the procedure when you purchase from NativeDSD.

[Bob Stern]

2 hours ago, Ric Schultz said:

No one mods expensive gear.  I consider Exa expensive.  Nothing over $2000 gets modded any more.  It makes no sense.  If you want value then you mod an inexpensive thing with great potential.  If you mod an expensive thing then you will loose resale value.  If you mod an inexpensive thing then it does not matter whether its resale value is low.

 

Thanks for succinctly explaining why you, as a modder, want to dissuade people from buying anything over $2000.  Now that you've made your point that exaSound gear is not a profitable candidate for your mods, I hope you will move to another thread.

 

One of the attributes that led me to purchase the e32 was the reputation of its predecessors for not requiring add-on devices.  There is almost universal agreement that its USB input is sufficiently well isolated that it does not benefit from USB Regen devices and the like, and most (but not all) users find no need for power supply upgrades due to its multiple voltage regulators, filters, and well-designed board layout.

[Bob Stern]

@exa:  I hope you're not paying a license fee for MQA.

 

It's certainly not a feature I consider useful, but I understand why you may not want to risk losing customers if the license is free.

[Bob Stern]

4 hours ago, alec_eiffel said:

I like Roon volume control as you can define volume limits ("comfort" and "safety") that are protecting your ears and your equipment in the case your finger slips on the slider

 

You also can set a volume upper limit in either or both of HQPlayer and the exaSound Dashboard.

[Bob Stern]

Kal, did you find an AC power supply that performs with your e38 as well as the battery power supply you mentioned some time ago?  Did you try the Teddy Pardo power supply that exaSound now ships with its DACs?