Article: exaSound e12 DAC Review

[Norton]

I really don't understand comments about HQP being difficult to use. I've been trying out HQP for the first time this week. Being fairly non-technical, looking at the apparently complex feedback in various threads and especially as I was interested in the Linux version, I was prepared for a whole lot if pain.

 

I had the evaluation installed, library imported and playing glorious sounding music all within 15 minutes max. Everything just worked first time. Great player though it us, I found JRiver in comparison much more difficult to set up and use initially.

 

Having said this, I'd quite like to know what a NAA is (DLNA renderer maybe?) and why I might want it and also what I need to do to get desktop sharing working via a VNC iPad app.

[wdw]

...NOT to pick idiots and "1 button automatic" iPhone users who instantly think they are rocket scientists....NO reason to whine and call names as you did in this post. Ease up! (And maybe mature a little bit - sorry for my own harshness but you get what you give).

 

Solstice,

You are just rude and stupid. My comments had nothing of the malice that your juvenile diatribe, above, has...mine was written with some good will to move his software forward.

WDW

[Solstice380]

...NOT to pick idiots and "1 button automatic" iPhone users who instantly think they are rocket scientists....NO reason to whine and call names as you did in this post. Ease up! (And maybe mature a little bit - sorry for my own harshness but you get what you give).

 

Solstice,

You are just rude and stupid. My comments had nothing of the malice that your juvenile diatribe, above, has...mine was written with some good will to move his software forward.

WDW

 

Just can't stop, can you? Have a nice life!

[YashN]

Great review, Ted. I see what you did with "tube-based" there...naughty!

 

Good too see you're catching up on HQ Player's sonics, especially when doing real-time PCM-DSD128 in my case (sweet-spot seems to be native DSD and/or PCM up-converted to DSD128 in my usual case, unless I listen to the single nativedsd album I have in DSD256).

 

Have you tried the same arrangement but with tube amps?

[YashN]

Although not the prettiest HQplayer's interface works well does what it was designed for... Playing music.

 

Try using it full-screen and/or on a tablet. I think that's the way it should be preferably used once you've set up your file system inside of it.

[1markr]

I appreciate the time you spent to provide a detailed review Ted. I was on the fence for a while, and it put me over the edge. I put my order in a couple of days ago. Looking forward to it, and what it could bring to my modest system!

[ted_b]

1markr, thanks for the nice words. Make sure you give the e12 plenty of break-in time, and a decent USB cable. More and more folks I respect for have found a real bargain high-end (oxymoron?) in the DH Labs Mirage cable.

 

YashN,

I have tubes in my system (CF-080 preamp) and much prefer them there (and/or at source) than in the power amps. It's my own personal preference, but it is heavily influenced by the fact that I like lots of power to drive my Aerial 20Ts. And the heat and upkeep (I'm lazy) of tubed power amps makes them unfriendly in my room. All that being said, if they make me smile all bets are off.

[1markr]

The E12 purchase is timely, since I am also breaking in a pair of new speakers as well. Let them both break in together!

 

I have a couple of decent USB cables, one of which is the a Black Cat SilverStar USB cable, which also got decent reviews. Thanks for the tip on the DH Labs Mirage!

 

 

 

1markr, thanks for the nice words. Make sure you give the e12 plenty of break-in time, and a decent USB cable. More and more folks I respect for have found a real bargain high-end (oxymoron?) in the DH Labs Mirage cable.

 

YashN,

I have tubes in my system (CF-080 preamp) and much prefer them there (and/or at source) than in the power amps. It's my own personal preference, but it is heavily influenced by the fact that I like lots of power to drive my Aerial 20Ts. And the heat and upkeep (I'm lazy) of tubed power amps makes them unfriendly in my room. All that being said, if they make me smile all bets are off.

[photonblur]

Where's the buzz?

 

I'm in the mrk't for a dac and have been reading everything

available on the yggdrasil, chord2qute, metrum octave mkII,

exasound e12 and others. Except for Ted the lack of user

reports for the e12 is deafening.

 

pb-

[Jimmypowder]

Where's the buzz?

 

I'm in the mrk't for a dac and have been reading everything

available on the yggdrasil, chord2qute, metrum octave mkII,

exasound e12 and others. Except for Ted the lack of user

reports for the e12 is deafening.

 

pb-

 

I would have bought one by now but I was told the dac can only be used with a computer and not a renderer like the Aries that I have .

[Blizzard]

Where's the buzz?

 

I'm in the mrk't for a dac and have been reading everything

available on the yggdrasil, chord2qute, metrum octave mkII,

exasound e12 and others. Except for Ted the lack of user

reports for the e12 is deafening.

 

pb-

 

 

Read some reviews on the E22. Pretty much the same sound. Upgrade the clock and sound may even be better due to lack of noise causing display and headphone amp circuitry. Upgrade the power supply and take it to even another level. Another awesome thing about it is, it only consumes 0.5A vs 2A on the E22. That means a higher quality for less money linear power supply can be used with it! I wouldn't even consider any other DAC under $3000. With the above mentioned upgrades it would probably stand shoulder to shoulder to $5000+ DAC's all day long.

[thuandb]

You can view the page at Computer Audiophile - exaSound e12 DAC Review

 

Ted, great great review. You see, it's about time that I'm in the market for a DSD DAC. I was looking at the e22 because it's capable of DSD 256 and its USB is asynchronous, not caring less about display, extra in/outputs. Then I found out that exasound also offers e12 that has about what I need, no more no less, yet with no less SQ than e22. Sounds like a dream comes true.

 

Here are my concerns: is the e12 going to get along with my WS2012r2/JPLAY setup? I'd love to hear you or other exasound users say yes to that.

[ted_b]

I run WS2012 and the e12 is fine. However, the exaSound ASIo drivers do not play with Jplay (or at least didn't back when I used JPlay a lot). Users?

[thuandb]

Looks like exasound doesn't work with JPLAY. If that's the case, then I'm hoping Bug Head my favorite music player can make use of e12 ASIO driver.

[thuandb]

I run WS2012 and the e12 is fine. However, the exaSound ASIo drivers do not play with Jplay (or at least didn't back when I used JPlay a lot). Users?

 

Lets say I'd be willing to work around the JPLAY compatible issue, does the exasound let me use my dual PC setup?

[ted_b]

Lets say I'd be willing to work around the JPLAY compatible issue, does the exasound let me use my dual PC setup?

 

I use the exaSound with dual pcs (HQPlayer and NAA) and it's great. The new exaSound Playpoint also acts as a great easy plug-n-play NAA (I will report on it this weekend).

[thuandb]

Great, so dual PC issue is down. NAA (forgive my ignorance)?

[ted_b]

Great, so dual PC issue is down. NAA (forgive my ignorance)?

 

NAA is the HQPlayer's thin server end of the dual pc environment. It stands for Network Audio Adapter and is a FIFO buffer box that is the back end interface to the dac.

[thuandb]

Thanks. I'll be digging more in this.

[thuandb]

Ted, how do you compare HQPlayer to JPLAY, SQ-wise? I've known and played with JPLAY for a few years now, Bug Head recently and like both. Going HQPlayer means a new learning curve for me.

[ted_b]

I never really compared them fairly, that is, side by side. They are very different approaches to the same issue...getting the most out of a (in my case Windows) server environment. I have tended toward HQplayer lately because it does a great job of upsampling to DSD256, using state of the art modulators and filter techniques. Why upsample to DSD256?? Well, when one has a Sabre-based DAC such as an exaSound, it tends to love living in DSD256. Conversely, with FPGA dacs like Chord's Hugo/2Qute family, the upsampling is not a tool to use wisely, and so I simply run Open Home clients. HQP is not known for its graphical ease of use, so if you are going to run DACs that don't play well in upsample mode (by that I mean users upsampling the inputs to the dac) it is silly to run HQP in a neutered mode...rather find a decent GUI like an Open Home Linn Kazoo client and a good streamer (Aries, Rendu, Jplay streamer, exaSound's new PlayPoint) and go that route.

 

I am tempted to try BugHead but the overall culture of the product development (thousands of toggle switches and mixtures of versions, co-dependencies, etc.) gives me great pause. I'm getting lazy, as in "life is too short".

[thuandb]

Really appreciate your thorough responses. As one peer audiophile (a less experienced one) to another (a veteran), I think you should try BH. It was intimidating at first (there were not too many BH "veterans" then), but I'm on BH solid ground today.

 

Anyway, as I expressed in the mail I sent George, I really like e12 a lot after reading your super nice review and because of its minimalist yet SQ oriented nature. I'm just trying to see how I could integrate it well into my existing setup without tipping over the SQ I've been enjoying. If acquiring the e12 would bring even higher SQ, by all means I'll go horse it.

[thuandb]

Hi Ted,

 

If up sampling redbook to DSD gives higher SQ, I'd like to give if a try. Looks like the exasound 12 would be a very good start, then HQPlayer. However, I don't think I see anything about using dual PC with HQPlayer. Perhaps I missed something. Given that I can use two decent music servers for HQPlayer, can you give a general idea on how? Also, a brief layout of the e12/HQPlayer/WS2012 would be great.

[firedog]

Hi Ted,

 

If up sampling redbook to DSD gives higher SQ, I'd like to give if a try. Looks like the exasound 12 would be a very good start, then HQPlayer. However, I don't think I see anything about using dual PC with HQPlayer. Perhaps I missed something. Given that I can use two decent music servers for HQPlayer, can you give a general idea on how? Also, a brief layout of the e12/HQPlayer/WS2012 would be great.

 

Not Ted, but:

 

The "dual PC" setup for HQP means having one PC with full HQP installed and another device running HQP NAA (available for download at signalyst.com). You click the setting in HQP to tell it output is to NAA. If the 2 devices are on the same network they should find each other.

 

Once this is done you playback music over HQP on the server. It does whatever processing you've asked it to (your HQP settings) and the result is sent over the network for playback - and just playback - to the NAA device attached to your DAC.

 

The Exasound PP comes with NAA pre-installed, so it should "just work" unless you have an unusual network setup.

[thuandb]

Thanks firedog.

 

So both PCs should be on the same local network. Can they be connected to one another directly like the way JPLAY audio and control PCs do? If HQP and NAA servers (PCs in my case) run Windows Server 2012 r2, can they both in core mode or should be in GUI mids only?