Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro MQA

[57gold]

Anybody listen to one of these.  The fellow at Audio Science Review who claims to have tested 150+ DACs reports this unit has the best performance specs of any he has tested.

 

Since I do not understand all the charts and graphs on his forum, he could be fooling me.  But the fellow seems seriously committed to his tests and whilst this DAC is @$2K, but he also recommends DACs as testing extremely well like one called a Sabaj D5 DAC, which uses top drawer parts with broad capabilities in terms of file resolution and connectivity for @$500.

 

Any experience with these units?

 

Happy with my Brooklyn +...but would have been happier if it cost $500 and could do DSD1024...which might mean I could use my Mini and HQPlayer to get to DSD256, for example.

 

 

 

[57gold]

Friends of mine who like music but do not have the budget or a desire to spend $2k+ on a DAC have asked how to get good sound.  Some of these $500 area options that seem to come from China (tariffs might make them $600?), seem to be a decent option if they sound as good as they test.   

 

Noticed Amir tested a $15K TotalDac against a $500 one and the cheap one beat the expensive one handily in every parameter he measured...though not sure if the magnitude of the delta means anything to human hearing nor do I know that what he is measuring is all the "important stuff".   

 

Seems like a lot of "trickle down" engineering happening.

[57gold]

Had to search TIM.

 

TIM = Transient Intermodulation Distortion?  

 

Is that distortion with moving multiple signal frequencies as opposed to a measurement at  fixed frequency?

 

 

[57gold]

Kind of odd that no one who has heard one of these good measuring DACs (Matrix, Topping...) has posted their opinion of how they sound versus some of CA's standbys like a Mytek, Exasound, Schitt, Ayre, Chord, Auralic...maybe they are scarce?