exaSound E68 Stereo DSD512 and 8-Channel DSD256 DAC

[R1200CL]

2 hours ago, SMSWAP said:

Routing audio traffic in a separate network (with static IP) does the trick.

Do you mean virtual LAN is a possible solution, or does it have to be a physical different network?

 

[SMSWAP]

I think it has to be a different physical switch. You need a different configuration, which would then not route general Internet traffic anymore.

[SMSWAP]

Hi Guys,

 

in the meantime I have been able to test the separate Ethernet networks.

 

The server connects via a PCI network card (in the server) with a dedicated static IP to a CISCO managed switch (350 series) configured for audio (actually for Ravenna). The s88 had been given a static IP as well and has been connected to the switch.

 

You could now plug/ unplug cables (and change the s88 from static to dynamic IP) to compare the two different set-ups.

 

Conclusion: There's a marginal change in sound, but not for the better with the CISCO switch. It was worth trying. The s88 works very well in the shared IP traffic environment. No need to separate audio, unless you would be lacking Ethernet sockets in your home.

 

Cheers, Ralf

[pompon]

Any tricks with Exasound to have sound in windows like youtube, facebook ?

 

actually, I set windows sound to j-river (wdm) but it's not very convenient and I lost all the beginning of sound's video or music because of the buffer.

 

 

[Kal Rubinson]

10 hours ago, pompon said:

Any tricks with Exasound to have sound in windows like youtube, facebook ?

 

actually, I set windows sound to j-river (wdm) but it's not very convenient and I lost all the beginning of sound's video or music because of the buffer.

How about selecting it as the default Windows audio device?

[exa]

10 hours ago, pompon said:

Any tricks with Exasound to have sound in windows like youtube, facebook ?

 

actually, I set windows sound to j-river (wdm) but it's not very convenient and I lost all the beginning of sound's video or music because of the buffer.

 

 

You can try fix this by setting JRiver to "Play silence at startup for hardware synchronization".  This option is in the audio settings and it is zone-specific.

 

You can also try the VB ASIO Bridge: https://shop.vb-audio.com/en/win-apps/19-hifi-cable-asio-bridge.html?SubmitCurrency=1&id_currency=1

[pompon]

Ty Exa for PLay silence ... I will try and report back.

I have downloaded the ASIO bridge to see how it's work.

 

[pompon]

vd cables ... no clue how it's work. I don't see exasound with it.

 

For jriver, I found a setting that permit to have the beginning of the song:

Stop/Seek/Stop : Standard/Immediate/Immediate

 

I have a small glitch after 2 sec after then song have began.

Not found something better for the moment.

 

 

 

 

[Desertpilot]

Hello everyone.  I am coming up on a year of owning the S88 (not the Mark II version).  The DAC continues to work flawlessly.  I also purchased the Teddy Pardo power supply.  I'd like to list my thoughts using this DAC in my system.  All music and videos are ripped to my server.

 

1.  The first upgrade was purchasing the Coleman Audio 7.1SW Eight Channel Switcher COL-71SW.  This allowed me to go direct from the DAC to my amplifier.  I have never felt the need for additional pre-amplification.  I use my system for both music and movies.  The switch allows me to include my pre-amp for movies.

2.  I use JRiver as my primary player.  I also have ROON but I am likely to cancel it since I almost never use it.  JRiver gives me everything I need (including video playback).  I also have QOBUZ but I have yet to find multichannel music.  It does let me sample albums before purchase.

3.  Since I switch between music (using the DAC) and movies (using my pre-amp), JRiver needed two sets of settings.  I discovered JRiver's ZONES which greatly simplified playback.  One ZONE is for movies (configured for HDMI bitstreaming).  And I have two zones for music through the DAC, one for standard playback and another configured to remix music from stereo to 5.1.  These zones can be switched using JRemote2.

4.  I own quite a few BluRay Opera and concert discs (copied from disc to my server).  I send the audio signal through the DAC.  The video plays fine (I have my pre-amp set to pass through video to my projector from my server).  All my opera discs automatically play multichannel which is great.  I do have my server mouse handy because I can right click and select subtitles.  BluRay audio discs (almost all are from 2L) do require I select the audio track so I keep my keyboard handy too.  I have also downloaded quite a few concert videos from YouTube and Vimeo.  Of course, these are stereo so I select the remix to 5.1 ZONE.  Not high rez audio but I am happy with the result.  A great many of these videos are not available anywhere else - and they are often taken down after several weeks.  Several are later released in SACD and I do have both.

5.  I do rely on reviews to select high quality audio or concert videos.  For audio, I primarily use HRAudio.net or Hurwitz's Classics Today (either their website or YouTube videos).  For concert/opera videos I use HDVDARTS.

 

The system is very stable, no audio dropouts or any other issues.  Since I am retired (going on two years now) the system gives me many hours of music enjoyment.  Using the DAC forced me to discover how to properly set it all up.

 

Thanks for listening.

Marcus

[Kal Rubinson]

4 hours ago, Desertpilot said:

2.  I use JRiver as my primary player.  I also have ROON but I am likely to cancel it since I almost never use it.  JRiver gives me everything I need (including video playback).  I also have QOBUZ but I have yet to find multichannel music.  It does let me sample albums before purchase.

There is multichannel music on Qobuz but you cannot play it through their app or via a browser.  You can, afaik, only play them via Roon, at this time.  Too bad for us Jriver fans. 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

I also luv my s88, which I've owned since early 2021!

 

Has anyone done the upgrade of the s88 to the latest version 2 and if so, comments on performance vs version 1.

[ted_b]

My S88 started as a Mark II prototype (eventually shipped back to CA for production updates) so I can't speak to differences.  It's stellar, nonetheless.  🙂

[Desertpilot]

6 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

There is multichannel music on Qobuz but you cannot play it through their app or via a browser.  You can, afaik, only play them via Roon, at this time.  Too bad for us Jriver fans. 

 

That would be an advantage to ROON but since I have yet to find any surround music I want to play, I have abandoned the effort.  Curious, ROON allows speaker distance correction to DSD files but JRiver does not.  However, JRiver allows not only speaker distance corrections but crossover settings.  Low note organ music really rattles the subwoofers in my speakers so I cross over at 40Hz to my two SVS Ultra 13 subs.  But still, JRiver applies nothing to DSD files.  I'm not ready to go the Digital Signal Processing route.

[Desertpilot]

5 hours ago, Steve Bruzonsky said:

I also luv my s88, which I've owned since early 2021!

 

Has anyone done the upgrade of the s88 to the latest version 2 and if so, comments on performance vs version 1.

 

I've thought about getting the upgrade.  But, IMO, I don't think I could hear the difference.  My S88 is just superb.  Since my system is dual use it is located in our "great" room.  The noise floor is pretty high which also argues against spending $$$ on the upgrade.  Yes, at 4AM, when my wife and our dogs are asleep and I turn off all appliances, it gets very quiet.  But, I must admit, I'm pretty lazy about it and just turn up the volume.

[Kal Rubinson]

12 hours ago, Desertpilot said:

But still, JRiver applies nothing to DSD files.  I'm not ready to go the Digital Signal Processing route.

Why not?  I understand that, in principle, you may not want to transcode the DSD to PCM but Roon is doing a lot of data manipulation in order to "stay as DSD."  Transcoding in Jriver for DSP may be equivalent.  (I do it.)

[exa]

A new firmware update for the exaSound s88 and s82 DACs and the Delta Server is available for download. To start the update go to the Settings page of the web user interface and tap or click the "Check Updates" button.  New and improved features include:  Redesigned Web user interface with touch-screen support; Light and Dark user interface themes; Channel volume trimming levels can be saved to profiles and reloaded; New System Info screen and more.

[Desertpilot]

On 4/26/2022 at 12:21 PM, exa said:

A new firmware update for the exaSound s88 and s82 DACs and the Delta Server is available for download. To start the update go to the Settings page of the web user interface and tap or click the "Check Updates" button.  New and improved features include:  Redesigned Web user interface with touch-screen support; Light and Dark user interface themes; Channel volume trimming levels can be saved to profiles and reloaded; New System Info screen and more.

 Thanks for the update.  Much more pleasant view with dark mode (my preference).  Note:  I performed the update but no change.  I turned the S88 off for several minutes and back on with no change.  I had to restart my PC and there it was, the new interface.  A nice new feature is the ability to turn the S88 off or restart right from the new interface.

 

Marcus

[exa]

Thank you for the feedback, Markus.  Reloading the page in the Web browser should resolve this.  It appears to be a browser cashing issue.

[Steve Bruzonsky]

15 hours ago, exa said:

Thank you for the feedback, Markus.  Reloading the page in the Web browser should resolve this.  It appears to be a browser cashing issue.

 Yes I upgraded software for both Delta and s88 and had same "issue". Cleaned the cache and the new redesigned web pages came up! Nifty! Great job Exasound.

[ted_b]

Agreed!  I, too, ran into the caching out the old interface, but once I got used to the new one it is so much nicer.  I'm finding the channel trim presets are nice, and I've created at least two for very specific surround mixes (one of which seems to pop up in many mixes to the same degree, so a preset works).  Not DSD vs PCM either.

 

Great job George and company. 

[Desertpilot]

On 4/25/2022 at 5:34 AM, Kal Rubinson said:

Why not?  I understand that, in principle, you may not want to transcode the DSD to PCM but Roon is doing a lot of data manipulation in order to "stay as DSD."  Transcoding in Jriver for DSP may be equivalent.  (I do it.)

Hi Kal, and thank you.  I've thought about this for a few days and concluded that you are correct.

 

I changed JRiver to "Bitstreaming: None".  JRiver now converts DSD to PCM and applies room correction.  JRiver recommended 176.4 sample rate.  It plays fine.  No hesitation, delays or other issues.  Room correction includes speaker distances and a crossover of 40Hz.  My speakers don't like low organ notes so I set the crossover to resolve the issue.

 

Of course, many would be "aghast" that I would convert DSD to PCM.  There are a number of folks who believe DSD is close to analogue.  Also, theoretically, the chip in the S88 is optimum for DSD.  Having said all that, I can't hear a difference.  For me, the music converted to PCM sounds as good as it always did.  What I get in return is my room correction and crossover settings which I think is more important.  A lot of my music is downloaded from Chandos and eClassical (BIS) which both use 24/96 PCM format.  I've also downloaded many DXD files.  They all sound great to me.

 

I'll create a "Zone" to apply this setting to DSD files only.  It is very easy to switch zones in JRemote.

 

Marcus

[Desertpilot]

Folks who post on this thread are multichannel fanatics, like me.  That's why we invested in the S88.  In fact, my vey first foray into surround classical music came from recommendations in Kal's "Music in the Round" feature in Stereophile magazine (and his praise of the exaSound DACs).  He's retired now and so am I.  So, I thought I would offer my list of superb surround classical music that will surely "work" your system hard!  All are available for download in high resolutions (DSD, DXD and PCM).  I'm no music theory expert, like Kal.  But, I can attest to the incredible sonics.  I add notable reviews to make sure the performance is also worthy.

 

If you're interested, take a look at my list on the classical music circle.  Page 1 includes a link to each actual review:  Demonstration Worthy Classical Recordings.

 

Thanks for listening

Marcus 

[Desertpilot]

Hi Everyone,

 

No sense letting this DAC thread die out.  I appreciate the S88's ability to decode not only multichannel but DXD up to 32/352.8.  More and more music is recorded and mastered in DXD, especially classical.  I have downloaded a couple albums in 32/352.8 but my understanding is that this requires your server to do "floating point" calculations.  Also, it is only available in WAV format.  I decided I am happy enough with FLAC 24/352.8 (which is the DXD format offered by Native DSD).  The S88 will easily decode either 32 or 24 bit DXD.

 

Why DXD?  If it's the original recording format, that's my choice.  But, more important to me, JRiver will apply speaker corrections (distance, crossover, etc) to DXD files and not DSD.  There is some "feeling" by other "audiophiles" that DSD is the closest digital format to analog.  I've compared both formats extensively now and I don't hear "analog" quality in DSD, so I'm sticking with DXD.

 

My most recent music purchase in DXD (24/352.8) is Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 in B Minor, Op. 113 ‘Babi Yar’ released in 2020.  Recorded in DXD.  (Pentatone PTC5186618).  Russian music sung by Russians.  The male choir and bass soloist are excellent.  The composition is emotionally draining.  Available at Native DSD Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 in B Minor, Op. 113 ‘Babi Yar’  It is a joy to me to listen to this album in its original recording format.

 

Thanks

Marcus

[ted_b]

52 minutes ago, Desertpilot said:

Why DXD?  If it's the original recording format, that's my choice. 

As a founding member of NativeDSD, I couldn't agree more.  The S88 does wonderful music in DXD (and DSD versions too 👍 ).  Thx

[SMSWAP]

I agree. The s88 can handle 8x full DSD streams. That's awesome!

 

My current server running Roon cannot handle DSD with 8 path convolution filters. It stutters. But, its about 4 years old. If you want to go to the extreme, your processor must be more powerful. In the Roon community it was reported, that it runs smoothly on a latest i9 with proper board and memory.

 

Cheers, Ralf