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exaSound - The Future of Audio - DSD 256 DAC

Bigerik

Bigerik

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And PCM dac for that matter too. All around great sounding stuff. It was really cool to hear what DSD 256 sounds like. Bloody impressive!

Attended a seminar at TAVES put on by the owner/chief engineer of Exasound. Great guy. Very informative presentation. If I had $3K to spend on a DAC, especially if wanted DSD which was all over the place yesterday, I'd spend it on the Exasound.

I really liked his approach of dealing with all issues caused by a computer it is hooked up to within the dac. He basically stated that the computer side of computer audio is gonna be crappy anyway, so just don't bother upgrading to an "audiophile" computer, but rather let the DAC do all the work.


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Very nice looking piece of gear :yes:. I've been shopping DSD DACs as of late, but this one is beyond my price range. Question for the DSD DAC owners, does the DSD decoding take place in the digital or analog realm? All new territory to me.
 
Everything by exaSound is done digitally.

BTW, you guys NEED to hear what DSD 256 sounds like. Not that there is any music available in that format yet, but it is just incredible.
 
Briefly, digital done right. If no one else chimes in, I'll answer in detail when I get back to my computer.
 
hatrack71 said:
This is gonna show my ignorance. What exactly is DSD Erik?
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DSD is Direct Stream Digital. It is a digital encoder like PCM. PCM is used for CD output. DSD is used for SACD output.

The Rolling Stones 2002 remasters went from the master tapes to DSD. The DSD remastered CDs (not SACDs) were converted to PCM.

Lots of us like the sound of DSD and feel it is better than PCM in lots of cases. Closer to analog and such.
 
Lets just hope they set DSD free, I don't want to deal with all sorts of DRM, I pay for it, it's mine, let me use it the way I want.

If I can use DSD files the same way as my PCM FLAC's then I'll happily jump the wagon, when a DAC more to my liking comes around.
 
Don't know how I missed this thread Erik - I did post my thoughts on the exaSound here.

The exaSound impressed the hell out of me and if I was shopping in this price-range, I'd have it in my system now.

DSD sounded just incredible on this piece and as I mentioned in the linked post, if the future of digital audio includes DSD64 & 128 streaming or even DSD256 (wow!), the future is looking VERY good.
 
I was half way asleep on Saturday night when I posted it. Was easy to miss. I just wanted to make sure I got the highlights posted before I started forgetting them!

DSD is really an incredible technology. It gives you all the strengths of vinyl with none of the weaknesses, in a totally easy to use format. And I honestly do believe that DSD at its best beats vinyl at its best.
 
I have been very interested in DSD but afraid to invest any money into it until the format becomes more "accepted" I guess.

What really got me curious was the DSD DAC companion that Schiit Audio announced back in September. Although I don't fully understand it. LoL
 
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Kind of makes sense.

But, I've been listening to SACDs (and enjoying the hell out of them) for several years now, have a few hundred. They sounded great on my old Sony 777ES and since I have them all backed-up to DSD files on my home network, are now streamable. I'm only starting to get into this but on a simple laptop running JRiver, I've been streaming them to my existing PCM DAC and have tried a Chord DSD DAC.

They sound damn good dumbed-down to PCM via the AudioNote - almost as good as the 777 when it works - but it doesn't for most SACDs. Via the Chord, they sound fantastic, better than the Sony.

And there's more; I've heard it. A better computer implementation might help, there are better DACs than the Chord, there are thousands of SACDs out there, several outlets now sell DSD downloads, Sony is back in the game in a big way with non-DRM capable file players and they are opening up their large music vaults to release DSD files. You see new DSD releases and DACs coming out daily, hell, even "We hate DSD!!!" Schiit has released a pure DSD DAC with a $150 price tag.

And the best might be yet to come too - I just heard DSD128 and DSD256 and I never thought I'd say it but it might just be better than great vinyl. I haven't heard that in my system yet but as close as the Chord was playing DSD64 from a low-end laptop I'm thinking it might just happen.

The exaSound and good DSD could be a game changer if (a very big 'if') the available material keeps coming - and that is where vinyl and even well done 16/44 PCM have it over this stuff and why all formats will always have a place in my system.

It sure is nice to see DSD with some momentum though - especially when you hear what exaSound can do with it.
 
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