Matrix X-Sabre DAC review and impression thread - Page 3

This does look very interesting.  I love the build of that enclosure as well.  I just bought a Concero that I'm happy with for now but this could be a viable future upgrade using the Concero as a converter.  The styling matches well too.

One can't help but wonder if there will be an "X" headphone amp as well with the similar chassis build...

I'm very interest in this, and I don't believer dsd is marking hype as it's totally different from pcm. I've bought dvd-audio(pcm) and sacd(dsd) from the same album just to compare the two myself. After doing so with a handful of them, dsd is superior to my ears. More air around the instruments with better separation and a blacker background. The sound stage is both wider and deeper as well. These were played back on the same universal player. Also, I have about 40gb worth of ripped sacd iso on my computer(jriver can play them back natively, and foobar with a plugin) and I still found the sacd iso better than the dvd-audios I ripped. But that's an entirely different discussion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 


Only way to rip SACD is a certain PS3, right? I might have to track one down.

Yeah - what's the specs on the PS3 that's needed.  I have Jazz At The Pawnshop I want to get ripped.

It must be 3.55 firmware or older. But once updated past that firmware, it can't be rolled back. So finding one that old is a little tricky. They go for insane prices on ebay, but are pretty easy to find in pawnshops for very little money.

The idea of being able to playback all of my sacds natively on my pc's is very enticing.

I've never heard of this. Guess it's time to take the dusty thing out of the closet and have a check which version it is at.

There are a bunch of threads on this on AudioCircles under the hi Rez highway forum.  I have a PS3 with the ripping capability and have ripped my collection over the network in client/server mode.  Worked great except for one disc which for some reason kept crashing the client program, but it ripped ok via flash drive direct to the ps3.

Anyhow, there are a couple guys on that forum offering to rip for free provided you supply the drive and postage for everything back and forth. I was thinking of offering the same, but I honestly don't have a ton of time on my hands, so I can't rip someone's 200 disc collection.  If you just have that one disc, or a couple, I would be willing to help you out.  PM me if you'd like.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 


Guessing you have to hook it up to see firmware version? Kind of a pain, then again if we're talking pawn shop I would want to make sure it worked at all anyways. Any physical differences for ps3s made during that time like case or hard drive size? Would make it easier to sort through.

Yeah, the older ps3 do look very different from the current one. The older ones are bigger more bulkier. That's one dead give away, and once you verify it's working, then just go into the menu to check the firmware. It took all of 1 hour to find mine, and they are much cheaper than the newer style. But ebay is a different story though. They command much more than what a new one go for. The same thing happened with the ps1, went it was reported they sounded like 3000.00 cd players. The prices skyrocketed. I did try one out, didn't sound like a 3000.00 cd player, but it did sound very, very good for what it was. My 1000.00 Marantz killed it.

And HiFiMAN HM-901?    http://www.stereophile.com/content/hifimans-hm-901-portable-player-and-re-400-ear-monitor                  $999

Although a portable media player, it incorporates 2 (TWO) ESS 9018!      

That's a bit crazy to me, no other product need 2 9018 chips.

The comments from the CEO of HiFiMAN of why using 2x 9018  (http://erji.net/read.php?tid=1300699):

"by using 1x 9018 and tweaking 5 different Low Pass Filter designs, we achieved the sound similar to Meridian 588"

"but comparing to our reference equipment combo: Accuphase DP100 + Pacific Microsonics Dac, we are not satisfied by 1x 9018."

"In the end they used 2x 9018 for each channel,  and using 2x OPA2107 and 2x OPA627 as low pass filter."

Quote:

Originally Posted by project86 

I'm guessing the $1K range, but that's purely a guess. Other DACs using the ESS ES9018 are $699 (Yulong D18), $1500 (Anedio D2), $3999 (Resonessence Invicta), $899 (M DAC), $1999 (Benchmark DAC-2), $1100 (Minimax Plus), etc. On the higher side they can be many thousands of dollars (see Weiss, Invicta, Calyx Femto) and on the low side only a few come in under $1K. The average is probably $1500 or $2K if we add them all up (which I'm too lazy to do). 

 

And personally I hardly ever use optical. Nearly all my DACs have it and I really don't need it. I would think most people are in the same boat as me, but then again there's always an exception. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 


I might take you up on that. I only have 3 SACDs and would probably add to that very sparingly.

PM me.  I'll offer to do this free for now.  The other dudes on AudioCircle are doing it as a community give-back for that crowd. I have no real association with that forum other than occasional browsing.  Head-Fi is where i got my start back in college, where I started to get serious about audio, so I don't mind doing it for you guys.

My ask is that you send prepaid return packaging for it all and sufficient storage media for me to send it back on.  i.e. estimate -2-5GB per disc.  Stereo only SACDs are smaller like 2GB while stereo/multichannel discs are towards 5GB.  So you'd want to send a 16 or possibly to be safe, 32 GB flash drive for three SACDs.