I've been listening to the Explorer² for 2 days so far and I'm extremely impressed with its clarity, details, and soundstage. It has brought out the true potential of my modest stock of IEMs and headphones. E² is making my FLAC, MP3, and streaming files sound incredible.
I love how it has the ability to upsample files to 24-bit/192k kHz. It's great as both a portable DAC/amp combo and dedicated DAC. The small form factor and aluminum finish looks awesome. I'm excited to try out Meridian's new MQA format, which the E² is equipped to decode.
I think this was what Meridian wanted the first Explorer to be, but messed up with the high output impedance. Well, the E² has a very low 0.47Ω output impedance, so that's no longer an issue. I highly recommend this amazing little DAC/amp to anyone looking for a portable solution under $300.