[18inch]

some people keep saying that the x-sabre has a mellower sound, and less punchy bass/attack... Im wondering to what degree that is? I find this to be very speaker related, but seem to come from the x-sabre, the way it is described... although I just want to make sure that I wont be losing strong mid-bass thump and low frequency extension ....
 
I have a Rega Cursa3 preamp along with 2 Rega Exon3 monoblocks and crown xti2000 for the subs, im hoping someone could tell me if that would be a good comb with the x-sabre... currently have a 8year old x-fi soundcard that im growing tired off, although decent, midbass sounds strong but not very ''clean'' ..
 
also, is it safe to running 6.2v into the crown xti2000?

 

[Loquah]

  some people keep saying that the x-sabre has a mellower sound, and less punchy bass/attack... Im wondering to what degree that is? I find this to be very speaker related, but seem to come from the x-sabre, the way it is described... although I just want to make sure that I wont be losing strong mid-bass thump and low frequency extension ....
 
I have a Rega Cursa3 preamp along with 2 Rega Exon3 monoblocks and crown xti2000 for the subs, im hoping someone could tell me if that would be a good comb with the x-sabre... currently have a 8year old x-fi soundcard that im growing tired off, although decent, midbass sounds strong but not very ''clean'' ..
 
also, is it safe to running 6.2v into the crown xti2000?

 
I personally find the X-Sabre to be very close to neutral with perhaps a tiny hint of warmth. There's nothing significantly lacking in it's sound to my ears. Based on your comments, I suppose this means that the X-Sabre isn't going to boost anything in your setup, but nor will it take anything away from the source material. I haven't heard the X-Fi soundcards, but would suggest that the X-Sabre will be a significant upgrade from any soundcard I have ever heard (including sound quality-focussed cards).
 
Can't comment on the specific pairing with your other gear I'm afraid.

 

[Maxvla]

The voltage is fine, it's just a matter of volume range of the knob. If the 6.2V makes it to where it's hard to dial in your desired volume, it can be annoying, but I haven't run into this yet, even with IEMs. High source voltage is particularly annoying with stepped (analog or digital) volume, where you have 2 set volumes with the notch between. High voltage can make that step too far making it impossible to get the desired volume.

I've listened to the X-Sabre with my speaker setup, but my speaker setup isn't fine tuned at all. My reference is headphones which could be entirely different from your speaker experience.

 

[misha0209]

i keep following this thread.
nice that impressions keep coming in
 
i am very happy with my decision to get the x-sabre. very nice detail retrieval and open stage.
can't comment on neutrality though, as i have a meier stagedac, and hd800 upstream. result is a tad bright.
 
i read somewhere back something about problems with usb 3.0.
my experience is very positive in this aspect. i have used the x-sabre on my mobo built in usb 3.0 port. no problems.
i recently got an sotm tx_USBexp card, that is also 3.0. i was afraid that i might have some driver problems, from x-sabre, or from the sotm drivers. i am happy to report i have had no issues this far! it works perfectly well. on my win7 x64.
and yes, i cut the power supply to the usb port (card has a switch to do this) and the x-sabre still works. so the usb receiver chip is powered from the DAC internal source. someone stated this some time ago, just another confirmation.
i even dropped my WASAPI event mode buffer to 6 ms in foobar, and no pops, cracks, or anything of the sort. just good clean music.
 
on slightly different note, i'm also following the ragnarok thread. think these 2 would be a great combination for the hd800.
if someone got their hands on both, a short impression feedback would be more than welcome
 
EDIT: i just wanted to add this to be clear. the DAC runs on a usb 3.0 port. i do not know if it runs in usb 3.0 mode. or at usb 3.0 speeds. in fact i doubt that seeing that it has a usb B type plug. needs a few more pins to work at 3.0 specs. just wanted to share that i plug my DAC in a USB 3.0 port and all works fine. it is probably ran in usb 2.0 compatibility. dunno. but it is not picky, at least in my experience, with the type of USB port you plug it in. 
 
in fact in my experience it makes no difference if it is on usb 2 or 3. i used 3.0 port before the SOTM, because in that case, all my peripherals were connected to usb 2.0 ports, so to the usb 2.0 controller, and the dac was the only one connected to the 3.0 controller. so there is less noise on the 3.0 bus. this is, more important IMO than the type of port you use. with SOTM the same. dac is the only one connected to it.

 

[Maxvla]

I will be ordering a Ragnarok when it is available.

 

[shultzee]

i keep following this thread.
nice that impressions keep coming in

i am very happy with my decision to get the x-sabre. very nice detail retrieval and open stage.
can't comment on neutrality though, as i have a meier stagedac, and hd800 upstream. result is a tad bright.

i read somewhere back something about problems with usb 3.0.
my experience is very positive in this aspect. i have used the x-sabre on my mobo built in usb 3.0 port. no problems.
i recently got an sotm tx_USBexp card, that is also 3.0. i was afraid that i might have some driver problems, from x-sabre, or from the sotm drivers. i am happy to report i have had no issues this far! it works perfectly well. on my win7 x64.
and yes, i cut the power supply to the usb port (card has a switch to do this) and the x-sabre still works. so the usb receiver chip is powered from the DAC internal source. someone stated this some time ago, just another confirmation.
i even dropped my WASAPI event mode buffer to 6 ms in foobar, and no pops, cracks, or anything of the sort. just good clean music.

on slightly different note, i'm also following the ragnarok thread. think these 2 would be a great combination for the hd800.
if someone got their hands on both, a short impression feedback would be more than welcome

EDIT: i just wanted to add this to be clear. the DAC runs on a usb 3.0 port. i do not know if it runs in usb 3.0 mode. or at usb 3.0 speeds. in fact i doubt that seeing that it has a usb B type plug. needs a few more pins to work at 3.0 specs. just wanted to share that i plug my DAC in a USB 3.0 port and all works fine. it is probably ran in usb 2.0 compatibility. dunno. but it is not picky, at least in my experience, with the type of USB port you plug it in. 

in fact in my experience it makes no difference if it is on usb 2 or 3. i used 3.0 port before the SOTM, because in that case, all my peripherals were connected to usb 2.0 ports, so to the usb 2.0 controller, and the dac was the only one connected to the 3.0 controller. so there is less noise on the 3.0 bus. this is, more important IMO than the type of port you use. with SOTM the same. dac is the only one connected to it.

Great info misha. Thanks for relaying your experience . I have a x-sabre ordered. They are shipping at the end of this week.

 

[project86]

Thanks for the info regarding your USB 3.0 experience. I maintain that most issues people seem to have are not based on the DAC they use but on their particular motherboard. Remember, people still have trouble at times with USB 2.0 and USB DACs, so why should USB 3.0 be any different? 

 

[18inch]

silly question but can i still use the computer's volume control or is it by-passed when using a usb dac?

 

[shultzee]

Usually its computer usb out to dac and then dac to amp.  Volume adjusted on amp. Some  are dac/amp combos like a wa7 or pan am. Or you could have something like the audioengine d3  .  With a dac like audioengine d3 you use computer to adjust volume.

 

[Loquah]

  silly question but can i still use the computer's volume control or is it by-passed when using a usb dac?

 
 

  Usually its computer usb out to dac and then dac to amp.  Volume adjusted on amp. Some  are dac/amp combos like a wa7 or pan am. Or you could have something like the audioengine d3  .  With a dac like audioengine d3 you use computer to adjust volume.

 
Yes, what shultzee said is normally the preference because you'll get better sound quality by leaving the computer's sound processor completely out of the chain. You can actually use the X-Sabre in a way that allows volume adjustment on the computer, but it may degrade the sound quality ever so slightly.

 

[misha0209]

  Thanks for the info regarding your USB 3.0 experience. I maintain that most issues people seem to have are not based on the DAC they use but on their particular motherboard. Remember, people still have trouble at times with USB 2.0 and USB DACs, so why should USB 3.0 be any different? 

one other thing i learned in time.
if you have a high end audio solution. make sure it's the only one present in the system.
i have had problems myself and solved problems for friends when multiple audio devices are present in the same system.
right now, my integrated sound card is disabled in bios, and drivers were never installed in windows.
 
also, if the audio device share the same controller with input peripherals (mice, keybords, etc..) i have seen cases were dropouts/pops/cracks were audible. moving the dac to a separate usb controller solved the issue.
 
i think that most problems come from the poor drivers so many apparently high end audio card providers roll out with the boards (in my experience essence ST from asus, realtek, and creative). they tend to ****** up things for others.

 

[Loquah]

Not sure if people are already aware, but there's a firmware a driver update available on the Matrix website since April 2014.
 
If you're doing both, beware that the driver update comes with a driver version which is recommended to upgrade the firmware. The driver version included with the FW is XX.0 while the newest driver available for separate download is XX.1 so not sure if you can also use the newer version to update the firmware.

 

[Shini44]

what did change on the last update? 

 

[Loquah]

  what did change on the last update? 

 
Apparently a few bug fixes, but they aren't bugs I've noticed or experienced. I think they were faster response times and also removing of some popping on high res tracks.

 

[shultzee]

Got my x-sabre and am thrilled with it.   Love the sound and it is really well built.  Couldn't be more pleased but I hear it gets better with some burn in  .     Like to thank Arthur with Matrix USA.  Awesome guy to deal with.