[singingbee]

i have in Germany the first sample of the element x as i burned it in 2 weeks its the best so far i heard also against my previous reference x-sabre pro...it has more punch, more 3 dimensional space and you can do all things in one case...congrats to china..
Minor(app/firmware is still developing: streaming missing)[/QU

Have you tried using iems? no hiss when using sensitive iems?

 

[AlanHell]

Just a stupid question. Is it possible to output an optical signal out of this DAC while using USB as an input?
I have a DAC1 lying around and wanted to power both of them at the same time.

 

[project86]

I don't believe so.

 

[AlanHell]

Guess I have to get the X-Spdif 2 box then~

 

[Jay Smith]

During the pandemic, I listen a lot of Tidal music and try to do the gears comparison. Begin with the Dacs, Mojo vs X-Sabre (not Pro).
Headphone: Beyer T1.2
Amp: Beyer A2
Source: Macbook Tidal/ Audirvana
Testing Music: Parasite movie sountrack, ACDC top tracks from tidal.

First listening on Mojo: the treble is crystal clean, a lot of bass impact, seems very good, exciting, but after few songs, everything seems throwing to my face, very busy, hard to identify instruments from each other, not easy to sense separate layers. I can understand why people love Mojo, because it is so powerful, it seems detail but actually not, a lot of shading is missing, not very enjoyable for long time listening due to its busy presentation. It is good for movie due to its exciting nature though.

Next one is X-Sabre (original one not PRO), the treble is more rounded, not as exciting as Mojo but much relaxing, bass is not impactful as Mojo but it goes deeper, much easier to identify instruments from each other, air and layers are easy to sense, it has calm and relax presentation, very enjoyable for long time listening.

I think X-Sabre is a underated and overlooked dac. IMHO & JMTC.

 

[musicus]

I have the X-SABRE DAC connected directly to a MacBook Pro laptop, using an USB cable (with the ground disconnected) and running JRiver Media Center. My concern is that the USB output could potentially be quite noisy and I wonder if things would improve if the X-SABRE is fed from a network bridge (like the SOtM sMS-200) or from a full-on network streamer (like the Cambridge Audio CXN V2)?

The system must be capable of playing both PCM and DSD files, stored either on a laptop or a Synology NAS or a local HDD.

Any opinions or suggestions please?

 

[Jay Smith]

Before invest new gears, try something free first. Have you tried Audirvana software? You may download free trial version to test first, and you may try different USB port to see which one is better, in my case very old 2010 white mac book, the first USB port sounds better than the second one.....JM2C

 

[Arniesb]

I have the X-SABRE DAC connected directly to a MacBook Pro laptop, using an USB cable (with the ground disconnected) and running JRiver Media Center. My concern is that the USB output could potentially be quite noisy and I wonder if things would improve if the X-SABRE is fed from a network bridge (like the SOtM sMS-200) or from a full-on network streamer (like the Cambridge Audio CXN V2)?

The system must be capable of playing both PCM and DSD files, stored either on a laptop or a Synology NAS or a local HDD.

Any opinions or suggestions please?

Biggest weakness of many gear is power supplies and when you supply noise from Usb to Dac its gonna bigger problem than Dac's or or amp's power supply.

 

[twiceboss]

I've been using Matrix X Sabre OG for my HD800 amped with Heron 5 for years. It is really fantastic how crazily wide and pinpoint imaging it has. Though, the sabre DAC still has its DNA for the HD800. There is slight peak for HD800 specifically. Last week I bought SMSL Sanskrit MK2. Man this dac make HD800 almost zero weird peak but with closer staging and lesser details (still excellent details if you ask me).

Now, I bring the x sabre to my speaker setup fully balance with smsl da9. Happy camper!

 

[Arniesb]

I've been using Matrix X Sabre OG for my HD800 amped with Heron 5 for years. It is really fantastic how crazily wide and pinpoint imaging it has. Though, the sabre DAC still has its DNA for the HD800. There is slight peak for HD800 specifically. Last week I bought SMSL Sanskrit MK2. Man this dac make HD800 almost zero weird peak but with closer staging and lesser details (still excellent details if you ask me).

Now, I bring the x sabre to my speaker setup fully balance with smsl da9. Happy camper!

Good gear tells it like it is... HD800 series needs eq thats for sure.
Next time I just get headphones that dont need eq or amp with soft transients to soften the sound.

 

[twiceboss]

Good gear tells it like it is... HD800 series needs eq thats for sure.
Next time I just get headphones that dont need eq or amp with soft transients to soften the sound.

The sabre DNA is easily pronounced on HD800. I swapped to my other cans and iems, i dont really hear the peak that I have with HD800. HD800 is ultra resolving on that regard...

not sure if i need to invest on R2R dac for it. It seems like Im liking the speaker setup even more now. Cant beat the speaker but hell HD800 is a legend.

 

[Arniesb]

The sabre DNA is easily pronounced on HD800. I swapped to my other cans and iems, i dont really hear the peak that I have with HD800. HD800 is ultra resolving on that regard...

not sure if i need to invest on R2R dac for it. It seems like Im liking the speaker setup even more now. Cant beat the speaker but hell HD800 is a legend.

Dont know what is sabre dna, but from what i heard these chips have least amount of coloration and most transparency.
Maybe transients response is too sharp... Anyway i would rather buy Full copper cable rather than a new amp or a dac to soften the sound.

 

[ivan1973]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say that I've had this DAC for years now and it's a fantastic DAC, every now and then I try another one but the balance that the matrix is able to restore is perfect, the only DAC that is in my house It's been over 6 years old now, congratulations matrix