[project86]

So I spent a little time with the X-Sabre yesterday. Setup: Auraliti PK90 with NuForce LPS-1 power supply, Audiophilleo AP1 with PurePower, X-Sabre as DAC (obviously), Icon Audio HP8 MkII amp, switching between Thunderpants TP1 and Beyer T1. 
 
First, some observations. I love the look and feel of this thing. The enclosure brings to mind Esoteric DACs I've experienced in the past - literally and figuratively. In fact I have a $5k Esoteric D-07x sitting right here and externally the X-Sabre is right up there with it. But inside, the D-07x is a more typical enclosure while the X-Sabre continues to impress. Another thing that stands out, and isn't obvious from the pictures - the LEDs are a very relaxed, soft color which I'll call "ice blue". So many of my other DACs and amps feel the need to burn my retinas with a blazing LED.... why? It's so annoying. Kudos to whoever it was at Matrix that made this choice. It's a small thing yet a big thing if you know what I mean.
 
Listening - played some Metallica and it sounded excellent. "Metallica?!?! Aren't their albums all terrible sounding?" No, not the older stuff like the DCC Gold release of Master of Puppets, mastered by Steve Hoffman. I had this same setup going with my Yulong D18 and the X-Sabre is in no way lacking in comparison. If anything, it's got somewhat better bass texture, and an even more expansive soundstage... which are areas that the D18 already excels in compared to most other DACs. Tonal balance is more neutral than the D18 though - D18 is smooth on the top end; some would say overly smooth to the point of being dark. X-Sabre is more extended up there, but still doesn't strike me as being analytical like some other Sabre based units. 
 
I also ran through some Marta Gomez and Nils Petter Molvaer to get a sense of how the X-Sabre handles pace with complex percussion sections. So far, so good. Definitely improved over their Quattro DAC which was very good in many areas but fell short in a few - like this one. This is the advanced stuff where us audio nerds get all excited and the average listener doesn't hear a difference (or maybe just doesn't care). 
 
That's it for now. Still need to do way more listening to draw any meaningful conclusions. But I like what I'm hearing so far.

 

[JWahl]

Quote:

So I spent a little time with the X-Sabre yesterday. Setup: Auraliti PK90 with NuForce LPS-1 power supply, Audiophilleo AP1 with PurePower, X-Sabre as DAC (obviously), Icon Audio HP8 MkII amp, switching between Thunderpants TP1 and Beyer T1. 
 
First, some observations. I love the look and feel of this thing. The enclosure brings to mind Esoteric DACs I've experienced in the past - literally and figuratively. In fact I have a $5k Esoteric D-07x sitting right here and externally the X-Sabre is right up there with it. But inside, the D-07x is a more typical enclosure while the X-Sabre continues to impress. Another thing that stands out, and isn't obvious from the pictures - the LEDs are a very relaxed, soft color which I'll call "ice blue". So many of my other DACs and amps feel the need to burn my retinas with a blazing LED.... why? It's so annoying. Kudos to whoever it was at Matrix that made this choice. It's a small thing yet a big thing if you know what I mean.
 
Listening - played some Metallica and it sounded excellent. "Metallica?!?! Aren't their albums all terrible sounding?" No, not the older stuff like the DCC Gold release of Master of Puppets, mastered by Steve Hoffman. I had this same setup going with my Yulong D18 and the X-Sabre is in no way lacking in comparison. If anything, it's got somewhat better bass texture, and an even more expansive soundstage... which are areas that the D18 already excels in compared to most other DACs. Tonal balance is more neutral than the D18 though - D18 is smooth on the top end; some would say overly smooth to the point of being dark. X-Sabre is more extended up there, but still doesn't strike me as being analytical like some other Sabre based units. 
 
I also ran through some Marta Gomez and Nils Petter Molvaer to get a sense of how the X-Sabre handles pace with complex percussion sections. So far, so good. Definitely improved over their Quattro DAC which was very good in many areas but fell short in a few - like this one. This is the advanced stuff where us audio nerds get all excited and the average listener doesn't hear a difference (or maybe just doesn't care). 
 
That's it for now. Still need to do way more listening to draw any meaningful conclusions. But I like what I'm hearing so far.

Sometime during your full evaluation could you swap in the Concero as a USB converter for the X-Sabre?  I'm sure it has a decent USB section on it's own but I'm curious to hear how the Resonessence filters would affect the overall sound.

 

[gurus]

Quote:

Sometime during your full evaluation could you swap in the Concero as a USB converter for the X-Sabre?  I'm sure it has a decent USB section on it's own but I'm curious to hear how the Resonessence filters would affect the overall sound.

Yeah, that would be good.

 

[project86]

Sure!
 
While I'm at it, I'll throw on my Audiophilleo 1 with PurePower to see just how good the USB input on the X-Sabre really is. The Concero seems about on par with the AP1 by itself, but the PurePower takes it up a small (but worthwhile) notch. 

 

[rawrster]

The comparison I want would be this and the d2 in due time of course. The price point is a bit higher than I want but not unexpected. Also I have limited space and the dac does not seem like it is that big and much smaller than the d1 I have

 

[jronan2]

Yea I'm solely concerned with how well the usb implementation is with the X-Sabre. It's within budget, well built, with great specs. I really hope the usb input is top quality. I actually was thinking of getting a concero for my MB Air, but I'm going to wait and see the reviews on this. 

 

[MoNelly]

Does anybody know, is this DAC upsampling everything?

 

[Maxvla]

X-Sabre will be available mid-March, so about 3 weeks.

 

[project86]

Quote:

Does anybody know, is this DAC upsampling everything?

 
We don't yet know how they have the ES9018 set up. I would guess it uses their Hyperstream process which is technically a variation of upsampling (but unique). Most ES9018 DACs do it that way, though it is possible to configure it as NOS. 
 
Quote:

X-Sabre will be available mid-March, so about 3 weeks.

 
Thanks, you beat me to it. That's what I get for sleeping!

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

 
We don't yet know how they have the ES9018 set up. I would guess it uses their Hyperstream process which is technically a variation of upsampling (but unique). Most ES9018 DACs do it that way, though it is possible to configure it as NOS. 
 

Im pretty sure its oversampling, not upsampling. Almost every dac oversamples(well except NOS DACs of course), but most dont upsample

 

[project86]

Quote:

Im pretty sure its oversampling, not upsampling. Almost every dac oversamples(well except NOS DACs of course), but most dont upsample

 
The relationship between those two is rather complex.... but I do believe the ESS chips specifically upsample as well as oversample. Here's an excerpt from one of their technical documents explaining the process:
 
 
"Rather than trying to lock a PLL to the data rate of this 
interface signal, the Sabre DSP uses the arrival time of the 
data as a gating signal for the first part of the processing. 
Specifically, we now need to apply a filter to the digital data –
we must remove the image that will be created when we
upsample the data to our much higher clock rate."
 
I do believe this is configurable but I also think it makes less difference than a typical ASRC/sigma-delta setup. Those do best with optimum frequencies - see Benchmark, Lavry, Yulong, etc choosing specific rates, resampling everything to 90kHz or 110kHz or whatever each specific one uses, rather than 192kHz just because it's a higher number. The ESS white paper describes the process in which they can upsample as high as 40mHz in one step and maintain bit-perfection. 
 
Anyway, off topic here... Sorry. 

 

[colour97]

project86
 
i just sold d18 and ready to jump to dsd wagon.
 
last week, i had audition with korg mr-2000 and its sound is terrific. and have recorder function to record cd.  (but pricely)
 
i am waiting for your impression of this new x-sabre. if possible i really want to see
 
the comparsion with korg and mytex. 
 
i also want to know what software you will use to stream dsd  to x-sabre. 
 
thank you.

 

[T.F.O.A]

So Project86, when will the review be up? 

 

[Maxvla]

He's got other stuff backed up atm, will probably be a while. I'll post my initial impressions vs Gungnir Tues/Wed/Thurs and we'll probably have some meet impressions from the Austin meet next weekend.

 

[jronan2]

Quote:

He's got other stuff backed up atm, will probably be a while. I'll post my initial impressions vs Gungnir Tues/Wed/Thurs and we'll probably have some meet impressions from the Austin meet next weekend.

Are you planning on buying this dac or just got it for review? Either way I'm looking forward to your impressions vs. the gungnir and was hoping this would perform well as I may pick one up for a TH900 rig I'm trying to put together. I'm just hoping the usb implementation is top quality, as I'm trying to find the right dac for a MB Air. Thanks in advance for any contributions I really didn't want to buy this on a limb in a few weeks without any solid opinions. I hope Project86 can post somewhat of a review out before its available to purchase.