Matrix X-Sabre DAC review and impression thread

[Maxvla]

Just undressing it, as any reviewer would. I'm not pulling out boards and stuff!

 

[MoNelly]

Man, that is something. I hope it sounds as good as the internals look.

 

[gurus]

Quote:

Just undressing it, as any reviewer would. I'm not pulling out boards and stuff!

Don't want to see any nudies all covered up!
 
Let's hear about the performance. Sound impressions please.

 

[JWahl]

Looks smaller than I had imagined when placed on the Bryston but well built nonetheless.
Quote:

Your wish is my command...

 

 
Quote:

Does MAtrix feel good about letting you take it apart?

 
I'm sure they don't mind.  The internal build quality is one of the selling points.  

 

[Maxvla]

Let's hear about the performance. Sound impressions please.

After this weekend. Doesn't disappoint out of the box. Arthur thought it sounded pretty bad initially but improved dramatically. Either mine is already run in for a while or this has a lot of improving to go which would be remarkable.

 

[rawrster]

That's a pretty solid unit there. I'll have to wait for impressions but this could be on my short list of balanced dacs to get.

 

[Maxvla]

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.

Wanted to echo these thoughts, specifically the comments on the LEDs. These are excellent, and it's not just a deep inset LED using the depth to focus the light, the viewing angle is virtually 180 degrees and it retains the same intensity at all angles. Getting the little things like this perfect on the first go is really impressive.

 

[Maxvla]

Viewing angle is great:

Brightness compared to Gungnir:

 

[T.F.O.A]

Quote:

Your wish is my command...
 

Thanks Maxvla,
 
But somehow I can't see the pictures, broken link?

 

[Maxvla]

No, they are hosted on Imageshack.us and working for everyone else.

 

[project86]

Sorry, I'm lagging on pics so far. I just snapped a few crappy ones just so I can say that I've posted something, however poor they may be. 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Pardon the cable soup - it was hastily set up, and doesn't normally look this way!
 

 

 

This is part of the setup I've been using with the X-Sabre - Icon Audio HP8 MkII, Thunderpants, 
LCD-2, HE-400, and T1. 
 
 
Of course, I'll have some "real" pictures later when I get serious about this review. But so far I remain impressed with the sound. It's got some things in common with the Yulong D18, some in common with the NuForce DAC-100, and even some in common with my Resonessence Labs Invicta. These are all very enjoyable to me, so it's good company to be in. 

 

[paradoxper]

Nice pics, Max. Pics are viewable fine, you just can't open them up into a new tab or anything.

 

[T.F.O.A]

Quote:

No, they are hosted on Imageshack.com and working for everyone else.

Hmm... interesting. Somehow didn't work on my computer. OH well. I'll try again later tonight.
 
Thanks anyway Max.

 

[Maxvla]

Letting Head-fi import them for TFOA. Apologies for the spam.

 

[Maxvla]

I've been working on getting the DSD engaged. Jriver will need a bit of work to figure out, but I followed the Foobar instructions included with the X-Sabre and while the instructions got me there.. I had to hunt around a bit to get where I needed to be at times. I got it running though and it is playing DSD atm.

John, have you set up DSD yet? I downloaded a few DSD samples, but not all of them are showing as DSD on the face of the X-Sabre. The ones I downloaded from the middle section of this page only show as playing PCM at 352.8KHz. They seem to be MUCH larger than the others that do show as DSD. The ones that show as DSD are 130-190 mb for 4-5 minute tracks. That first sample on the page I linked is 1GB for 9 minutes. The file names say DXD... Been reading a bit about the DSD stuff but it's a lot to learn.

Edit: Nevermind, I had downloaded the 24/352.8 files not the DSD64 files. Assumed the largest file would be DSD, but I should have paid attention to the headers.