Hi. Nice thread folks! I wanted to join this discussion for two reasons:
1) I will be getting John's unit for review when he gives it up from his cold dead hands. My perspective is somewhat unique in that I own several DSD-capable DACs currently (Meitner and Mytek stack of three for multichannel) and have either headr or heard/reviewed several more (Sonore/eXD, Exasound E20, Benchmark Dac 2 among others and coming in soon, in addition to X-Sabre is a modified Mytek, the Chord QuteHD, Auralic Vega and the cost-no-object MSB Diamond DAC IV Plus).
2) there was, early in this thread, some interested parties comments about ripping DSD, etc. I wrote the SACD Ripping Guide (which includes the tools and software to get set up rip and extract, etc) and have distributed it to hundreds on these forums so far. I'd be more than happy to share it with you folks. And happy to answer any questions about DSD extraction and playback, etc. I am no expert, just experienced. I also run the Audio Circle HiRez Music Circle (sub-forum) and have several threads/reviews we've started about such things as setting up JRiver for DSD, JRiver tips and techniques, building a CAPS music server, tagging DSF files (my recommenda over DFF file format), etc. I also recently posted about creating the first consumer file-based computer audio setup for 5.1 multichannel pure native DSD playback (stacked set of 3 Mytek DACs and JRiver). I realize multichannel is not a huge topic here on Head-Fi but it might interest some folks.
Anyway....I am looking forward to reviewing the X-Sabre. Arthur has been very helpful and generous. The under $2500 DSD-capable DAC market is getting swamped. One project I am proud of is the work Jesus R (Sonore US) and I have done to begin a DSD Database Project over on Google Docs. Here is the link. It includes, by the way, a link to my ripping guide at the bottom.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgVhKcl_3lHfdFVyenBBNjNpQ2lieG81WGpqQTNfVUE#gid=0
I look forward to the reviews mentioned here, and appreciate the unique perspective Head-Fi'rs have on DAC sound quality. If it doesn't sound good on your great setups it has no chance in the big home rigs.
Ted