While the Explorer is an excellent portable DAC at a great price for its performance, the Director in its price range and form factor faces much stiffer competition. Namely, the W4S uDAC is something roughly in the same niche, but much cheaper. People would argue that the uDAC only does 96/24 with its USB input, but the Director does have its quirk such as the combo coax/optical 3.5mm input, for which a good cable can be hard to find. Since the respective units will mostly be used in a home setting (rather than on the road with a laptop for the Explorer), the lack of a remote control to switch inputs will be a major drawback.
But I'd be interested to find out how the Director performs sonically. If it's anything like my Explorer, I'd eventually get one just to provide better sound out of my DTV or something. But I'll have to wait a bit to see if there is a price drop after the initial release period.
