I have been reviewing a lot of low cost DACs recently. I wanted to have a high-performance DAC as a reference. My best DAC is in my audio system and pain in the neck to relocate back and forth. So I set out to find a DAC in $2000 range (my cost). Idea was to have a very low noise/low distortion DAC that would be revealing of any tweaks put in front of them.
After getting suggestions from the forum, I short-listed it to Benchmark and Exasound. Both of them provide measurements on their site which gave me confidence of good design. As it turns out, I reached out to Exasound and they immediately answered so I went with them. I asked for accommodation pricing on E32 DAC and I received a good discount. As a professional courtesy I don't want to say how much that is. Suffice it to say it is similar to dealer margin for high-end products. Should this have been a transaction with someone I know, the discount is usually 10 to 20% higher. Still, I thought it was a reasonable offer and I received the unit from Canada a couple of weeks ago.
The retail price of E32 is $3,500 so not cheap at all.
Overview
Having been used to mostly DIY and cheesey packing of $300 and under DACs, the Exasound E32 is a breath of fresh air. The unit while small, is quite sturdy and very attractive. The case work is sold and has a lot of custom touches such as curved front panel. It also has a nice display that shows what it is receiving which is very useful for testing to confirm what I am sending, is what is being received by the DAC.
Mind you, it is not to the same level of multi-thousand dollar DACs which come in larger enclosures, weigh a ton, etc. But for this tier devices, it seems quite suitable and no complaints.
As expected the E32 comes with both balanced and unbalanced outputs. Inputs are USB, coax and optical SPDIF. Would have preferred one of those inputs to have been AES/EBU. It doesn't look like they had enough room to put one in there.
Two things were disappointing here:
1. It comes with a switchmode power supply as an external wall-wart. As with my other tests, this also leaks AC mains into the DAC and comes right out of its analog outputs. In my testing below, I opted to test with my lab supply to eliminate that. I can't find the darn switching power supply right now anyway
. When I do, I will post its result too.
2. It comes with proprietary drivers! I wish I had noted this before or I would not have purchased it. The issue is that it won't work with any Linux product which includes all streamers in the market. Furthermore, if the company goes out of business one day and Microsoft changes the driver interface, this will become a door stop even on Windows. This has happened plenty of time in the past so it is a major negative against the unit this pricey which I expect to use well into the future.
Measurements
I started with my usual J-test measurement at 24-bits/48 Khz. For reference, I used my $79 Behringer UMC204HD -- the winner of low cost DACs. I started with unbalanced/RCA output first:
I did not bother to label the graph because as you see, it is uneventful. There is a tiny spike where the marker is which might be USB packet frame timing. The differential is 130 db though so not an issue.
Compared to Behringer, the output is higher by a few db which is good. The differential between that peak and the signal is about 1 db in favor of Exasound E32.
I then ran a harmonic distortion test of 1 Khz tone (24-bit/44.1 Khz):
The picture here is quite disappointing. While the noise floor is slightly lower in Exasound, it has tons more harmonic distortion than Behringer. The Behringer nails this department with just a single third harmonic which is 10 db lower than Exasound. There is some genius analog designer working at Behringer!
In other words, I took many steps back when it comes with the Exasound. Very, very disappointing.
Fortunately things looked up when I tested the balanced output. First the J-test again:
Here the much higher output of Exasound comes through to deliver 7 db better signal to (measurement) noise floor.
Repeating the same test with 1 Khz we get:
Here the reverse picture appears vs unbalanced. The Exasound is 6 db better when we are comparing the peak signal to 2nd harmonic distortion. The Exasound still has higher order harmonics that the Behringer does not have. So it is not a complete home run.
As always, note that these distortions and noise products are at very low levels. I doubt that any differences are audible at all. But since I wanted to use the high-end DAC for measurement reference, they matter directly to the task at hand.
Summary
It pains me to say this but I really can't recommend the Exasound E32. I think this is the first time any reviewer had gotten an audio device at accommodation pricing and turned around and poke the manufacturer in the eye. But the reality is the reality. In unbalanced mode, the performance simply is not acceptable when a $79 DAC beats it left and right. In balanced, there is an improvement but the requirement for proprietary driver is a showstopper and I can't good in good conscious give a thumbs up for it.
I am not sure what I am going to do at this point. I can't afford to keep buying multi-thousand dollar DACs to evaluate and find the ideal one. At RMAF 2017 I spoke to a couple of manufacturers about evaluating their units. If so, then I my sell this unit and upgrade one of those.
For now, I am in somber mood. Everyone please shed a tear for me.
As always, I am open to suggestions, corrections, additional data/comments from everyone.
After getting suggestions from the forum, I short-listed it to Benchmark and Exasound. Both of them provide measurements on their site which gave me confidence of good design. As it turns out, I reached out to Exasound and they immediately answered so I went with them. I asked for accommodation pricing on E32 DAC and I received a good discount. As a professional courtesy I don't want to say how much that is. Suffice it to say it is similar to dealer margin for high-end products. Should this have been a transaction with someone I know, the discount is usually 10 to 20% higher. Still, I thought it was a reasonable offer and I received the unit from Canada a couple of weeks ago.
The retail price of E32 is $3,500 so not cheap at all.
Overview
Having been used to mostly DIY and cheesey packing of $300 and under DACs, the Exasound E32 is a breath of fresh air. The unit while small, is quite sturdy and very attractive. The case work is sold and has a lot of custom touches such as curved front panel. It also has a nice display that shows what it is receiving which is very useful for testing to confirm what I am sending, is what is being received by the DAC.
Mind you, it is not to the same level of multi-thousand dollar DACs which come in larger enclosures, weigh a ton, etc. But for this tier devices, it seems quite suitable and no complaints.
As expected the E32 comes with both balanced and unbalanced outputs. Inputs are USB, coax and optical SPDIF. Would have preferred one of those inputs to have been AES/EBU. It doesn't look like they had enough room to put one in there.
Two things were disappointing here:
1. It comes with a switchmode power supply as an external wall-wart. As with my other tests, this also leaks AC mains into the DAC and comes right out of its analog outputs. In my testing below, I opted to test with my lab supply to eliminate that. I can't find the darn switching power supply right now anyway
. When I do, I will post its result too.2. It comes with proprietary drivers! I wish I had noted this before or I would not have purchased it. The issue is that it won't work with any Linux product which includes all streamers in the market. Furthermore, if the company goes out of business one day and Microsoft changes the driver interface, this will become a door stop even on Windows. This has happened plenty of time in the past so it is a major negative against the unit this pricey which I expect to use well into the future.
Measurements
I started with my usual J-test measurement at 24-bits/48 Khz. For reference, I used my $79 Behringer UMC204HD -- the winner of low cost DACs. I started with unbalanced/RCA output first:
I did not bother to label the graph because as you see, it is uneventful. There is a tiny spike where the marker is which might be USB packet frame timing. The differential is 130 db though so not an issue.
Compared to Behringer, the output is higher by a few db which is good. The differential between that peak and the signal is about 1 db in favor of Exasound E32.
I then ran a harmonic distortion test of 1 Khz tone (24-bit/44.1 Khz):
The picture here is quite disappointing. While the noise floor is slightly lower in Exasound, it has tons more harmonic distortion than Behringer. The Behringer nails this department with just a single third harmonic which is 10 db lower than Exasound. There is some genius analog designer working at Behringer!
In other words, I took many steps back when it comes with the Exasound. Very, very disappointing.
Fortunately things looked up when I tested the balanced output. First the J-test again:
Here the much higher output of Exasound comes through to deliver 7 db better signal to (measurement) noise floor.
Repeating the same test with 1 Khz we get:
Here the reverse picture appears vs unbalanced. The Exasound is 6 db better when we are comparing the peak signal to 2nd harmonic distortion. The Exasound still has higher order harmonics that the Behringer does not have. So it is not a complete home run.
As always, note that these distortions and noise products are at very low levels. I doubt that any differences are audible at all. But since I wanted to use the high-end DAC for measurement reference, they matter directly to the task at hand.
Summary
It pains me to say this but I really can't recommend the Exasound E32. I think this is the first time any reviewer had gotten an audio device at accommodation pricing and turned around and poke the manufacturer in the eye
. But the reality is the reality. In unbalanced mode, the performance simply is not acceptable when a $79 DAC beats it left and right. In balanced, there is an improvement but the requirement for proprietary driver is a showstopper and I can't good in good conscious give a thumbs up for it.I am not sure what I am going to do at this point. I can't afford to keep buying multi-thousand dollar DACs to evaluate and find the ideal one
. At RMAF 2017 I spoke to a couple of manufacturers about evaluating their units. If so, then I my sell this unit and upgrade one of those.For now, I am in somber mood. Everyone please shed a tear for me.
As always, I am open to suggestions, corrections, additional data/comments from everyone.
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