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FS: Exasound E32 DAC and Headphone Amp on sale from ASR Lab [sold]

GTsmokeya84

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Hmm I have sank close to 15k into my setup and I felt at Axpona in the Paradigm room they got better results than I did in my house. I either need a mental adjustment or something else to make this sound like it should. I heard some Kef Refrence on 44.1khz and wow it sounded amazing way better than I have at home so, I admit I do not know what I need.
 
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amirm

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Paradigm usually uses Room EQ in their demo rooms. Likely you heard the effect of that which is what I am suggesting. Regardless of what you have, if you are not using room EQ, the sound you are hearing is severely suboptimal.

What is the total chain you have now?
 

GTsmokeya84

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Ok, but you cannot laugh.

I have the Paradigm Persona 3F paired with the audio Envy 6f speaker wore into the XPA GEn 2. From the pre amplfier I have the Audio Envy but it only decodes 96khz nothing higher.
 

Sal1950

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Paradigm usually uses Room EQ in their demo rooms.
Yes, the setup they had a couple months ago at the Tampa show used Athem electronics that include ARC DRC software.
I discussed the setup with the rooms presenter and he told me the room was being heavily corrected with ARC on the 9H being demo'd.
 
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amirm

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I have the Paradigm Persona 3F paired with the audio Envy 6f speaker wore into the XPA GEn 2. From the pre amplfier I have the Audio Envy but it only decodes 96khz nothing higher.
What is your source? And what pre-amp are you using?
 

Cradman

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OK, I have to start to sell some stuff before they all cave in on me. :)

I thought I start with style by selling probably the highest performing DAC in my arsenal, the Exasound E32. Those of you new to the forum have probably not heard about it but I measured it a while ago. Performance was class leading except for power supply noise that could interfere. Exasound now ships this with an aftermarket linear supply for this reason presumably. You can read about the new version which is almost identical to mine here: https://www.exasound.com/e32/e32DACOverview.aspx

As you see the retail for this is eye watering $3,499. But you are not going to pay $3,499. Not even $3,000. Or $2,800. Read on to see how much! :D

To increase my chances of selling it :), I made fresh measurements of it. First the Dashboard:

View attachment 16283

The down channel performance varies a bit and reaches to 111 dB at times. That puts it in the upper spectrum of all recent DACs I have measured:
View attachment 16284

It also has some of the best intermodulation numbers I have measured:

View attachment 16289

As you see, it bests even Benchmark DAC3!

That is due to very low noise floor as we see in this jitter and noise measurement:

View attachment 16286

It is so low that falls off the bottom of the scale I normally measure. Moving it up we see the excellent noise floor:
View attachment 16287

That tiny spike at the start is the power supply noise I talked about.

It is also very nice looking DAC:

View attachment 16288

The display is nicer than that. My overhead light created those foggy lines.

Crap, maybe I shouldn't sell it! :)

But I need to free up some cash and space so I will.

Price: $1,700.

Remember, by purchasing this unit you will be supporting ASR forum and feeding hungry bears in the woods (only one is true).

Note: this unit requires drivers. It will not work as-is in Linux or streaming boxes.
I am interested in this DAC but the Exasound site says price is $2499. I would like to make an offer but am confused about your pricing. Also, what is entailed in securing required drivers? And can it be fed by a non-exasound source such as computer or Sonore Microrendu? Thanks. Conrad
 
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amirm

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This was sold recently. To get drivers you need a magic code which was supplied when you buy it. Very silly to protect software this way. Fortunately the info can be passed on to next owner which is what I did.
 

Soniclife

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This was sold recently. To get drivers you need a magic code which was supplied when you buy it. Very silly to protect software this way. Fortunately the info can be passed on to next owner which is what I did.
I've always found this very strange behaviour, the software is useless without it's very expensive 'dongle'.
 

BDWoody

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Get reel dood ~ such a $cam! =)) There R TONS of things that R ignored by technical measurements, like 4 instance how they respond while playing complex music instead of test tones & sweeps & bladee bla. U know this of course, as U R very technically trained, but U pretend they R not real things because it makes it harder 4 U 2 $ell ideas ~ competing with 'testimony' and 'reputation' and 'concensus' rather than 'currently technically verifiable specifications'. For instance, technically 'within the power limits' a 'small' (low power) amp can 'measure' identical to a big beefy powerful one, but they will sound very different when playing music because the tough amp will have a deeper more solid feel to it and more open sound (generally speaking) because not having 2 struggle as much.

It would really help if you were more honest rather than those clowns like in installs who pretend cables sound the same. U can put them side by side and clearly hear the differences, even though they measure the same. A good example is thin all copper wire vs thicker where one lead is aluminum instead (or whatever that silver stuff is in 'low end lamp cord' =)) It's actually 1 of the very best speaker wires! =D Another goodie is 'Amphenol spectra strip' originally marketed for SCSI drives in mainframes.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41GKOy2kFpL.jpg

I used to deal in computers & was like "WOW" makes it sound even more clear ~ but very complicated to terminate by hand =P Maybe U would like to do some studies on that? That guy who invented TV antennas or something 'Dunlavy' used a 'folded' version. Whatever the case, U should compare these 'junk' computers vs. your FancyTown 'CorkSniffery' DACs & C how they compare in 'double blind listening tests' or whatever =)
http://paulrand.coolpage.biz/SirPlexalot.htm

Have an audience of various different people & genders & ages who are NOT familiar with audiophile gear sit there and tell you which they PREFER to listen to with a variety of sources, and C wat thay thenk! =D I really like them = no 'digitalness' @ all 2 the sound = very natural =) Nothing needs 'fixing'... just the headphone amp could B a bit more gutsy, for that 'vast expansive bottomless storm' vibe like the IBM S50 gives ya' ~;) Oh horrors... I used adjectives to describe a sound besides 'noise floor' or something HAHAHAHA

Oh & BTW: Being more 'accurate' technically speaking is NOT necessarily a more accurate overal RESULT. To make this easy to understand = like 'dithering' perhaps, noise can actually make something sound MORE realistic by 'smoothing out the edges'. In video processing (which U R also an expert at, judging by your 'resume') adding noise (whether in the DVD or whatever itself or after) can help reduce 'banding' artifacts by smoothing them together across distances. Also blurring like 'debanding filters' can help, and 'warp sharpening' and 'de-noising' and so many things... these are all forms of DISTORTION that CHANGE the RESULT form what they are 'fed' from gear (or files or whatever) 'upstream'. These 'alterations' that CHANGE the sound from 'what was originally there' can actually IMPROVE the REALISM of the RESULT, which is what it SHOULD always B about... not what 'measures the most technically accurate' but what 'gives the most realistic RESULT'! =) Get it now? I don't hear many people talking about this kind of thing, but it's very important. 'Distortion' is not the enemy. Like tubes have (sometimes) a very nice smooth sound, like changing a video cable from digital to analog VGA ~ it's like adding a subtle 'debanding' filter that can make the RESULT look actually more REALISTIC than the 'technically more accurate' digitally transmitted image.

This effect is really esasy to SEE with your EYES = less 'subjective' because yeah U can tell "that line there slightly blurs into the other but I see how it makes faces look more beautiful" kind of thing. Is the goal to 'torture' yoruself with the FLAWS of a recording, or to make the recording sound as NATURAL as possible? The goal of each thing should focus on the final RESULT, not just to 'duplicate' whatever ERRORS and FLAWS exist elsewhere... no, to REPAIR them and even ENHANCE what was originally there = that's what it's all about, grasshopper =D Some VISUAL examples 4 U...
https://justpaste.it/67srx

Original image (resized):
https://justpaste.it/img/fc753719a51e61f9057d027b09cb66ba.jpg
After DRASTIC MODIFICATION (so-called 'distortion'):
https://justpaste.it/img/628fbd2c219cffe407a90c19d56f6f1d.jpg
& yes, looks much more REALISTIC, even though it is 'technically' TOTALLY innacurate in 'preserving the original source'. I don't give a frak what the 'source' looked like other than what it takes to get the RESULT looking great =) If it looks (or sounds) messed up, why torture yourself? Do things that make it look & sound the best you can have =D Many examples on that page (some U might not agree with ~ hoo noze!) showing how 'distortion' & 'noise' & whatever (& I use 'blur' a LOT =) can ENHANCE things =D

Here's a horrifically inefficient (large file size for dimension) image with bad color & gamma...
https://justpaste.it/img/06f8a768cdcc076448422522a8c8f02f.png
& here it is DISTORTED LIKE CRAZY various ways to make it look much BETTER =)
https://justpaste.it/img/b21f363040b6101f2228766dbdd37914.jpg

I don't care 2 torture myself with $hitty looking movies & videos. I want them 2 look & sound GOOD! =D 'Distortion' is not the enemy... HELL no...
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nes8mhKntg

That's a big uh huh...

There's too much of a troll feel to that post to get into it much more than that...

I'm sorry for your ignorance...it can be cured, but you seem pretty committed to it.
 

mcdonalk

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It has been implied in this thread that the Exasound USB driver serves primarily as a dongle. My experience is that there may be more to this driver than is casually evident.
My previously (highly regarded, even on this forum) DAC would typically (if not always) truncate the first approximate second of music when being automatically started up from standby via an USB audio stream. I was using that DAC's driver on the source PC.
I switched to an Exasound E32 four months ago, and this issue disappeared. I was using the same PC and USB interface, but with Exasound's USB driver, naturally.
A credible argument could be made that there is an anomaly with the PC's USB interface, but even if so, the Exasound E32 and driver combination is able to override it. Exasound's web site mentions error correction as part of the driver's protocol; maybe that has something to do with it.
 

Kal Rubinson

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It has been implied in this thread that the Exasound USB driver serves primarily as a dongle. My experience is that there may be more to this driver than is casually evident.
Not only that. It provides a link to being able to control volume in the DAC from your app and includes a pop-up control/balance menu.
 
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