New Exasound E62 DAC

[mcdonalk]

Imagine my surprise, that just 4 months after having acquired my Exasound E32 (to replace a Topping D90), Exasound has replaced it with an E62:

https://exasound.com/Products/e62DAC.aspx

I'm not surprised, though. When I bought the E32, I was aware that it had been on the market for a while, but I was also aware that Exasound has a reputation for supporting their customers with upgrade opportunities.

The only difference that I can tell from the description is that the E62 does DSD512, whereas my E32 tops out at DSD256.

If I choose to upgrade, I will have paid no more overall (perhaps other than the added shipping to send my E32 back) than the cost of an E62 if I were buying it for the first time.

I’m in no hurry, though.

Bryston is another company who has a reputation for such upgrade opportunities for existing customers. I do not now or have ever owned Bryston products. But I'll consider Bryston should the opportunity arise.

(In my system, the E32 was audibly superior to the D90, and unlike the D90, I have detected no functional flaws with the E32 at all. I'm not really interested in answering questions about this, since the tendency on this forum will likely be for me to end up being called stupid at worst (either outright or obliquely), or unscientific at best. My main point is that there is benefit to considering customer service in addition to technical merits when buying components, and to recommend just such a company based on personal experience.)

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Why not just state your findings, subjective or objective, instead of hiding behind some alleged ASR boogeyman. Amir had one of these and reviewed a few years ago. Not sure why it would be worth almost $3,000. The 12V trigger option certainly is a plus. An Okto stereo based off the same chip, seems like a far better investment imo.

What did you find sonically or mechanically wrong with the D90?

 

[Ilkless]

unscientific at best

Why would you need to take that as a personal insult? That is simply the nature of your claims - it's no personal insult for your claims to be challenged with evidence, and nobody is going to hold it against you. The denial of evidence to the contrary is peculiar as well, especially since you appear so secure in your anecdotal experience.

I'd just comment that what you think is an auditory experience is inevitably a composite; it also implicates backstory and aesthetics, and our perception of what we hear invariably is swayed by that - that much has been demonstrated across numerous studies in the field (audio), as well as adjacent studies on cognitive biases at large. No one is exempt. I'd just note that these stories often unfold the same way: state-of-the-art evidence-based engineering, with manufacturing at scale by a Chinese pretender = cold, sterile, soulless, myopic, incoherent, lack of attention to detail vs the small guy in the US/UK/Europe/Japan = rustic, endearing, thoughtful, cohesive, relatable (although in this case Exasound is indeed an engineering-led firm, but the backstory is still there).

This is not to invalidate the functional issues that may occur and are reported. They seem to happen to a degree commensurate with the large volume of sales. Add to that the likely tendency to be find more fault in the Chinese corporate then the small guy.

 

[jtwrace]

Imagine my surprise, that just 4 months after having acquired my Exasound E32 (to replace a Topping D90), Exasound has replaced it with an E62:

It's only $300 to update your E32 to the current level.

 

[ElNino]

Strange that they're launching a new product now using the previous-generation ESS 9028 Pro.

 

[jtwrace]

Strange that they're launching a new product now using the previous-generation ESS 9028 Pro.

Parts bin engineering?

 

[Matias]

Very interesting measurements of their implementation of galvanic isolation of the USB input. Although this noise level is very low, like below -140dB.

 

[djanszen]

Strange that they're launching a new product now using the previous-generation ESS 9028 Pro.

As I understand it, the newer ones have an implementation drawback related to output buffering that makes keeping the noise level down very difficult.

 

[djanszen]

[QUOTE="An Okto stereo based off the same chip, seems like a far better investment imo.
[/QUOTE]

There's a wide range of results possible from the same chip, depending on the design of the surrounding circuitry. The expertise required to maximize performance is worth money.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

[QUOTE="An Okto stereo based off the same chip, seems like a far better investment imo.

There's a wide range of results possible from the same chip, depending on the design of the surrounding circuitry. The expertise required to maximize performance is worth money.[/QUOTE]

True. Both have been measured here, feel free to compare and see which one appears to be a better product.

 

[mcdonalk]

I don't think that comparing these two reviews (I don't think that a review for the E62 exists, anyway) would be informative or helpful in choosing a component (unless it reveals a gross violation). Unless the reviewer correlates the measurements with an evaluation of skilled listening tests, it is not known whether the measured results or anomalies are even audible. The formal reviews on this forum, as far as my sampling has indicated, do not seem to report any listening impressions to validate the significance of the measurements.

 

[AnalogSteph]

The formal reviews on this forum, as far as my sampling has indicated, do not seem to report any listening impressions to validate the significance of the measurements.

That's because 99% of DACs are audibly transparent and sound the absolute same when used as a line-level source (except possibly when levels at or in excess of 0 dBFS are involved). "It sounds like a DAC, alright" would not be a very exciting report, would it?

Audible performance differences between DACs are mostly encountered in "square peg, round hole" combinations, like when directly driving a power amplifier with higher sensitivity speakers, which may require a ridiculous amount of dynamic range (>120 dB) to keep noise levels inaudible.