exaSound e28

By Michael Lavorgna •  audiostream.com, Oct 14, 2014

 

"exaSound offered an interesting demo consisting of a comparison between stereo and multichannel music using five Magnepan 1.7 speakers driven by a Bryston 9B-SST-2 amp. I found the surround versions to simply sound more natural and not at all gimmicky which you might expect from multichannel music.

 

The e28 supports 8-Channels of PCM resolutions up to 384kHz and up to 12.2MHz DSD using the ESS ES9018 Sabre32 reference DAC and incorporates its own digital volume control. Inputs include Coax S/PDIF, Toslink, and asynchronous USB and their are single ended RCA and balanced minii-XLR output versions."

 

 

 

RMAF 2014: Final Thoughts from Tom Norton

By Thomas J. Norton • stereophile.com • Oct 15, 2014

 

"I found three systems at the show offering surround sound: they must have missed the memo. There were two modest systems from SVS Audio (the only one of the three equipped for both music and movie surround, the latter with video courtesy of a Samsung flat screen HDTV), a multichannel music system sponsored by Kimber Kable featuring five of Sony's flagship SS-AR1 speakers (Kimber has set up a similar system at every RMAF for several years now) and this setup from exaSound. It featured the latter's e28, 8-channel DAC ($3650), a Bryston 9B-SST-2 5-channel amp, and five Magnepan 1.7 speakers. The sound was exceptional, especially considering all that radiating area pumping away in a small hotel room. The multichannel music consistently sounded better than the equivalent 2-channel mixes."

 

RMAF 2014: More From Mr. Reichert

By Herb Reichert • Stereophile.com • Oct 16, 2014

 

"Room 505: George Klissarov in the exaSound room played mellow ragtime and Mahler's Symphony 5 to very good effect. He was showcasing the e28 FC DAC ($3650) using five Magnepan 1.7 loudspeakers, and a Bryston amp. It was fascinating listening while George switched back and forth between five-channel and two-channel."

 

 

By Patrick Dillon • AudioMatters • Oct 17, 2014

 

Must mention the Exasound multichannel offering. Using five Maggie 1.7s, the enthusiastic host fed a Mac into his DAC and, with a multichannel Bryston amp, proceeded to show us the differences between 2 and 5 channel music. The multi-channel was better but not to the level that would have me buying five speakers and associated cables for my room (not to mention how little music that matters for me in this format). The real lesson for me (other than this DAC is very good and priced well), was the Maggies. They sounded better than I ever heard them and they were not positioned with any great thought to layout. Clearly, with Bryston driving them, these speakers can deliver fine sound. Another strike for the saner end of the audio market. 

 

 

 

 

Jan-Eric Persson, recording engineer and founder of Opus 3 Records presents his latest DSD128 downloads available at dsdfile.com.