Eastern Electric's new tube DAC using ESS Sabre??

I´ll also appreciate comments!

Any new experiences or comparisons by anyone?

Njs, the 129dB dynamic range is of the Sabre chip alone. Very impressive! But the EE dynamic ranges are 90dB through the tube output and 95dB through the solid state output. So over 30dB are lost between the DAC chip and the outputs!

Which other DACs did you use before this one?

How do you find its volume control? Do you use a preamp after the DAC?

You´re right, Njs, about the 90/95 figures, they´re signal to noise ratio. But the 129dB dynamic range, are you sure it´s the DAC´s and not the Sabre´s chip? The EE DAC has a 129dB dynamic range?

Steidlguitars, have you tried your Cary 303/300 as a transport for the EE?

Any other reviews of the EE DAC? Anyone? Steidlguitars, did you try it with you Cary as a transport?

Steidlguitars, that´s the post I read from you, the one you said you hadn´t compared them but "If I ever have them together in the same rig again, I'll be sure to do that".

Over two weeks have passed since that and was just wondering if you had tried. Please don´t get annoyed. I won´t ask again.

Doug,

I read your review. You were blown by the DAC! I´d like to listen to it myself.

If you don´t mind, I disagree with some of your thoughts. I don´t think a 32 bit DAC makes 16 bit recordings equal to 24 bit recordings at same sample frequency! A 24 bit recording has much more information in it! The fact that a 32 bit DAC can make both recordings 32 bit doesn´t mean they´ll have the same information. The original 24 bit recording will still have lots of more information after conversion and, therefore, will sound much more real.

I think that the conversion to 32 bits is not the only thing that makes the EE DAC special. Actually, the DAC is limited to 24 bit 96KHz at the receiver and is only upsampled to 32 bit 192 KHz at the DAC chip. I´m not even sure it´s what makes the Sabre chip special. The Sabre chip also is very jitter imune and has great performance.

The EE DAC is also said by Alex Yeung, Bill at Morningstar and many others to have a really great output stage apart from the DAC chip. The tube output stage being generally preffered.

If I misunderstood your review or you think different, please don´t get upset, lets discuss.

Doug,

Why do you say "New info is being added when going from 16/44.1 to 24/192" when upsampling?

I absolutely disagree with that statement. That is not what happens when upsampling. It´s not impossible but it´s not what happens. If you wanted, you could write an algorithm to insert/create "average" information between 2 points but it wouldn´t be true to the original analog signal before it entered the first ADC. It would only be a guess of what probably might have happened.

You can´t "rescue" bits that aren´t there or that have been taken out.

Upsampling is about another thing. It´s not about having more information but, as I understand it, making it "easier" for the DAC to process.

Making a parallel between audio and visual, having a DAC accepting more bits is like having a LCD TV being able to reproduce more colours. And, having a DAC accepting a higher sample rate would be like a TV being able to receive a higher rate of frames per second. So, if you have a HD TV and feed it with a Bluray, you will be able to appreciate perfect visual definition. But, if you feed it with cable TV or even a conventional DVD, it will look worse, not the same as a Bluray! The processing in the HD TV might help to make it look better than in a common TV but it won´t look the same as a Bluray just because Bluray has lots more information.

I think the discussion is valuable but I wouldn´t like the thread to turn into a tech discussion and stay about the EE DAC. Much better to have comments about experiences listening to it!

Thanks Art! Keep posting until break in is over. Posted a question on the review. Where shall we keep posting, here or there?