Saw a very interesting new DAC yesterday...

[Lee]

We had an excellent portable audio event here yesterday called CanLanta 2013. One guy brought in the new X Sabre Matrix DAC which sells for $1,100. Unibody build quality where the compartments are drilled out ala Ayre construction. Thing weighs a boatload for a small box. Beautiful design with AES/USB/COAX inputs and Sabre 9018. I thought it sounded pretty good but I was listening to high end cans via an unfamiliar but high quality amp.

Amazing what can be done for $1,100. Anyone else hear this product? Thoughts?

http://www.matrix-digi.com/en/products/49/index.html

 

[opus111]

Seems a reasonable price for such a CNC construction style. Love the description on their site: 'has a strong anti-jamming capability'

 

[wizard]

 

[wizard]

PSU

 

[wizard]

The analog output stage is based around 6 National LME49710 opamps.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Thats a dac more in my price category , you definetively get a lot for the money , fully cnc machined body , nice

 

[Lee]

Thanks for the pics Wizard. Is this your unit? Any sound impressions?

 

[CKKeung]

Thanks for the pics Wizard. Is this your unit? Any sound impressions?

My friends & I tested the X-Sabre 2 weeks agao at the Volent loudspeaker office/showroom in Hong Kong.
It's compatible with Win7 (JPlay) & Linux (HQPlayer). We did not have a Mac for the testing.
It played PCM 32/384 files & DSD 64/128 files faultlessly!
I can't think of a similar dac with such a wide applicability at this price level!

The sound is quite typical of ES9018 : clean, a bit sweet, wide & deep soundstage but the density & dynamics are bested by higher-priced dac such as Meitner MA1.

A friend compared it with the Chord Chordette QuteHD (DSD) DAC (about USD1500 in Hong Kong) and thought that the latter was slightly better.

 

[108CY]

Very interesting