CANADA’S exaSound Audio Design has just launched the e12 USB-only digital–to–analogue converter, which it says is among its more affordable products for the consumer market – the retail price is US$1,999.
This asynchronous DAC, based on ESS Technology’s premium eight-channel, 32-bit ES9018S Sabre32 chip, was made “to address the explosion of file-based high-resolution audio playback in the home”. The chip is configured here in stereo, with four internal DAC channels per side.
The e12 supports native DSD64 (1x), DSD128 (2x) and DSD256 (4x), and has a PCM sampling rate of 384kHz at 32 bits. Native support for DXD master files at 352.8kHz is also included.
Custom ASIO drivers, developed in–house, offer complete control of the e12 from Windows or Mac OS, while new software features in the driver include auto-power down and a maximum volume limiter. The limiter allows the e12 to directly drive a power amplifier while protecting loudspeakers from damaging overloads.
According to the the product literature, “seven linear power conditioning stages ensure that noise does not compromise transparency, while a tightly controlled, 0.13 ps master clock and triple oscillators architecture minimise time–smearing jitter artifacts.”
The cost of making the e12 has been kept down by “eliminating the display and simplifying the I/O.”
The e12 is available now directly from exaSound’s web site and select dealers.
