Exasound E28 Femto 8 Channel DSD DAC

Original owner 8 channel DSD 256 DAC. Femto clock version.  RCA outputs.  Includes box, and remote control.  Owners manual and Windows MAC drivers included on USB stick.  Also included is a Teddy Pardo power supply ($370 value).  3 years in a row on Stereophiles Recommended Components List.  The following is from Computer Audiophiles review of the unit.
What’s In The Box

The exaSound E28 is the brainchild of a team led by George Klissarov, founder and president of exaSound Audio Design, located in Toronto, Canada. George is a fellow multichannel fanatic, and his earlier E18 DAC was also multichannel, but not optimized for DSD (he later updated it to now do 2 channel DSD64). After designing and releasing the 2 channel E20 DSD128-capable DAC (being 2 channel only the E20 can take advantage of the 9018 8 channel chip by using 4 channels per side, a real advantage to some aspects of 2 channel listening) George and his team began investigating the limits of the 9018 chip design, and he found he could get it to produce not only DSD128 (aka 2X DSD) and 32/384k PCM, but also DSD256 (aka 4X DSD). Moreover, although scarletbook spec for DSD is based on the 44k sample rate, players like Foobar have the capability to upsample 48k-based files to 128 and 256x rates. The exaSound E20 can handle those unusual rates, as well…leaving it quite future-proof for what DSD-aholics believe is the holy grail of 1 bit rates, 256X (noise shaping needs that are so high into the ether that they theoretically may not be needed). He subsequently upgraded/updated the E20 to MKIII status and has been shipping them for several months now.

So, fast forward to the E28. It is based on the exaSound standard, the ESS SABRE 9018 chip, can do PCM to 32/384k, DSD to DSD256 (44k and 48k based) and delivers these in EIGHT channels! It is fully MKIII spec’d so it includes all sample rates and includes the new 0.82 picosecond master clock. It is housed in a half-wide aluminum enclosure with a nice two line LED readout on the front panel, along with volume, power and setting buttons. Also included up front is a seriously good headphone output, connected to a third-generation exaSound dedicated hp amplifier. The rear panel inputs: an RCA S/PDIF and an optical toslink digital input (RCA to 192k, toslink to 96k), a 12V-1.5A dc jack (for supplied external ps) and a full size (thank you George) USB B connector (this is where all the goodies reside). The eight (8) numbered analog outputs can be shipped either stock (gold-plated RCA, 2Vrms) or custom (mini-XLR, 4Vrms). The exaSound team wanted to keep the enclosure to half width for use with computer servers on the same rack (think Mac Mini or CAPS Lagoon size) so eight (8) full sized XLR balanced outs were not feasible. George includes an Apple remote wand for master volume, power, mute and input functions, and explains in the user manual how to incorporate 3rd party remotes to use the same codes. After testing the remote volume I didn’t use the remote (see below), but the functionality and flexibility is welcome to most users.

The DAC shows its unique 8 channel DSD256 and 32/384 PCM capability via that full sized USB B input. (Note: there is a smattering of multichannel prosumer PCMDACs out there, from the likes of Metric Halo, Prism Orpheus and the DSD SDIF-based Mytek 8x192, but this is, to my knowledge, the first prosumer single box multichannel DAC that can do multichannel to this level). I have recently written about my prototype three-box Mytek Stereo192 DSD multichannel setup. I was told by many readers that although the setup was unique, powerful and interesting, it was nowhere near realistic nor convenient for the average-to-advanced computer audio user; let alone the cost of 3x DACs. I will acquiesce; it is a bit of a challenge, but it provided a real benchmark for what multichannel DSD can provide. The E28, albeit single 9018 chip-based, is a much more realistic computer audio design; a one-box solution that allows even greater sample rates and more integrated operations.