e18 DAC - 8 channels at 32bit /384 kHz

[dwk123]

I've been out of the loop for a while, and just saw this. Very interesting since it seems that it might satisfy both my system requirements in 1 shot - 3-way dsp xover speakers plus high-quality headphone listening.

The intro pricing is very attractive - not really all that much more than the exa2UI + BuffIII package I sketched out to handle 8 channels.

Couple questions that didn't seem to be covered by the manual:
- how does the headphone out operate? Does it always get channels 1/2? Are the line outputs muted when the phones are inserted?
- would you forsee any problems with custom IEMs? (JH-13 pro most likely 28 ohms/116db. The obvious concerns are noise, and whether there would be a need for extreme attenuation due to the efficiency which may begin to impact quality.)
- what happens with 2-channel spdif input? Does it go only to ch 1/2, or does it get replicated to all outputs?

[exa065]

The headphone amplifier is normally connected to channels 1 and 2. There are jumpers, so you can rewire it to any other channel pair.

The outputs are not muted by the headphone jack. Sorry, you will have to turn off your power amplifier when listening to headphones.

I don't expect any issues with 28 Ohms headphones. Attenuation goes down to -80dB. Mute is I believe -123dB.

SPDIF is always two channels and it is hardwired to channels 1 and 2. This way it is possible to listen to stereo and multichannel sources without switching speakers.

There is one undocumented feature - in USB 2-channel mode channels 1 and 2 are repeated on all outputs. You can connect outputs in parallel, and this will decrease not only the internal noise and distortion of the DAC, but also the noise and distortion from the output stages. The same feature exists in four-channel mode - every channel is repeated twice.

What crossover software are you planning to use?

-Best,

exa065

[dwk123]

Thanks for the quick response. The channel routing sounds like what I expected - certainly workable, although making sure the wife doesn't crank it with the 'phones connected would require a bit of discipline.

Originally Posted by exa065

I don't expect any issues with 28 Ohms headphones. Attenuation goes down to -80dB. Mute is I believe -123dB.

Probably something that just has to be tried. My concern is just that running at say -50bB might be sub-optimal due to compromised S/N. Easy enough to add something like a Ventus-ez with tweaked gain structure if necessary, I guess.

What crossover software are you planning to use?

-Best,

exa065

I'm currently using Reaper with some hand-tuned IIR filter via ReaEQ. My plan would be to move to JRMC and the new convolution engine, though. Either of these should work fine through ASIO.

[jdubs]

Hello

Does the e18's hardware volume control work with ALL playback material, including DSD?

Also, can you please comment on DSD playback using JRiver? Will it work as the Mytek is via DSD bitstreaming using DoP (Wasapi Event-Style selected as playback method)?

Thanks,
Jim

[exa065]

e18 doesn't have DSD support.

Regards,

George

[jdubs]

Originally Posted by exa065

e18 doesn't have DSD support.

Regards,

George

George, do you mean that it doesn't OFFICIALLY (through released firmware) support it YET?

My post was referencing this post of yours:

exaU2I - Multi-Channel Asynchronous USB to I2S Interface

Thanks,
Jim

[exa065]

It is not ready for official release.

[jdubs]

Originally Posted by exa065

It is not ready for official release.

Thank you! That's what I was hoping you meant.

-Jim

[skupena]

Are you guys working on a similar ADC using ESSTech's ES9102a chip?

[gentlevoice]

Originally Posted by skupena

Are you guys working on a similar ADC using ESSTech's ES9102a chip?

+1 on that - would be very interesting to me! Not least if you were interested in doing the interface to the PC so that an ADC of own conception could added....

Any chance this will happen

Jesper