Buying Service?

@ajant 

Surprising that Exasound has already discontinued this product as it doesn’t seem to have been on the market that long. Have you looked into the Okto Research?

https://www.stereophile.com/content/okto-research-dac8-pro-da-processor

I’ve read articles about synching up multiple DAC’s as well- probably more expensive but might offer different options and overall flexibility.

HiFi Shark

Yes, I'm following there too.

The manual is dated 3/2019. It was replaced by the e68. Manual date 1/2021. Unfortunately, Exasound offers no optional balanced XLRs for the e68, which I need. That really stinks because only the top model s88 has them-but along with advanced DSD, server and other things I don't need-for at least $6.5K.

Yes, I'm well aware of the Okto Pro 8 DAC, but enough comparisons have been made to suspect that the Exasound still delivers better sound quality. Also, those build and/or functionality issues with the remote which Okto likely has no plans to resolve. The least they could do is to offer some kind of firmware update that might make the DAC 90% of the DAC's remote functionality learnable by Harmony, Sony, Logitech or other remotes.

Unfortunately, being the King of Bad Luck, I don't expect an e38MK2 to be for sale any time soon. But it will be some time before I narrow down my list of front and rear/side speakers to audition. Maybe around then it may happen. Of course, what really stinks is that Exasound and Okto are the only two brands selling respectably sounding MCH DACs for 5.1 or 8.1 systems.

@ajant 

Have you considered looking into an older Theta Digital Casablanca? You might find one configured with the quantity of balanced outputs your looking for. I’m not familiar with their support of older versions but I see them offered for less than you would spend on the Exasound.