Eastern Electric's new tube DAC using ESS Sabre??

I've had the pleasure to own the EE DAC for the last seven weeks and find it to be an exceptional piece. Most impressive are its dynamics. The specs claim a dynamic range of 129dB and listening certainly bears this out.

The backplane is flexible and includes BNC, AES and USB along with the traditional coax and SPDIF inputs. Opamps are socketed should you choose to roll in different ones. It has a true tube output stage, not just a buffer, that can be toggled in or out. I prefer the solid state to the tube option but its nice to have a choice.

The box is substantial with solid heft when picked up and is attractive on the rack.

Highly recommended

Njs, the 129dB dynamic range is of the Sabre chip alone. Very impressive! But the EE dynamic ranges are 90dB through the tube output and 95dB through the solid state output. So over 30dB are lost between the DAC chip and the outputs!

Which other DACs did you use before this one?

How do you find its volume control? Do you use a preamp after the DAC?

Joaco, the 90/95dB figures that you refer to are the signal to noise ratio, not the dynamic range, so nothing is "lost" between the DAC and the outputs.

I keep the volume control set to maximum and will eventually consider bypassing it as I'm very happy letting a Wyred4Sound STP-SE preamp handle it.

You´re right, Njs, about the 90/95 figures, they´re signal to noise ratio. But the 129dB dynamic range, are you sure it´s the DAC´s and not the Sabre´s chip? The EE DAC has a 129dB dynamic range?

The EE is spec'd at 129dB of Dynamic Range and listening clearly seems to indicate this is correct. Most dynamic DAC ever to grace my rack.