Anyone ever hear of Exemplar Audio (John Tucker) XD-1 DAC?

nspindel

I've got a line on one of these:

http://exemplaraudio.com/dac.html

Basically it's a highly modded Chinese unit, the Xindak DAC 5:

http://www.xindak.com/english/products/showditail.asp?id=326


Retails for $2500, I could own it for $1200. But I've never heard it and haven't been able to find any reviews, other than a few mentions of people on headfi who love it and say it's the best dac ever.

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about it?

dbaldus

It seems you and I are on a very similar path as of late, trying to replace the Benchmark with something else

Did you ever find anything out about this or get a chance to hear it? I can't find a damn thing!!

nspindel

Ah wow, I forgot about this thread. There was a dude on headfi who had one listed. I'd never heard of the thing before, have no idea what it sounded like, and the guy had a very low post count and no trader feedback. So I offered to send him $100 if he sends me the DAC to try out and evaluate. If I like it, I'll send him the other $1100. If I don't, I ship it back to him and he keeps my $100. Never heard back from him.

I ended up buying a Wyred4Sound DAC2. I read enough rave reviews of the thing that I figured I'd give it a try. I really like it. Not that I didn't like the Benchmark, I think it's fantastic. But I just came away with the impression after giving the W4S some time to break in, that things just sound more musical through it. I'd read that before, now I understand what it means. With the Benchmark, things are so precise that it's like you're listening to a guitar, a bass, drums, keyboards, and vocals. All of those are done very well, that's not a criticism just a comment on the presentation. But with the W4S, you're listening to a band. I came across a writeup comparing the Benchmark to the W4S, and the author said listening to the Benchmark, you're focused on the recording. Listening to the W4S, you're focused on the performance. I see what this person means.