"exaSound Audio Design has managed to carve out a conspicuous place in the high end audiophile DAC market since beginning business less than 4 years ago..."

"The first sound characteristic of the e22 that grabbed my attention was the enormous soundstage that this DAC is capable of rendering."

"The e22 struck me as being very neutral sounding without excessive midrange warmth or other colorations. Resolution, focus and definition from top to bottom were excellent. Most users will find this to be a very revealing DAC that can dig down to expose the smallest details of the music. Now some of you might think that this level of detail comes at a price; hardness and a lack of warmth. But nothing could be further from the truth concerning the sound of the e22 DAC. This is a DAC that one can listen to for hours on end without digital fatigue. I also felt that the dynamic qualities of the e22 DAC were very good as well. Both macro and micro dynamic changes could be perceived with this DAC in a very natural and pleasing manner. The e22 was also a champ at the way it handled DSD recordings. While the midrange ease of DSD is reproduced, the high end detail is some of the best I have ever heard from any DAC playing DSD files."

"I sat back and listened to a large number of DSD64 files under both ASIO and Core Audio with Decibel. The ASIO driver sounded much better than the Core Audio driver that used DoP; and not by a small amount. The DoP playback with the Core Audio driver sounded somewhat compressed with less bloom and high end air. The soundstage was far more open sounding listening with the ASIO driver. And it wasn’t just DSD that benefited from the ASIO driver playback, but also PCM files. The PCM files simply sounded better with the ASIO exaSound driver."

"All of my favorite DACs (see Favorite Bit DACs) that I have reviewed for AudioStream cost far more than the exaSound e22 DAC. But in some ways, it deserves to be compared to these stellar performers. Compared to these DACs."

Read the review