Aligned with the common practice of recent years, DAC-X16 is a narrow-width device that can easily be placed almost anywhere. The chassis is quite heavy-built, with a thick aluminum faceplate and high-quality finish. It is available in two standard colors, black matte displayed on these pages and silver.
The device is particularly simple to operate and the user interface is limited to a jog-dial/push-button combination and a monochrome OLED screen. Through these, the user can select one of the inputs, adjust the level and navigate through a relatively simple menu, from where he can control all of the options available, such as the digital filter, the oversampler by-pass, and the phase. The screen also displays basic information about the current state of the device, such as the selected input, signal attenuation, and the sample rate that the current input has locked on. All the options are also accessible through a stylish and good feel in use remote control, although the very small characters used on the screen make this a little bit difficult, while in a medium/long distance from the device. I would prefer something larger, although the truth is that as time passes and you get better accustomed to the user interface, you can go through it without looking at the screen...

Connectivity of the DAC-X16 is good and includes standard digital inputs, coaxial and optical S/PDIF and AES/EBU, an I2S input, implemented through an HDMI connector and a USB port. Sample rate support is excellent and through its standard digital inputs, the device supports up to 24-bit/192kHz and DSD64 (DOP) PCM and DSD streams, while sample rates up to 32-bit/768kHz, DSD256 (DOP), and DSD512 (Native) are supported through I2S and USB. One should not omit to mention the fact that DAC-X16 offers ad-hoc wireless streaming via Bluetooth v5.0, supporting LDAC, AAC, aptX, aptX LL, and aptX HD codecs. The device is compatible with MQA (Full Decoding, via USB and Rendering through its standard inputs and the I2S input). The analog output is available through both single-ended and balanced connections, with level attenuation implemented in the digital domain.

The inside of the device reveals a carefully structured system, based on a relatively bulky toroidal transformer and a basic filter with four 2200μF capacitors, followed by local regulator circuits featuring linear regulator chips from Texas Instruments.
The digital interface includes a CS8422, which manages the signals from the standard digital inputs, and an XMOS processor solution (XU216), which manages the streams via the USB port. The AES/EBU input includes an isolation transformer. The digital signal passes through an Altera CPLD where some basic processing is carried out in the digital domain. Clocking is done through two high-precision Accusilicon oscillators, one for each basic sampling frequency (44.1kHz and 48kHz).

The digital signal is converted to analog by one ES9068AS chip per channel. The particular DAC from ESS includes two channels per chip, and is capable of operating up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD1024 sample rates, offers a selection of digital filters (which can be customized by the device manufacturer) as well as a -relatively unusual-, bypass function for its internal oversampling filter, optionally controlled by the user.
The DAC output is fed to Texas Instrument's OPA1612 operational amplifiers which are supported with high-quality passives, like Vishay resistors and WIMA capacitors where necessary (for example in low-pass filters). Another OPA1612 is used to create the single-ended signal from the balanced output of each ES9068AS. Bluetooth is implemented by a Qualcomm CSR8675 SoC.

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