You are preaching to the converted!
Please do not misunderstand. There was no criticism implied with saying it's a good marketing strategy. It is something I would honestly consider using myself if I was launching a new product, as it's a relatively cheap method of advertising, which allows one to keep costs down and produce a product without the usual premium price tag one would expect from the use of an innovative, state-of-the-art and expensive chip. I am quite aware of how expensive the Buffalo chip based around the ESS 9018 was before TwistedPear discontinued production for rather obscure reasons. But I digress. I do appreciate the noble gesture of bringing an exciting dac within reach of all audiophiles out there.
But irrespective of price point, I believe that to use the ESS Dac 9018 and not to offer above 48kHz is a mistake and a wasted opportunity, as the excellence of this chip makes it a prime candidate to deal with the new high resolution material out there, that I for one am truly excited about. The Eastern Electric Dac is only a means to an end, as it should be, and ultimately it will be judged on how it serves that end. If that end does not encompass addressing the high resolution material, fair enough, but it is a serious limitation and I will be looking forward to another product that satisfies this requirement.
I will be disappointed though as I was almost certainly the first person in the UK to have ordered the dac and probably the reason we have a similar offering to Bill Connelly's albeit at a higher price (but we do get a five year warranty). I desisted from getting the Berkeley Alpha or Weiss Dac2, and may now find myself with a solution which fails to address my most important requirement.
So maybe it's just that I will have to go back to tracking down a 9018 or 9022 ESS Dac chip and seeing if I can get it to do what I really want. I will first wait to see a confirmation that the Eastern Dac is truely limited to 48kHz though.
Cheers
R
