Yarlung Records.com | exaSound.com | YarlungRecords.NativeDSD.com
exaSound sponsored Yarlung’s first quartet of
albums in high resolution DSD, and exaSound
salutes Yarlung Records on its
10th Anniversary
Review by Robert H. Levi
Review by Dr. David Robinson
The Collaboration
Some audiophiles believe that Quad DSD is the finest medium to deliver great music on the planet. Recording music to Quad DSD is one thing, but playing it back is another much more difficult process. The circuitry and design aesthetic required to take the super high resolution DSD files and deliver them as living and breathing music takes enormous skill and care. For this most important and delicate step we are especially grateful to George Klissarov. It is his musical aesthetic and from-the-ground-up engineering that enabled him to create the exaSound e22, which must be one of the finest Quad DSD and high resolution PCM digital to analog converters on the planet. exaSound also makes the e28 multichannel DAC for surround sound but Yarlung remains a “purist stereo household” and it is the e22 we know and love. Not only is it small and easy to use, but it is intensely musical, such that one marvels at the quality of the music performance and has the luxury of forgetting that one is listening to a digital stream rather than living and breathing musicians performing for you in your listening room. This is magic, but the magic comes not from tricks but from superb engineering. We are honored to collaborate with George and exaSound to bring you this first Yarlung quartet of DSD releases. Learn more about exaSound at exasound.com
It was our friend the music critic David W. Robinson (review above) who twisted my arm into the DSD realm. Our success with Yarlung’s Single, Double and Quad DSD releases is “all his fault.” For which we are grateful. David loaned me his Hapi and Pyramix software from Merging Technologies in Switzerland to make these transfers from analog tape. Thank you David. Recording legend Tom Caulfield helped me set up the Pyramix system and then cut our recordings into tracks and added the metadata for our releases on NativeDSD.com. Working with Tom, and his cohorts Jared and Jonas Sacks at NativeDSD has been a pleasure, and the Merging Technologies system worked flawlessly without ever once requiring a reboot during our weeks of transfers. All three of them, Tom, Jared and Jonas, were tirelessly patient with this old-fashioned vacuum tube and analog tape guy (me) as I transferred the SonoruS Series of analog tapes to Quad DSD for these releases.
Famed audiophile critic Brian Moura, who first introduced me to George at exaSound, wrote this to me:
“exaSound has been an early leader in providing Direct Stream Digital (DSD) playback in their DACs. This includes the first DAC for the consumer market that provided both Stereo and Multichannel playback at resolutions up to Quad DSD (11.2 MHz) – 4 times the resolution level offered by the Super Audio CD (SACD). exaSound is also noted for their responsive customer service and custom software drivers that support Windows, Mac and soon Windows Server and Linux. It’s no surprise that they continue to win new customers with their products.”
David W. Robinson writes extensively for Postive Feedback Online, for which he is also the publisher and Editor-in-Chief. Like Brian Moura, David is known as “The Mountain” for his knowledge and experience with high resolution playback. David sent me this description of exaSound:
“Over the past several years, I have gotten to evaluate a number of DACs with DSD capabilities. Each has its own set of strengths, and a few weaknesses, which is only to be expected. But the exceptional work of George Klissarov and exaSound in their e22 and e28 DSD DACs is truly noteworthy — in every sense of that word. The combination of ease, naturalness, harmonic balance, detail, and silky elegance of presentation, make it a top-tier product, one of the very best in my experience. This is no surprise to me: George himself has wonderful sensibilities, well attuned to the task of fusing the audio arts and the music they cherish with the technical challenges posed by bringing the best out of the latest DSD advances. The results are splendid: A noble marriage of music with technology. We are all the beneficiaries of George Klissarov’s achievements at exaSound!”
People have asked me “Why NativeDSD?” Why should Yarlung focus on one distributor for these much-anticipated Yarlung albums? NativeDSD.com results from its founder’s love of music more than his love of profit. Jared Sacks is a superb musician and recording engineer living in The Netherlands but working all over the world, with a superb musical sense and extraordinary results with his recordings. My personal library includes many albums from Channel Classics, Jared’s label, and I was a fan years before I knew who Jared was. He created NativeDSD to serve the DSD listening community exclusively and to support labels that wished to join him in making these recordings widely available. Jared works with labels I respect greatly and has this to say about it: “If you are tired of listening to compressed audio and your desire is to instead play uncompressed, original recording quality sound, this is your one stop shop. You will find detail in the music you were never able to hear before…. NativeDSD was founded… to create a central place where music fans could go to find the highest quality music in the world in both Stereo and Multichannel, directly from those labels recording [and releasing] in DSD.” How could we resist? Please let me know what you think of the results.
–Bob Attiyeh, producer