For more than three decades ESS™ Technology has been on the cutting edge of audio technology. A privately held, fabless semiconductor company, ESS Technology designs and markets high-performance analog and audio devices for consumer, automotive, and professional audiophile systems. The company was founded in 1984 by Forest Mozer to produce synthetic speech for various devices including the first wave of speech enabled toys and iconic home computer systems, like the Commodore 64. Today, ESS Technology is best known for its SABRE series of high- performance audio products.
SABRE DACs – Since their first introduction in 2008, SABRE DAC products have been at the cutting edge of the professional and audiophile markets, they are used today across many audiophile, consumer, and professional applications. The success of SABRE DACs led to the creation of the SABRE HiFi line in 2014. The SABRE HiFi DACs carry outstanding sound quality into multiple markets which require lower power consumption and smaller packaging. The ES9038Q2M is currently the best performance low-power DAC available. Along with the demand for lower power comes a demand for increased integration, so ESS met that demand with a line of integrated Headphone SoCs. These highly integrated systems are the ideal way to drive high-quality audio to a headset when space and power are important constraints. In 2016 a new generation of Audiophile products were introduced as the SABRE PROline. These products are intended to offer the Benchmark in Audio quality and the flagship ES9038PRO is wildly regarded as the best sounding DAC on the market today.
In 2022, the next generation of SABRE PRO DACs were introduced. The new flagship ES9039PRO and the ES9027PRO add new features and lower power as each device gives outstanding performance for both audiophile and professional markets.
Sabre ADCs– ESS introduced the first series of audiophile ADCs. The new series of SABRE PRO and SABRE ADCs with an Ultra Low Noise Floor Bandwidth of 200kHz.The Ultra Low Noise Floor Bandwidth is up to 10 times wider than the competition, enabling higher resolution at higher sample rates.
The PRO series, when in Mono mode, have up to+128dB of dynamic range and -117dB of THD+N, a performance mark that is the best in the industry today.
The new SABRE PRO ADCs are ideally matched with existing SABRE PRO DACs such as the ES9039PRO.Together, these parts make the most acoustically transparent signal processing loop available.
These new SABRE PRO and SABRE ADCs are ideal for the most demanding of equipment, including audio mixing consoles, high-performance Microphone Preamplifiers, Audiophile equipment, samplers, audio processors and test equipment.
SABRE USB– In 2018 ESS took the lead for single-chip solutions for audiophile-quality USB headphones and adaptors. The ES9281PRO is a highly-integrated solution that includes a USB 2.0 Controller, SABRE DAC, and high-power headphone driver, along with a wide range of additional blocks needed for a USB headset or dongle. It is also the first product with integrated hardware for MQA rendering. The family of USB Codecs offers several levels of performance as well as features to match the needs of a range of USB applications.
Crescendo– ESS has a long history in highly integrated SoCs for audio-visual applications, and in 2010 we began offering the Crescendo line of SoC dedicated to Sound bar products. Crescendo quickly established itself as the major platform for leading consumer-product makers. Continuing today with the Crescendo VII, this line offers cost-effective highly-integrated solutions for sound bars, multimedia speakers, wireless subwoofers and other devices that require multi-core audio processing and industry standard algorithms.
