Digital to analog audio converter review

#Digital to analog audio converter review free

And after an extended listening session, you are bound to realize that listening fatigue is not an issue with this DAC. In this respect, the DAC1 runs circles around the AH! Super Tjoeb I have had on hand as a reference in the under $2K price range. Reproduction of bass lines is tuneful with excellent pitch precision. Transients are launched with the speed of a photon torpedo and plunge down to the depth of the recording's noise floor. Kick back and savor its exceptional resolution of low-level detail or the clarity with which it paints instrumental outlines. There may be a learning curve involved in appreciating the DAC1's musical qualities. The flip side of integrating a smooth, neutrally balanced, component such as the DAC1 into an existing system, is that its naturalness may be initially mistaken for lack of drive or emotional involvement. The point being that for many listeners the DAC1 will offer welcome relief from the indigestion and ear-burn caused by coarse and hot-sounding CD players. The odds are high that you are currently listening to an inexpensive dome tweeter take my word for it, you'd be lucky to find anything more inspiring that a $10 tweeter in speakers costing upward of $3K. It will blend in seamlessly into a system whose tonal balance is already emphasized in the treble.

#Digital to analog audio converter review free

In contrast, the DAC1's upper octaves are smooth and free of glare. That's probably why mass market CD players are most adept at reproducing multi-mic studio recordings, which by definition are glazed with a layer of EQ and artificial reverb, and do a poor job with natural concert-hall recordings. The DAC1's most remarkable sonic attribute is the absence of nasty digital artifacts, collectively categorized in my lexicon as 'digititis.' Almost all inexpensive DACs and CD players in recent memory have exhibited the sort of bright, somewhat edgy harmonic palette, that you never experience in live music. I will not bore you with a description of the unit's additional features, and would rather encourage you to visit the manufacturer's web site for more detail, including access to the User's Manual. This is a prime example of system building and how the sound of a particular component is dependent on its system context. The Blue Velvet with its 6SN7 vintage tube sound did a far better job in fleshing out a believable soundstage with a proper depth perspective. As a result, I decided to maintain an all-tube preamplifier in the signal chain. Specifically, image outlines diminished in 3-D palpability and soundstage depth shrunk. While such a system configuration may appeal to many users, I found the resultant sonic flavor to be strongly solid-state in its presentation. That means that the DAC1 may directly feed a power amplifier, without the intervention of a line stage or preamplifier. Switch on the rear of the chassis to Variable, it also controls the output levels of the balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA analog outputs. The front-panel gain volume pot not only controls the output level of the headphone jacks, but by setting the Calibrated/Variable

For most of my listening tests I used the AH! Super Tjoeb CD player's digital output. What that means to you and I in plain terms is that an inexpensive CD transport may be used to feed the DAC1. The UltraLockв„ў converter is said to exceed the jitter reduction performance of even two-stage PLL converters and to provide 100% immunity to interface jitter under all operating conditions. Most converters use a single-stage Phase Lock Loop (PLL), and premium designs deploy a two-stage PLL. Theoretically, this so called interface jitter need not affect the conversion process if the signal is properly re-clocked. Time base jitter accumulates as a digital signal propagates along a cable and from one digital device to another. The technical innovation at the heart of the DAC1 has been dubbed UltraLockв„ў conversion. Has all the buzz been on target? Is the DAC1 a contender or a mere pretender? We weigh in with our own take.

astounding in the context of high-end audio where such a sum of money may not even buy you a pair of interconnects. Part of the attraction has been its sub $1K price point ($975 to be exact) Over the past year it has garnered superlative reviews from the audiophile press and users alike. O n paper, the Benchmark DAC1 is a pro-audioДў4-bit/192kHz, upsampling, Digital-to-Analog audio converter sporting excellent specifications.