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Standalone DACs

One way to enhance your system to upgrade your digital conversion to current specifications is to add a stand-alone Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC). This can be used for multiple reasons including some, or all, of the following:


  • Upgrading a CD player or CD transport
  • Upgrading and/or enabling sound from a PC, laptop or streamer
  • Upgrading sound from AV equipment or a games console
  • Giving multiple additional digital inputs to any hi-fi system
  • Pre-amp ability (with some models)
  • Adding a high-quality headphone amplifier (with some models)


After long listening tests we have decided to stock the following units which we feel offer exceptional value and performance, for their price points:

Audio Analogue AADAC (DAC, Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier)

We have been enamoured with the fully balanced AADAC since it arrived. The sound quality of this unit is totally seductive offering a large and large soundstage, excellent image separation, fine detail and micro dynamics delivered with finesse. Bass is full bodied and extended, along with class leading dynamics and depth of image. The compact 22cm wide unit has been designed to match the style of the other Audio Analogue products and looks striking. A worthy partner with and CD transport but a natural partner for the AAdrive shown under the CD player part of this section.

  • Audio Analogue AADAC (DAC, Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier) features

    • High performance D/A converter stage up to 32bit/768Khz using Sabre ES9038
    • Amanero USB converter up to 32bit/384KHz and native DSD (up to 512)
    • 7 different selectable digital filters

    Digital Inputs:

    - 2 x Coax

    - 1 x Toslink Optical

    - 1 x AES/EBU Balanced

    - 1 x USB B

    - Antenna for Bluetooth aptX


    Sample Rates:

    - SPDIF (up to 24bit/192KHz)

    - Toslink (up to 24bit/96KHz

    - AES/EBU (up to 24bit/192KHz) digital inputs

    - Bluetooth aptX® high quality audio wireless input (up to 16bit/48KHz)


    • Analogue outputs:
    • - Both RCA and Balanced XLR
    • Separate boards for each stage
    • Separate power supplies dedicated to digital and analogue sections
    • Fully balanced and discrete audiophile components in the output stage to perfectly support the ultra-low noise and ultra-low distortion digital stage
    • High quality headphone output
    • Possibility to use in direct (DAC) or volume regulated mode (DAC + preamp)
    • Full aluminium construction

Audio Analogue AA DAC in silver or black £4,500

I think the AAdrive and AAdac are both something of a high-end star combination, in the making. They deserve to be at the front end of some extremely high-grade audio.


It (Audio Analogue) can do to digital what it does so well to Analogue shouldn’t be a surprise. However, the fact it does it so well, making this one of the go-to front ends to beat at the price still comes of something of a surprise, in part because the AAdac, in particular, takes on an extremely contended market. And wins.


Finally, the AAdrive and AAdac combination taken together is worthy of note, as they represent one of the best ways of making a good sound from CD for the high-end enthusiast without £50k to burn.

- Alan Sircom Hifi+ March 2021

Audio Analogue AADAC (DAC, Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier

Audio Analogue AADAC (DAC, Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier

Audiolab Stand-alone DACs

Audiolab have released two new desktop DACs to replace the outgoing M-DAC+. The M-DAC+ was the evolution of the original, ground-breaking and multi-award winning, M-DAC. Audiolab have a great track-record in manufacturing DACs in this price sector. The D7 offers exceptional value for money, with the D9 pushing Audiolab DAC performance into a new level.



Whenever we listen to an Audiolab DAC we are always impressed with the performance for the money and the new D7 and D9 are no exception. Both offer a detailed 3-d sound-field. The D9 is a step up in transparency and dynamics. The D9 also renders the bottom octave more cleanly and has better connectivity.

Audiolab D9 Flagship DAC, Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier

Build

The Audiolab D9 is housed in a sleek all-aluminium chassis, ensuring both durability and shielding from external interference. It is designed to be the digital hub of your system. It matches the flagship-build level of the 9000 series, in a slimmer chassis, using the same 2.8 inch full-colour IPS display found in the 9000 series too. It provides detailed visual access to DAC filter settings and functions, display options, and total control.


DAC

The Audiolab D9 utilises the flagship ESS Sabre32 ES9038PRO DAC, a 32-bit reference-class chipset renowned for its superior signal-to-noise performance, ultra-low distortion and wide dynamic range. This industry-leading DAC, combined with HyperStream® II architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator, ensures unparalleled detail, clarity, and precision. Both of these technologies minimise digital timing errors which is essential for micro-detail delivery. Developed through years of expert engineering, the HyperStream II architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator technology use an advanced clocking system to ensure timing accuracy with minimal phase noise. This results in a naturally accurate, three-dimensional soundstage, preserving the integrity of the original recording.


Premium Analogue Stage & Balanced Connectivity
The D9’s high-performance analogue section features balanced XLR and RCA outputs, providing a pristine signal path for integration into your hi-fi. Fully Balanced XLR or RCA line-level outputs ensure premium signal integrity continues into the analogue domain.


Power Supply

Linear power supply featuring an oversized 40VA toroidal transformer.


Headphone amplifier

The D9 is a high-power headphone amplifier with current-feedback circuitry. It is designed for all headphone types and ensures exceptional clarity and drive. With wide bandwidth and a high slew rate performance, the D9 is a formidable headphone amplifier solution.

  • Audiolab D9 additonal information:

    The D9 is engineered to support the highest-resolution audio formats, making it the ideal choice for audiophiles and professionals alike, with PCM up to 32-bit/768kHz, DSD up to 22.5MHz (DSD512) and Full MQA Decoding – Authentic master-quality playback from streaming services or local files on PC or Mac.


    Audiolab’s expert ESS implementation provides five selectable DAC reconstruction filters, allowing users to fine-tune the listening experience based on their system configuration and source material.


    Users can also opt to upsample digital audio signals to 352.8kHz or 384kHz, using the expertly implemented DAC reconstruction filter settings. This allows the DAC to extract and revive intrinsic musical detail.


    The D9 is more than just a high-end DAC—it is a versatile digital hub designed to accommodate the most versatile audio setups. It features:

    Inputs:

    • 2x Coaxial

    • 2x Optical S/PDIF digital inputs

    • 1 x USB HDD Drive connection 

    • 1 x USB type-B input for Streamers, PCs, Macs, smartphones, or tablets. 

    • 1 x AES/EBU input for professional-grade systems

    • Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC

    Outputs:

    • 1 x Coax

    • 1x Optical S/PDIF Digital outputs also allow system expansion in the digital domain. 


Audiolab D9 DAC in silver or black £1099

Audiolab D9 DAC

Audiolab D9 DAC in silver

Audiolab D7 DAC, Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier

Build

Compact, rugged and uncompromising in features, the D7 is designed to reflect the traditional Audiolab styling, fit and finish. It comes equipped with an OLED display and an intuitive operational menu that offers instant access to the features, functions and performance capabilities that set it apart from other DAC offerings within this class.


DAC

Taking heavy influence from the Audiolab 7000A, the D7 incorporates the excellent ESS 9038Q2M chipset which is known for low noise, low power requirement and good transients. However, accompanied by proprietary circuitry to make the most of the ESS HyperStream II architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator for ultra-low noise and high dynamic range, Audiolab engineers have the proven knowhow in implementation of this chip to make class-leading Digital Audio Conversion devices.


Output stage

Outputs are offered in both RCA and XLR


Headphone amplifier

The D7 features a high-power headphone amplifier with current-feedback circuitry to round out the versatility. Like the 7000A, this solution is designed for all headphone types, ensuring exceptional clarity and drive.

  • Audiolab D7 additonal information:

    Inputs:

    • 2 x coaxial

    • 2 x optical

    • 1 x USB HDD input for playback from external flash drives

    • 1 x USB type-B input for Streamers, PCs, Macs, smartphones, or tablets. 

    • Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX / aptX HD

    Outputs:

    • 1 x Coaxial

    • 1 x Optical


    The D7 offers hi-res audio support with DSD up to 22.5792MHz (DSD512) and 32-bit/768kHzBit PCM via USB, or 24-bit/192kHz PCM over S/PDIF (optical and coaxial). It’s also a full MQA decoder, with the complete ‘three unfold’ decoding process performed internally, rather than just the final unfolds in the manner of an MQA render.


    Users can opt to upsample digital audio signals to 352.8kHz or 384kHz. With the expertly implemented DAC reconstruction filter settings, the D7 offers five options to adjust performance to match source files or system components. This nuance will be much welcomed, given the sheer variety of digital file formats supported, not to mention headphone users or digital streaming service users.

Audiolab D7 DAC in silver or black £449

Audiolab D9 DAC

Audiolab D7 DAC in black

Hegel D50 DAC 

Hegel have introduced a stand-alone DAC to their portfolio, affectionately known as the Raven. This nickname comes from Norse folklore. As Hegel put it, In Norse mythology, the ravens Hugin and Munin brought Odin unparalleled insights, revealing the world's hidden truths. With their D50 DAC, Hegel is aiming to do the same with its musical insight.


The D50’s minimalist aesthetics match that of the Viking CD player, H600 and their reference Pre and Power combinations. The front facia is free from clutter, as the three control buttons are hidden underneath the centre of the front panel. The dimmable screen will display all relevant information. This makes for an easy companion to live with day to day.


This unit replaces Hegel’s HD-30 DAC which also incorporated a pre-amplifier. Hegel made a conscious decision to manufacture a more stripped back and focussed product this time. The goal was to maximise sonic performance, rather than greater functionality. For this reason, and the pre-amp functionality has been dropped, and the resultant sonic performance is in a different league altogether to the previous HD-30. 


The D50 DAC is designed to be as low in distortion as possible. The chassis houses 2 shielded toroidal transformers. These two items are compartmentalised behind a steel shield to minimise any stray RFI noise. Of these transformers, one is used for the noisier digital functions and stand-by functionality, with the other being used for the more sensitive digital and analogue components. Their output is also filtered before entering the unit, further lowering noise.


Hegel have shown real attention to detail with this design, even down to the circuit board traces which are routed with curved corners to minimise impedance drops and reduce stray radiation. 


The DAC chip itself, the ESS flagship 9039, is housed on a separate circuit board which is raised above the rest of the electronics further driving down noise and minimising signal path lengths. The resulting digital processing is very accurate and clean of unwanted digital artifacts.

DAC-Loop

Dac
Dac
Dac

Sands of Time

Stark beauty of desolate dunes

While the D50 is an ideal match for Hegel’s reference separate components, Hegel has ensured that the D50 can also be seamlessly integrated with its higher-level streaming amplifiers using a connection it calls DAC-Loop. 


The DAC-Loop which, when connected to Hegel’s top-level integrated amplifiers, allows the internally-streamed digital music to pass via the D50 DAC. The DAC-Loop utilises the digital output connection and menu functions of the amplifiers to pass the internally-streamed digital music to the D50 DAC. By utilising the latest Hegel DAC technology, this upgrades the in-built streamer, along with all other digital inputs, resulting in a superior sound quality. Essentially future-proofing the amplifier.


This DAC-Loop feature is available in the current H400 and H600 amplifiers but was also built into previous Hegel amplifier models, such as H300, H360, H390 and H590, allowing owners of these amplifiers to benefit from the latest Hegel DAC technology.


In our listening tests we found this to be a very dimensional performer with wide and deep soundstage. Due to the low noise floor, the sound it creates is textured and revealing of fine detail information. It still has the Hegel sonic signature, marginally on the warm side of neutral, with a smooth and refined high frequency performance. Highs are handled with real delicacy, whilst lows are delivered with real impact and definition. Even compared with the already excellent DAC in the H600, this is a step up in performance in every way, painting a much larger sonic image. It has a rich character. Vocals are particularly well rendered, with the emotion being clearly portrayed.


  • Hegel D50 DAC additional technical Information

    Hegel are most proud of how they process incoming signals before entering the DAC chip itself. The AES/EBU input features as advanced PS422 receiver with a balancing transformer, allowing it to handle weak to strong signals flawlessly, free of jitter and time delays. 


    For SPDIF-based inputs, signals are received on a custom-designed card that unpacks the native I2S data. This process is inherently noisy and prone to timing errors, however the D50 addresses these issues head-on. The decoded signals are re-clocked using no less than three dedicated master clocks: one for SPDIF signals, and for USB, plus separate master clocks for 48kHz and 44.1kHz sample rates. Strategically placed, with minimal signal path lengths, to minimize noise, these clocks deliver a perfectly timed signal to the DAC chip, enabling the purest and most accurate digital-to-analogue conversion.


    Almost all HiFi today uses asynchronous up-sampling to convert digital audio data to analogue. Hegel found that using this kind of asynchronous converter technology will convert jitter error into amplitude error, giving less than optimal sound quality. The Hegel are using a new digital to analogue conversion technology called synchronized up-sampling (SynchroDAC) that produces better timed digital signals, which is very important to lower jitter, the enemy of high resolution. The SynchroDAC converter technology is using truly balanced signal processing to preserve the highest possible dynamic range and to reduce distortion.


    The output stage has also been carefully considered and uses Hegel’s Linear Phase ‘LineDriver’ technology which delivers high current capacity and low output impedance. This makes the unit very friendly regarding cables and its ability to work any amplifier. Hegel has designed the crucial analogue low pass filter and line driver circuits to preserve the highest possible dynamic range, free from distortion and noise.

  • Hegel D50 DAC Technical Specifications:

    Digital inputs: 1 x AES/EBU S/PDIF, 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x, 1 x Coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF, 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x, 1 x Coaxial (RCA) S/PDIF, 24/192, DSD64(DoP), MQA 8x, 2 x Optical S/PDIF, 24/96, MQA 8x, 1 x USB 32/384, DSD256(DoP), MQA 8x


    Line level outputs: 1 x Unbalanced fixed (RCA), 2.5 V, 1 x Balanced fixed (XLR), 2.5 V


    Analog bandwidth: More than 0 Hz - 100 kHz


    Signal-to-noise ratio: More than 100 dB


    Noise floor: Typically -150 dB


    Distortion: Less than 0.0002 %


    Power use in standby: Less than 0.5 W


    Power use when on: Less than 20 W


    Dimensions/weight: 43 x 30.5 x 9.9 cm (WxDxH), 6.6 kg


    Dimensions/weight US: 17 x 12 x 3.9" (WxDxH), 14.55 lbs


Available for an in-studio presentation, or home trial by appointment.

Hegel D50 DAC £4,250

Hegel D50 DAC

Hegel D50 DAC

Hegel D50 Dac, back

Hegel D50 DAC, rear view

Soulnote Audio DACs

Soulnote is a high-end audio brand from CSR Inc., founded in 2004 by the former members of Marantz Japan bringing much in-house expertise. Soulnote's headquartered are in Kanagawa, Japan.


Hideki Kato, Soulnote’s ‘Chief Sound Manager’ since 2016, has been working in high-end audio since late 1980s, having been deeply involved in the development of the legendary products from NEC and Philips.

  • Read more about Soulnote Audio and Hideki Kato

    During his long career, Kato has designed both digital and analogue equipment. One question kept bugging him, which was why something which measured better on the scope did not necessarily translate into improved audio quality. Indeed, he found the opposite to be true in some cases. During our evaluation of products over many years, when deciding on products for our curated portfolio, we have often found this to be the case. Technical specifications and scientific measurements tell you nothing about sound.


    Kato believes in listening to develop, not in just electronic design on paper. This focus on listening moves from the circuit and parts, to the chassis development too, where Soulnote have some innovative technologies including floating housings. All driven by the sonic advantages they bring not just the aesthetics.


    Kato is pushing for what he calls, ‘Dynamic Performance’. Through his listening tests, he has developed products with NOS (non-oversampling) mode for PCM Playback in their DACs, as well as Zero Negative Feedback designs in their amplifiers. Both of these technologies lower measured performance, but to the ear they produce much better dynamic performance and listening enjoyment. Soulnote believe that the timing of the impulse is all important, as is the recovery of the impulse. The use of their technologies enables the fastest signal possible, and thus the best timing.


Products


All of the Soulnote’s series of products share a very similar chassis design and size within each range for a very cohesive system look. All components are available in silver or back anodised aluminium.


Soulnote Series 1 components have a thick, milled front panels but conventional basic chassis to the top, bottom and rear.


Soulnote Series 2 units are built from milled aluminium panels on all sides, as well an introduction to their floating chassis technology.


Soulnote Series 3 units are built with absolutely no compromise. As well as milled panels, it incorporates all of their floating-chassis technology: top and bottom panels, along with the input and output sockets.


We first evaluated the D2 DAC and were very impressed. The new D-2 v2 has moved things forward and has a sound field bristling with information but is not bright at all. No high end harshness that is often the case with many current DAC designs. Bass is deep, taught and textured, a similar trait to their amplifiers. It conjures a realistic, large, 3-D sound field with natural timbres.



There is also a choice of NOS (non-oversampling) mode which bypasses a lot of the processing required for traditional oversampling mode, as is used in most DAC designs, as these require additional reconstruction filters and processing which can downgrade sound quality. The DAC also has filter options too allowing the owner the choice.


Soulnote D-1 v2 DAC   £4,400

Read more about the D-1 v2 DAC


Soulnote D-2 v2 DAC   £7,700

Read more about the D-2 v2 DAC


Soulnote Audio website>>


Audiolab M-DAC+
Soulnote D-1 v2 DAC
Soulnote D2
Soulnote D-2 v2 DAC