Sacramento, Calif. – High-end audio supplier
has begun shipping a
$20,000-suggested 384kHz/32-bit USB 2.0 DAC.
The 61-pound Da Vinci,
which is the company’s first product, features two-piece aluminum chassis
designed to isolate the power circuitry. The flat, square upper module houses
power for all AC-to-DC conversions, control functions, the display, and the
clocks, while the square base plate houses the digital and fully balanced
analog circuits and a gear-shaped heat sink. The top module rotates so the two modules
can sit at 45-degree angles.
Key features include
ability to accept 384kHz/32-bit pulse code modulation (PCM) digital audio
without upsampling, automatic LSB (least significant bit) correction to deliver
bit-perfect audio, and 3-L buffering to offset speed fluctuations in the source.
The device also features three clocks. One clock is for 44.1, 88.2, 176.4 and
352.8kHz sampling frequencies. A second is for
48, 96, 192 and 384kHz sampling frequencies, and a third is for the USB
interface. Da Vinci selects each clock automatically according to the sample
rate of an input file.
A proprietary Duet Engine uses analog interpolation to
double a file’s original sampling rate without digital upsampling,
over-sampling, or noise shaping to deliver smoother high frequencies.
