Parasound, the San Francisco-based manufacturer of high-end audio components, introduces the Zdac, a 192 kHz Digital to Analog Converter. Zdac is the newest addition to Parasound’s compact ‘half-width’ Z-Series product family and it is available in either a black finish with rack-mounting tabs or the new silver finish without rack-mount tabs.

“The Parasound Zdac brings digital-to-analog converter (DAC) technology to an entirely higher level of performance at a price comparable to many conventional aftermarket DACs,” said Richard Schram, President of Parasound. “The Zdac is an ideal upgrade for many components such as digital media players with less-than-optimal on-board DACs, or computer audio, TV audio, CD or other player with digital outputs. It is rugged, reliable, and easy to hook up. Once it is up and running there is little to do but enjoy the music.”

At the core of the Zdac’s design is Clockflawless(TM), a new method to eliminate jitter invented by Holm Acoustics in Denmark. It preserves the source signal in bit-perfect form, while restoring the timing information in the stream of the original recording. All timing errors introduced and accumulated during the transport phase are removed for SPDIF and Optical as well as USB.

The Parasound Zdac accepts 24 bit word lengths and all sampling rates up to 192kHz on SPIF and Optical and 96kHz on USB.

Both versions of the Parasound Zdac Digital to Analog Converter will be available the second week of November with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $475.

 

 

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We recently got an e mail from German designer Rafael Cichy at Kompatibel Design with regards to an interesting and modular hifi rack made from concrete – the Thorax. Failing to find a suitable rack for his own kit Rafael decided to go it alone and build his own system.
There are three modules in the Thorax range:
O: With space for vinyl
E: With three levels for hi-fi equipment.
C: With two levels for larger equipment such as power amplifiers etc.
The measurements are: 52 cm x 52 cm x 8 cm with a thickness of 4 cm
The connectors to join the modules are available in three widths: 5 cm ; 4 cm ; 3 cm and are made of stainless steel or aluminium (brushed / anodized)
The three widths makes it possible to adjust the distances between each element to ensure the feet of the hifi equipment fits properly.
On the back of the Thorax it’s possible to hide the cables in pipeline to clean up the look of the hifi furniture.
and of course it is possible to use thorax as speaker stands.
We love the design of this and sure it will look great with high-end audio atop it!
Price is 357€ per unit.

Electrocompaniet is launching today a new integrated amplifier with a built-in DAC in the Prelude range. The amplifier is based on the PI 2 amplifier and boasts 2 x 100 Watts. Up to 5 Digital sources can be connected to the PI 2D: two Coax, two TOSLink and one USB. Analog sources can be connected by one balanced XLR input and four single ended RCA inputs giving a total of 10 inputs.
The PI 2D will have a RRP of 3150€

Technical specifications:
• Input impedance ( Single Ended ): 60 kOhm
• THD + N: < 0.005%
• Output Impedance: < 0,03  Ohm
• Frequency response:  1 – 225kHz
• Channel separation:  > 120 dB
• Noise floor ( 1Vrms, 20 – 20 kHz, balanced): <-130 dB
• Damping factor: >300
• Rated output power   8 ohms  2 x 100 W, 4 ohms  2 x 165 W,  2 ohms  2 x 220 W
• USB input: 192kHz/24bit Asynchronous
•  Weight: 11Kg

Price €3150