Hifi Pig

Linn has launched the all new Klimax DS, the first product to feature Katalyst DAC Architecture – Linn’s 4th generation DAC platform.

“Katalyst takes an unprecedented level of control over the critical elements that lie at the heart of the analogue signal’s creation, to deliver the most accurate reproduction ever from a digital source” claims the Scottish brands recent press release.

In 2007 Linn launched their original DS player and in 2016, the five key aspects below have been improved utilising Linn’s investments in R&D:

Reference Level – Now completely isolated from noise to produce a high-stability input Reference Level that generates the signal’s amplitude without variation.

Independent Power Supplies – Independent, isolated power supplies are tailored for each process, so feedback from one process cannot influence the performance of another.

Data Optimisation – Linn-designed data optimisation stage that prepares the digital signal for conversion with greater accuracy, minimising errors right at the start of the process.

Master Clock – A single high precision clock with its own independent power supply ensures greater timing accuracy throughout.

Output Driver – The new ultra-low distortion analogue output driver prepares the analogue signal for transmission out of the device, making it less susceptible to noise and degradation.

Every aspect of the original DS design was carefully drawn from first principles in order to optimise performance, from the electronics inside to the clamshell enclosure, machined from a solid billet of aluminium.

Products and Pricing

The new Klimax DS and Klimax DSM featuring Katalyst DAC Architecture are available today in silver or black anodised finishes, with upgrades available for current owners.

Klimax DS: £15,800

Klimax DSM: £18,900

Klimax DS upgrade: £3,850

Klimax DSM upgrade: £4,200

Rockna DAC is available from £3950 for the single ended ‘edition’ model with balanced and ‘Signature’ versions also available. Released today is the latest firmware for existing customers and naturally new units will ship with Firmware 4.01 enabling DSD512 compatibility.

The company’s press release says “We always thought that high-end audio should be everything about innovation. Playing around with off-the-shelf available chips is fun and certainly a good and economic way to produce good sound. But once you want to design a cutting-edge product, the off-the-shelf approach doesn’t apply. Naturally, a custom solution, freed from the limitation of the available chipsets, come into place, allowing us to design and build from the scratch an entire digital audio system. All building blocks of the Wavedream DAC concerning digital processing are built entirely on a single piece of programmable silicon – a FPGA . With a FPGA, it’s internal hardware architecture could be described by a piece of software (actually, a very complex one). When upgrading the Wavedream with new firmware, you actually change it’s hardware. This system allows great flexibility, obsolescence protection and let us improve the sound of your dac by changing it’s internal architecture, or add new cool features, or improve the existing ones.”

Release notes for 4.01:

– enabled DSD256 (you need to set ASIO driver as output)

– enabled DSD512 (same)

– enabled dither option (not active in previous version)

– enabled clock option (same)

– brand new upsampling filters

For DSD256/512 playback files are scarce, one way of get great sound is to upsample everything is real-time using HQplayer (which can upsample to DSD512).

Dither “on” will reduce distortion for low level signals (starting at -80 dB and below) ; We used a triangular distribution, shaped mode dither – without increasing noise floor in the audio band.

Clock option works like this : stream mode will track the input frequency constantly while local mode will adjust the lock only from time to time, using a few stages of memory buffers.

Rockna Wavedream Dac and NET player is available in the UK at BD Audio.

The Formula DAC is the first in the aqua – acoustic production to show a proprietary D/A conversion system, that they have named Optologic DAC. This conversion system follows the same multibit technology (already used in the previous DACs such as La Voce and La Scala) but with a discrete R2R resistors ladder instead of Burr Brown PCM1704 dacs. 

Galvanic and magnetic isolations are implemented between the FPGA and the four branches of the R2R ladder converter. This creates complete isolation of all digital circuitry – including the clock – from the analogue section for a pure clean ground plane. It also plays the main role in the differential management of the R2R ladders, “achieving perfect symmetry between the counter-phase halves”.  

The Formula Dac uses no digital filter or any other compensation, relying instead on attention to each sub circuit. The analogue and digital power supplies are executed purely discretely by extensive use of BJT, Mosfet, Jfet and ultra-fast diodes. Passive parts were selected not just for the best sonic result but also for their top quality, longevity and reliability. With the exception of six superior quality electrolytics, all other caps are Tantalum, solid-polymer OS-CON and double-metalized MJP. The signal path itself is direct-coupled and free of all capacitors. The two output stages (one single-ended, one transformer-coupled balanced) use discrete BJT and JFet with metal-film resistors. All the electronics parts show an ultra low RF noise.

Schiit Audio have introduced Modi Multibit, the most affordable DAC in the Schiit Multibit lineup. Modi Multibit, which retails for £249, joins Bifrost Multibit, Gungnir Multibit, and Yggdrasil in the Schiit Multibit DAC line.

“Modi Multibit smashes the price barrier in advanced multibit DACs,” said Mike Moffat, Schiit’s Co-Founder and head of digital development. “It is the most affordable multibit DAC built on a modern architecture—from any manufacturer, in any country in the world.”

Modi Multibit is built on Schiit’s proprietary multibit DAC architecture, featuring Schiit’s unique closed-form digital filter on an Analog Devices SHARC DSP processor. For D/A conversion, it uses a medical/military grade, true multibit converter specified down to 1/2LSB linearity, the Analog Devices AD5547CRUZ. 

“It may seem incredible that, just a little over a year after we introduced our first multibit DAC, Yggdrasil, we’re introducing a multibit DAC that includes a version of the same digital filter and a real multibit D/A converter for 89% lower cost,” said Mike. “But we don’t believe that you should have to spend a boatload for great sound, so it makes complete sense.”

Modi Multibit is Schiit Audio’s fourth multibit DAC, and is built on Schiit’s second major multibit platform that was developed from the ground up. It fits into the line as follows:

Yggdrasil: Schiit Multibit 1 Platform, Modular/Upgradable, 8X Closed-Form Filter, AD5791BRUZ x 4, Choke-Input, Shunt Supplies, Discrete JFET Buffer Output, Gen 3 USB, £2045

Gungnir Multibit: Schiit Multibit 1 Platform, Modular/Upgradable, 8X Closed-Form Filter, AD5781BRUZ x 4, Discrete JFET Buffer Output, £1125

Bifrost Multibit: Schiit Multibit 2 Platform, Modular/Upgradable, 4X Closed-Form Filter, AD5547CRUZ, £540

Modi Multibit: Schiit Multibit 2 Platform, 4X Closed-Form Filter, AD5547CRUZ, £249

Multibit DACs differ from the vast majority of DACs in that they use true 16-20 bit D/A converters that can reproduce the exact level of every digital audio sample. Most DACs use inexpensive delta-sigma technology with a bit depth of only 1-5 bits to approximate the level of every digital audio sample, based on the values of the samples that precede and follow it.