R&D

For many years we have been researching, improving and selling our discrete DACs and related products. This has resulted in new products nearly every year. We improved R2R with R4R (Mosaic series), created clean source (UPL96/U192 and ElectroTos), Improved R4R with Fractal-7 converter (DA96), managed to minimise source noise/jitter using the DAPI receiver and managed to directly drive speakers with the Fractal-31 converter. Most of these improvements are now implemented in our PowerDAC series.

Then came the supply chain issues that finally resulted in developing the PowerDAC-X series. The new Fractal-7 matriX converters consist of two fused Fractal-7 converters, the advantages are lower output impedance and only the lowest bits switching around the signal zero crossing for a much cleaner signal. PowerDAC-SX is based on unique Fractal-15 bridge matrix converters where one converter emulates 4 identical power DA converters in bridge configuration, providing up to 2 x 16W rms output power, this DA converter only consumes power when generating signals, because of related reduction in heat dissipation it could be placed in a compact conventional housing.

Philosophy

Every component in the signal path is imperfect and introduces extra degradation, non-linear components or circuits are especially problematic.

The degradation doesn't only consist of distortion & noise but it also causes clearly audible temporal (dynamic) distortion and limited resolution. Compare this with a gearbox having mechanical play, causing incorrect positioning, rattling during operation and faillure to track very small input axle movements. While running in one direction, output accuracy seems fine (compare this to a 1 KHz THD measurement) but when the rotation speed and direction keeps changing constantly and rapidly (compare this with music) the output axle won't accurately track the movement and rattles (noise). If the input axle movement is small compared to the backlash, the output axle won't even move or produces a very large error (compare this with low level signals in an audio set). Audio components with low THD & noise can still fail in the temporal distortion or resolution department, causing clearly audible distortion and or lack of refinement that theoretically shouldn't happen. When cascading multiple gearboxes (multiple components in an audio set or signal path) these problems even get worse. So it is logical to limit the amount of circuits or components in the signal path to an absolute minimum. Because distortion is cumulative (every extra component or part adds distortion) and the signal gets amplified it is wise to make the source (microphone, record, tape, DAC) as perfect as possible (the most important link in the audio set). We developed a DA converters that work with a power supply, switches (on or off) and resistors (linear components) exclusively, creating the shortest and most accurate practical signal path. This way we tackled distortion on all fronts (non-linear distortion, temporal distortion and loss of resolution). The virtually ideal solution (PowerDAC-S, PowerDAC-SX) skips the conventional analogue signal path and all related degrading by converting lossless digital information into an analogue signal at the end of the lossless digital signal path, just before the signal is presented to the speaker. Typical problems with digital circuits like jitter and (ground loop) noise were tackled by our Toslink DAPI receiver that provides perfect galvanic isolation, attenuates incoming noise, re-times all samples with a local, low jitter master clock. The DA converter is driven with a parallel digital audio interface.