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SOtM dX-USB HD Digital Audio Transporter DDC

  • Yup, another one. The SOtM dX-USB HD Digital Audio Transporter DDC is a ~US$500 box that converts USB to S/PDIF. With offerings from M2Tech, MHDT Labs, Audio-gd and Audiophilleo, this (low-rent) market space is really hotting up.

    The dx-USB HD box is externally powered and handles USB data transfer via the much-vaunted asynchronous method – up to 24/192 (so native on OS X but bespoke Windows drivers will be required). Outputs are AES/EBU, coaxial and optical.

    Most impressive of all, it’s specified as having two distinct oscillators for 44.1kHz and 48kHz sample rate families.

    Wot no I2S?  SOtM already manufacture the SOtM dX-USB USB Digital Audio Transporter DDC (also ~US$400) that trades AES/EBU for I2S, 24/192 for 24/96 and asynchronous for adaptive.

    SOtM? “Soul of the Music”. An opportunity missed: given their South Korean location, they shoulda called it “Seoul of the Music”.

    Specifications:

    • USB2.0 High Speed, USB Audio Class 2.0
    • 16/24Bit  44.1/48/88.2/96/176/192kHz
    • Asynchronous mode operation
    • Drivers for Windows XP-SP3 (32Bit), Vista-SP2 (32Bit), Vista-SP2 (64Bit), 7 (32 & 64Bit), Native with Mac OSX 10.6.4 or above
    • Indicate LED (Power, Sampling rate)
    • Powered by the USB bus, or external power supply
    • Power regulation circuit  using ultra low noise regulators
    • 400/500MIPS 32bit Multi-threaded Processors (XMOS)
    • Ultra high speed RS422 driver for AES/EBU, Coaxial , Toslink
    • High grade components: PPS film chip capacitor, conductive polymer capacitor, audio grade electrolytic capacitor
    • Dual full size high quality oscillator (one for 44.1kHz family, another for 48kHz)
    • 105x53x150 (WxHxD)
    • Approximately 490g

    Wanna buy one?  US$500 via eBay.

    Written by John

    John currently lives in Berlin where he creates videos and podcasts for Darko.Audio. He has previously contributed to 6moons, TONEAudio, AudioStream and Stereophile.

    Darko.Audio is a member of EISA.

    Follow John on YouTube or Instagram

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