John
All the bigger Brits are now at it. Quad‘s dropping into the budget DAC space with the Link D-1 USB DAC. It’s asynchronous (of course) and can deal up to 32/192. It’s ace-in-the-hole is that it doubles-up as a USB/SPDIF convertor. The boys at IAG sure know how to pull rabbits out of hats.
“Link D-1 With the increased popularity of computers as source, this Link D1 USB DAC allows consumers to enjoy listening to digital music sources from a computer (Windows or Mac) via USB connection. This product is USB 1.1 and 2.0 compliant. No custom USB drivers or software programs are required. This device supports sampling frequencies ranging from 32kHz to 192kHz and incorporates a high quality digital-to-analogue converter (DAC). It can also serve as an USB interface simply to convert the data of music files from your computer to SPDIF signal for use with outboard DAC’s.”
[There ain’t no apostrophe in DACs, guys…….yes, I’m anally-retentive – what of it?]
Specifications:
- DAC Crystal CS4398
- Sampling Frequency 44.1kHz – 192kHz
- Maximum Sampling Frequency 192kHz
- Digital input 1 x USB (asynchronous mode)
- Digital output 1 x coaxial, 1 x Toslink optical
- Output voltage 4V (unbalanced)
- Output impedance 100Ω (unbalanced)
- Frequency response 20Hz – 20kHz (+/-0.2dB)
- Dynamic range 110dB
- Height 130mm
- Width 108mm
- Depth 42mm
- Carton size 600 x 400 x 340mm
- Net weight 0.7kg
- Gross weight 1.39kg
More information over at the Quad UK website. No word yet on pricing or availability.
