Ensemble Dirondo Drive/HiDac for 2 week trial

[Rob N]

Here's some pics

[Rob N]

The Ensemble Dirondo Drive & Dichrono Hi-Dac are solid pieces each weighing around 13kg.Both the DAC & Drive have the Ensemble Logo cut (many times) into the top & side panels giving a lot of ventilation (although neither get warm),this could lead to the internals getting very dusty over time.

The Drive uses a Philips CD Pro2M mechanism,when the drawer is opened a microswitch is activated to stop the disc (should it be spinning) and the interior of of the mechanism is illuminated.A lightweight carbon fibre type disc with integral magnet secures the disc,when the drawer is closed the disc is read.

The Drive has BNC & RCA digital outputs but no optical output.Sample frequencies can be adjusted from 48,96 or 192khz,phase can be set & dither can be applied.The display is quite small & can be dimmed but turned off.

The Dichrono Hi-Dac has optical,BNC and RCA digital inputs and also one set of analogue inputs.There is one set of RCA analogue outputs but no balanced outputs.Phase can be set and there is a ‘Hi Res’ button which engages upsampling.A preamp is included with motorised volume control (this can be by passed by changing internal jumpers).The digital source selector has five positions (4 & 5 are not currently in use) and there is an illuminated analogue button which when activate glows red.When the unit is switched on the output is muted and the preamp volume control returns to zero after a few seconds the volume control rotates about 15 degrees,this so that any noise sent to the power amp is minimised,although if you have set the volume to a specific value you have to keep resetting it everytime the unit is switched back on

I am using the supplied Ensemble Gigaflux BNC digital cable

More to follow…..