[jasonl]

This amazingly compact, high performance and USB powered (by mobile phones, including iPhone directly) DAC and headphone amp is now available for purchase as a circuit board for DIY projects. 
Many low cost portable DACs can only decode up to 24-bit/96kHz PCM and do not support DSD decoding. The ENCORE mDSD is capable of decoding sample rates ranging from 44.1kHz to 384kHz (PCM) as well as native DSD decoding ranging from DSD 64 up to DSD 256, making it the most capable USB-powered portable DAC on the market today! 

 

Visit Indiegogo project at http://igg.me/at/ENCOREmDSD

Standard price is $99 with aluminium case and $69 without case.  Buy now for 30% savings or more on Indiegogo.

 

The Encore mDSD is designed and manufactured by NuPrime Audio (www.nuprimeaudio.com), winner of four Product Of The Year Awards (The Absolute Sound, SoundStage! Network) in 2015.

Features:

1. 32-bit/384kHz PCM and native DSD 256 decoding
2. Discrete USB audio receiver and D/A converter
3. Asynchronous transfer mode for doubled jitter-reduction at data input and over-sampling filter stages
4. High-performance headphone amplifier
5. Optical output (shared with 3.5mm headphone out) capable of S/PDIF and DoP stream
6. USB powered, no external power supply required.  It can be powered directly by mobile phones USB port.
7. Headphone output impedance 30Ohm to 300Ohm
8. Headphone output power >= 40mW x 2
9. Diminutive size measuring just 2 - 3/8" x 1 - 3/16" x 3/8"
10. Works with Android (4.1 & above with OTG), iOS (with camera adapter USB cable), Windows 7/8/10, and Mac.  Windows device driver download is required, other devices do not need driver.

 

[pekingduck]

@jasonl what's the output impedance of the phone out?

 

[alpha421]

Thanks for a clearer picture of the inards.  I didn't jump on it when I got the email notification a few days ago due to not knowing some of the specs.  Looks like another another Sabre DAC.  Any specs on the analog stage/amplification and how much voltage is being demanded by the USB? It would be nice to know on a rough level how much this thing sucks up smartphone battery.

 

[jasonl]

It uses ESS 9010K2M DAC chip with XMOS USB chip.
iOS on iPhone limits the USB power that external device can draw to 20mA. Assuming that mDSD draws (this depends on the playback volume) 15mA, therefore if you use it for one hour, it consumes 15mAh charge. iPhone 6 has 1800 mAh battery, it will take 120 hours to deplete the battery if mDSD is the only device consuming power. But we know the iPhone battery typically last for a day so. This rough estimation gives you a perspective of how little mDSD consume power when compared to other circuits inside iPhone.
We designed mDSD for mobility so it can be powered directly by smart phones or tablet.
 
I am getting additional spec from engineering.  I travel a lot so this tiny DAC has become my personal favourite since I don't have to charge it and it works with iPad (through USB camera adapter cable) and iPhone.

 

[jasonl]

I updated the features list above with output impedance and headphone power.

 

[jasonl]

Here's USB Audio Player Pro playing DSD128 file and stream DoP to Encore mDSD.