cleg
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2011
- Posts
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I've recently found this really interesting company from Switzerland: https://www.aks-audio.com
They're mainly making big tube amps for speakers, but they have two interesting projects for Head-Fi enthusiasts. Desktop DAC/amp combo built with AD1851 and portable DAC/amp using classical Philips TDA1305
I've tried the recent model and I'm pretty impressed. It's really small, but it's using LT1886 as amp, giving ±4V voltage swing and about 300mA of current, plenty of driving power.
It supports only 44.1 and 48 kHz 16 bits, but it works with almost any device supporting USB Audio Class 1
And the best thing here — it's working for about 8 hours
As for sound, it's a bit of "vintage" with added punch on lows, smooth musical mids and non-fatiguing treble (think of HiFiMan's 60x, but with improved amp section)
Second revision got gain switch and is much less noisy, so it's a pretty good option for IEMs too.
Price is fairly reasonable — $220+shipping
More photos:
They're mainly making big tube amps for speakers, but they have two interesting projects for Head-Fi enthusiasts. Desktop DAC/amp combo built with AD1851 and portable DAC/amp using classical Philips TDA1305
I've tried the recent model and I'm pretty impressed. It's really small, but it's using LT1886 as amp, giving ±4V voltage swing and about 300mA of current, plenty of driving power.
It supports only 44.1 and 48 kHz 16 bits, but it works with almost any device supporting USB Audio Class 1
And the best thing here — it's working for about 8 hours
As for sound, it's a bit of "vintage" with added punch on lows, smooth musical mids and non-fatiguing treble (think of HiFiMan's 60x, but with improved amp section)
Second revision got gain switch and is much less noisy, so it's a pretty good option for IEMs too.
Price is fairly reasonable — $220+shipping
More photos:
