Aries Cerat Kassandra II Mk2 DAC
- Thread starter bmichels
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Is it the
joeexp
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Dimensions : 540mmW X 520mmD X 165mmH
Weight: 60kg!!
Weight: 60kg!!
Wildcatsare1
Headphoneus Supremus
Looks a lot more complex and I am sure expensive than my humble Monarchy M22B. Though the new caps are settling in quite well.
Sonic Defender
Headphoneus Supremus
Dimensions : 540mmW X 520mmD X 165mmH
Weight: 60kg!!
You can bet it is so stupidly expensive as to be absurd. Anything over say 4K for a DAC is absurd for me. Personal opinion only of course.
diamondears
Headphoneus Supremus
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You're right - my bad - I went straight to the product page and didn't read the news
Have you heard the British Audiolab 8200CD/MDAC?
Armaegis
Modern Modder Man of Manitoba
HTML... uphill, both ways!
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Dimensions : 540mmW X 520mmD X 165mmH
Weight: 60kg!!
As a guy who's still feeling the effects of a car accident from last year, this hurts my back just thinking about it. Seriously, I have a triple stack of Bryston amps which doesn't weigh this much.
Sonic Defender
Headphoneus Supremus
I owned an 8200CD. Found it a little sharp sounding so sold it went to a Gungnir for three years. For me, while detailed, there was something a little cold about the Audiolab. I think I only had it for about a year, maybe a little less. I know you weren't asking me, but I thought I would offer my very brief input.
BassDigger
500+ Head-Fier
Interesting, very interesting. But only relevant (to me) if the tech trickles (pours, without hesitation) down to something affordable.
Some of the blurb:
"
R2R converters are only available in instrumentation converters because of their higher price. They are used for their supreme settling time and absence of glitch artefacts. We chose to use the AD1865, a 18bit R2R converter, probably the best sounding audio doc presented up to date and especially in the version we use, the AD1865N-K. We went a bit further and used 32 of them, 16 converters per channel
."
Maybe that's why it's so heavy
Maybe that's why it's so heavy
Well here's the link if you want to read more
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the best sounding DAC ever, and the most expensive ever too. Maybe somebody can find the price
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the best sounding DAC ever, and the most expensive ever too. Maybe somebody can find the price
Dalgas
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If you ask for a price - you can´t afford it
joeexp
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32 of those :
The AD1865 is a complete, dual 18-bit DAC offering excellent THD+N and SNR while requiring no external components. Two complete signal channels are included. This results in cophased voltage or current output signals and eliminates the need for output demultiplexing circuitry. The monolithic AD1865 chip includes CMOS logic elements, bipolar and MOS linear ele- ments and laser-trimmed thin-film resistor elements, all fabri- cated on Analog Devices’ ABCMOS process.
The AD1865 is a complete, dual 18-bit DAC offering excellent THD+N and SNR while requiring no external components. Two complete signal channels are included. This results in cophased voltage or current output signals and eliminates the need for output demultiplexing circuitry. The monolithic AD1865 chip includes CMOS logic elements, bipolar and MOS linear ele- ments and laser-trimmed thin-film resistor elements, all fabri- cated on Analog Devices’ ABCMOS process.
jimmypowder
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FYI, some Infos that I received from Stavros Danos, the Managing Director of Aries Cerat Ltd :
" The Kassandra II series comes in two models,the Mk2,and the Signature Limited edition.
The Mk2 is already in production and available, lead time is 8-9 weeks after receipt of order,and is 18.000 Euros retail.
The Signature LE will be available in Q4 ,2015,and is 55.000 Euros retail.
Both model's output stage can drive easily headphones down to 120ohms directly,but have no volume control.The analog volume control is an optional module,at 1500e extra cost and is a remote controlled hybrid shunt-ladder,discrete-resistor attenuator.
Power output for headphone use is 0.24W (6Vrms) for 150ohm cans,and 0.2W for 300ohm.
Further specification are:
Output impedance: >40ohm
SE output( true balanced as option ,no extra cost)
Digital inputs:
Customized.
Any combination of Optical,AES,s/pdif
Asynchronous ,low noise powered USB,galvanic isolated
Double local re-clocking of data and clock stream
Sampling rate: up to 24/384KHz( USB input)
DSD over PCM (with software plugin)
Frequency responce:
-3db at full output : 6Hz~100KHz
Distortions/noise:
-80db 2nd Harmonic at -40db output level
-110db 3rd Harmonic at -40db output level
-120dbr noise floor
Power consumption: 170W"
" The Kassandra II series comes in two models,the Mk2,and the Signature Limited edition.
The Mk2 is already in production and available, lead time is 8-9 weeks after receipt of order,and is 18.000 Euros retail.
The Signature LE will be available in Q4 ,2015,and is 55.000 Euros retail.
Both model's output stage can drive easily headphones down to 120ohms directly,but have no volume control.The analog volume control is an optional module,at 1500e extra cost and is a remote controlled hybrid shunt-ladder,discrete-resistor attenuator.
Power output for headphone use is 0.24W (6Vrms) for 150ohm cans,and 0.2W for 300ohm.
Further specification are:
Output impedance: >40ohm
SE output( true balanced as option ,no extra cost)
Digital inputs:
Customized.
Any combination of Optical,AES,s/pdif
Asynchronous ,low noise powered USB,galvanic isolated
Double local re-clocking of data and clock stream
Sampling rate: up to 24/384KHz( USB input)
DSD over PCM (with software plugin)
Frequency responce:
-3db at full output : 6Hz~100KHz
Distortions/noise:
-80db 2nd Harmonic at -40db output level
-110db 3rd Harmonic at -40db output level
-120dbr noise floor
Power consumption: 170W"
$35,000 retail...will be on our audioprana.info if it isn't already.
There is also a 'plus' version that will add a volume control and a signature limited edition version that with the dac and power supply weighs 285 pounds...yikes!!
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