Musician Audio - DELPHINUS R2R DAC

Musician Audio - Draco R2R DAC is as the name suggests an R2R DAC (fully balanced via the XLR outputs), stationary DAC. This is Muscian's cheapest DAC today, but still with similar functionality as the more expensive sibling Pegasus. Here Musician has saved some production costs by having a slightly simpler power supply and cheaper components in some area. It handles a large number of different encoding types and sampling frequencies (everything you might need ...). It has a very relaxed ("analogue" ...) sound that is still very detailed and musical. NB 1! This DAC cannot be used as a preamplifier because it lacks volume control. NB 2! Musician Audio does not recommend using both RCA and XLR outputs at the same time. It can be done, but the sound quality deteriorates significantly. Draco R2R DAC in brief: * Proprietary R2R + DSD Architecture * True balanced 24BIT R2R + 6BIT DSD (32 steps FIR Filters) * Sampling Mode: Non-Oversampling NOS / Oversampling OS * Supported sampling rates - I2S / USB: PCM up to 32bit 1536kHz, DSD up to DSD1024 - Other inputs: PCM up to 24bit 192kHz, DSD DoP up to DSD64 * Inputs (Digital) - 1xUSB-B, 1xCoaxial (SPDIF), 1xOptical Toslink, 1xAES / EBU, 1x I2S via HDMI LVDS * Outputs (Analog) - 1x RCA, 1x Balanced XLR * Available in silver and black The package includes: * 1x Musician Audio - Draco R2R DAC * 1x Power cable "At the end of the day what really matter is that the Draco excels at presenting music in an engaging manner. Even though this DAC is not a state of the art component it enables the cost conscious audiophile to have more than a taste of the good stuff in audio, and show that genuine high fidelity is not solely in the orbit of those with deep pockets. In the critical midband area the Draco has a presentation that emulates the tonal characteristics of a well executed tube amplifier, has an excellent portrayal of acoustic space, and retrieves a higher degree of low level detail from a recording when compared to other digital to analog converters that compete at this price point. If you value musical reproduction over an array of features and displays, then the Draco by Musician Audio should be on your list of components to audition, as I have yet to hear any digital to analog at this price point that can bring music alive the way this one does." Positive feedback (Mars 2022) "Draco is only a DAC and nothing more, that is his most powerful skill, but also its weakest link. As a DAC it would perform better to the usual entry to mid-level chip-based converters, but you should prepare a budget for a preamplifier in case you’re driving your speakers with power amps as I’m doing. There is some bad attitude in this one mixed with fire and passion and it really carries a family resemblance. While it’s not the most technical, fast of impactful sounding unit, it made my music right, natural and smooth and for these reasons alone I’m going to award it with a Silver Award. Its price was fully justified and as of right now it doesn’t have a lot of competition." SoundNews.Net (Dec 2021)