dCS Lina Network DAC 2.0 Network-Attached DAC

dCS Lina Network DAC 2.0 Network-Attached DAC

Nestled on the coronary heart of dCS’s three-box Lina headphone amp answer is the Lina DAC, now refreshed with APEX-level firmware as a springboard into its mainstream vary

When dCS was based in 1987, the concept hi-fi {hardware} may very well be comprehensively upgraded with out the necessity to lug it again to the store might need appeared the stuff of science-fiction. Skip ahead some 40 years, nevertheless, and firmware updates – delivered over-the-air for networked merchandise – have develop into the norm. They’re typically used to squash ‘bugs’ and tweak minor settings, however what the Cambridge-based firm has carried out with its Lina Network DAC is extra noteworthy.

This unit debuted in 2022 alongside two different Lina elements: the Headphone Amplifier and the Master Clock [HFN Nov ’22]. All equally styled and of the identical desktop-ready measurement, the Lina system was aimed toward head-fi fanatics. Since then, nevertheless, dCS has returned to the Network DAC and carried out what it maybe ought to have carried out from the outset – open up its potential as a standalone DAC in order that it extra clearly serves because the entry level to its higher-spec Bartók [HFN Apr ’23], Rossini and Vivaldi APEX [HFN Jun ’22] fashions.

Six Appeal

In the spring of 2023, a firmware replace to ‘Lina 1.1’ standing launched a digital quantity management, permitting the Network DAC for use instantly into an influence amplifier. But now we get ‘Lina 2.0’, which not solely makes additional ‘ease-of-use’ changes however unlocks extra of dCS’s processing potential and DAC applied sciences. Described by the corporate as a ‘main efficiency improve’, the firmware replace is accessible freed from cost to those that have already purchased the Network DAC, and is managed by dCS’s Mosaic app. Naturally, you will discover the Lina 2.0 firmware working on all newly purchased fashions.

Apart from a brand new channel steadiness function, and the power for the Lina Network DAC to be managed through a dCS distant, the headline adjustments are these truly predicted in HFN once we reviewed the unit in 1.0 guise, and they’ll fulfill hi-fi tweakers. Rather than limiting the linear phase-type filter choice to 2 decisions, the Lina 2.0 presents the identical six-strong filter alternative you will discover on dCS’s full-size Bartók and Vivaldi DACs. There are additionally now three ‘mapper’ settings for the unit’s customized Ring DAC whereas DSD upsampling has additionally been uprated to DSD128.

dCS debuted its Ring DAC converter over 30 years in the past and it is now a extremely advanced and sensible expertise that seeks to mix the pure monotonic conversion of a real ‘single-bit’ DAC with the operation of a PWM bitstream-style converter. The present Ring DAC hosts all its customized DSP, together with the digital filters, on a Xilinx Spartan processor, truncating incoming LPCM knowledge (and changing DSD) to a median wordlength of 4.6 bits. This is adequate to handle the 48 ‘equivalent’ present sources that comprise the Ring DAC – that is the element matrix that is clearly seen in our inside image.

Key Words

Rather than use these wordlengths to manage the size of time a single present supply is held open or closed, as is the case with conventional PWM/bitstream/hybrid DACs, the Ring DAC treats all 48 present sources as equal and switches a number of ‘on’ to outline the general magnitude of every consecutive ‘bit phrase’.

In follow, nevertheless, the weather within the Ring DAC matrix aren’t exactly equal. To tackle this, dCS randomises the mapping of bits to those present sources in order that errors manifest themselves as a slight improve in noise reasonably than harmonic distortion. The new mapping choices added to the Lina 2.0 additionally double the tackle charge to the Ring DAC, pushing this ‘error noise’ out to even greater (inaudible) ultrasonic frequencies.

From the skin, dCS’s Network DAC seems simply as elegant in its compact, 22cm-wide black alloy casework. The entrance panel presents nothing past a sensible LCD show with touch-sensitive buttons beneath, and a standby button that is nearly hidden away on the underside. There’s an influence change across the again, subsequent to a complete set of connections together with twin AES, USB-B, USB-A and S/PDIF inputs; an Ethernet port (there isn’t any Wi-Fi right here); and balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA analogue outputs. Network performance consists of Roon Ready standing, Apple AirPlay 2, native file playback and, by means of the Mosaic Control app, streaming platform integration.

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March 11, 2024 at 10:57PM