DAC BLACKNOTE DSS 30 TUBE
In front of us - a very unusual thing. CEO Bluenote (it owns the brand Blacknote) and one of the developers of DSS 30 Tube, Maurizio Aterini, confident that devices based on this principle, the future belongs. Completely agree with him.
Abbreviation DSS stands as: Digital Static Source - digital static source. It has no moving parts and mechanisms - no optical drive and the HDD heads and magnetic plates, rotating at a speed of 5,400 to 10,000 rev/min. And CD-transports, and hard drives in the process create a significant level of interference, moreover, at the physical level of the principle of storing information is analog (which we have repeatedly drawn the attention of our readers), and therefore do not provide sufficient reliability for the perfect reproduction of the reading data and create a high level of jitter.
In this sense, a flash memory, which is the main (but not only) in the drive Blacknote DSS 30 Tube, has real advantages. She, too, is not without errors (though easily corrected by redundancy), but it is completely free from the moving parts. This is the "net number" that needs no additional decoding and other transformations. By the way, we once wrote that some portable players surprisingly attractive sound - precisely because in them as media used solid state memory.
The creators of the machine does not exclude the use of external USB-drives and hard drives, furthermore, one of the connectors USB, marked with the inscription "HP (High Power)", capable of providing a device that does not have their own means of subsistence. In addition, DSS 30 TUBE equipped with a LAN port and can play music from network devices via UPnP. That's why sometimes the abbreviation DSS stands for Digital Static Streamer. However, the preferred carrier of information are still flash, the benefit has already launched models with capacity up to 128 GB, and specimens with 16 - 32 GB sold quite humane price.
By the way, inside the unit has a slot for an optional SD-memory cards up to 4 GB - Information on it is poured through the USB connector type "B" on the rear panel. However, it can be played with only the files mp3.
USB-connector type "A" of all four - two in front and two on the back, all of them - 2.0, and therefore free from the limitations of version 1.1, we have encountered before, that is, they can be transmitted to a digital audio stream 24-bit/96 kHz. I think I have already said that the music files in a word length is now legally sold over the Internet, and their range is constantly expanding.
Special attention should be balanced analog outputs on the rear panel - it is not an imitation, which is often found in Chinese products, and a logical completion of a fully balanced analog section with access to the lamps. I note in passing that also issued a more affordable version of the DSS 30 with semiconductor output stages and, accordingly, without the word "Tube" in the title.
Finally, it should be noted that the digital portion of the device is, in essence, a dedicated computer with the operating system on the kernel Linux. That is why in the list of supported formats is no WMA - Microsoft allows its use only on Windows. What a great loss.
Almost immediately after the machine is ready and waiting for connecting the drive, and the display shows the inscription "CARD" - the default is selected as a source of internal SD-card. But I switch on the flash drive, which previously copied the test tracks.
Play starts with a slight delay - apparently, the signal is passed into the large pre-buffer. As you can guess, it is in memory, which has a much higher data rate than the USB-stick.
Class machine is heard from the first notes - it says about the naturalness and generosity in presenting the material. The scene is realistic, deep and clearly highlighted by the listener. By the way, not everybody likes it - I know music fans who prefer her to go deeper. They say that this change can be achieved "absolute phase". The effect of the presence of staggering - it seems that musicians playing in a room.
No hint of the veil - soundscapes collected, dense, holographic. However, all these formal characteristics, most importantly, the music is passionate, it wants to hear and listen.
Markan reference plays a little rougher and not so harmonious. Is likely to affect more than "long" path - network, fiber optic cable, etc. And maybe it's the absence of the light output.
Tried for the interest and the reference source is not powered on the network, as usual, and from the flash drive. Striking effect: become a better focus, completely disappeared "haze", in which he accused his DAC better hear the minute details, the resolution in the entire range is clearly increased. There was a moment of reflection ...
