Joint Digital Components of the Year
MSB Technology Analog DAC D/A processor ($6995; reviewed by Jon Iverson, April 2014, Vol.37 No.4 Review)
PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processor ($5995; reviewed by Art Dudley, September 2014, Vol.37 No.9 Review)
Sony HAP-Z1ES media player ($1999.99; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, May 2014, Vol.37 No.5 Review)
No hanging chads for us: The voting for this year's Digital Component of the Year was sufficiently close that we declared a three-way tie. Our winners are two D/A processors and a media player. In what may or may not be a sign of things to come, all three winners are DSD-friendly.
The most recently reviewed of the three is PS Audio's PerfectWave DirectStream DAC, which is notable not only for depleting our supply of uppercase letters but for converting any and all incoming datastreams to DSD. Apart from its asynchronous USB receiver chip, all of the DirectStream DAC's code is proprietary and resides in hand-selected FPGAs (footnote 1). Apart from an at times "mildly distant sound," the PS Audio processor impressed me as a "superbly musical source component with excellent pacing, flow, [and] correctness of pitch relationships." The DirectStream, I concluded, "may be in a class by itself."
MSB Technology's Analog DAC is built into a low-slung case and chassis machined from a single billet of aluminum, just like your grandfather's favorite fly reel. It uses MSB's proprietary Femto Clock technology, supports PCM and DSD up to 384kHz, and can be upgraded with a choice of power-supply options, a WiFi module, and other interesting bits. The only difficulty we had with the Analog DAC was that which Jon Iverson experienced at shipping time: "I was sad to have to send another MSB DAC to JA's Brooklyn lab for testing."
The Sony HAP-Z1ES may appear as little more than an unusually large, heavy, four-footed iPod—this file player lacks digital inputs and outputs, as well as the ability to download files directly from the Internet—but it makes up for those limitations with its ability to "remaster" any digital file to DSD 128. The Sony can also play literally any file type, and has an onboard 1TB drive for storage: no need to send in the clouds. The HAP-Z1ES is, in the words of Kal Rubinson, "a single-box player of the highest quality," and a potential "gateway product" to ease iPod users into perfectionist audio.
Notes on the vote: Last year's list of finalists contained no fewer than five disc players, one of which, the Audio Research CD9, was named Digital Source Component of the Year. By contrast, the 2014 list contains only one single-box player, the Parasound Halo CD 1, and two products in which disc playback is possible but of less than primary importance: the dCS Vivaldi digital playback system and the NAD Masters Series M50/M52 Digital Music Player.
Footnote 1: PS Audio issued a major user-installable firmware upgrade at the end of September. We will be publishing a "Follow-Up review on the effect of this upgrade in the February 2015 issue.—Ed.
Finalists: (in alphabetical order)
Antelope Audio Zodiac Platinum D/A processor ($5500; reviewed by Jon Iverson, September 2014, Vol.37 No.9 Review)
Astell&Kern AK100 portable media player ($699; reviewed by John Atkinson, March 2014, Vol.37 No.3 Review)
Auralic Vega D/A processor ($3499; reviewed by John Atkinson, February 2014, Vol.37 No.2 Review)
Benchmark DAC2 HGC D/A processor ($1995; reviewed by Erick Lichte, February 2014, Vol.37 No.2 Review)
dCS Vivaldi digital playback system ($108,496; reviewed by Michael Fremer, January 2014, Vol.37 No.1 Review)
Grace Design m905 Reference Monitor Controller DAC ($3495; reviewed by John Marks, April 2014, Vol.37 No.4 Review)
Luxman D-06 D/A processor ($4990; reviewed by Art Dudley, July 2014, Vol.37 No.7 Review)
NAD Masters Series M50/M52 Digital Music Player ($2499, M50; $1999, M52; reviewed by John Atkinson, May 2014, Vol.37 No.5 Review)
Parasound Halo CD 1 CD player ($4500; reviewed by John Marks, January 2014, Vol.37 No.1 Review)
The most recently reviewed of the three is PS Audio's PerfectWave DirectStream DAC, which is notable not only for depleting our supply of uppercase letters but for converting any and all incoming datastreams to DSD. Apart from its asynchronous USB receiver chip, all of the DirectStream DAC's code is proprietary and resides in hand-selected FPGAs (footnote 1). Apart from an at times "mildly distant sound," the PS Audio processor impressed me as a "superbly musical source component with excellent pacing, flow, [and] correctness of pitch relationships." The DirectStream, I concluded, "may be in a class by itself."
MSB Technology's Analog DAC is built into a low-slung case and chassis machined from a single billet of aluminum, just like your grandfather's favorite fly reel. It uses MSB's proprietary Femto Clock technology, supports PCM and DSD up to 384kHz, and can be upgraded with a choice of power-supply options, a WiFi module, and other interesting bits. The only difficulty we had with the Analog DAC was that which Jon Iverson experienced at shipping time: "I was sad to have to send another MSB DAC to JA's Brooklyn lab for testing."
The Sony HAP-Z1ES may appear as little more than an unusually large, heavy, four-footed iPod—this file player lacks digital inputs and outputs, as well as the ability to download files directly from the Internet—but it makes up for those limitations with its ability to "remaster" any digital file to DSD 128. The Sony can also play literally any file type, and has an onboard 1TB drive for storage: no need to send in the clouds. The HAP-Z1ES is, in the words of Kal Rubinson, "a single-box player of the highest quality," and a potential "gateway product" to ease iPod users into perfectionist audio.
Notes on the vote: Last year's list of finalists contained no fewer than five disc players, one of which, the Audio Research CD9, was named Digital Source Component of the Year. By contrast, the 2014 list contains only one single-box player, the Parasound Halo CD 1, and two products in which disc playback is possible but of less than primary importance: the dCS Vivaldi digital playback system and the NAD Masters Series M50/M52 Digital Music Player.
Footnote 1: PS Audio issued a major user-installable firmware upgrade at the end of September. We will be publishing a "Follow-Up review on the effect of this upgrade in the February 2015 issue.—Ed.
Astell&Kern AK100 portable media player ($699; reviewed by John Atkinson, March 2014, Vol.37 No.3 Review)
Auralic Vega D/A processor ($3499; reviewed by John Atkinson, February 2014, Vol.37 No.2 Review)
Benchmark DAC2 HGC D/A processor ($1995; reviewed by Erick Lichte, February 2014, Vol.37 No.2 Review)
dCS Vivaldi digital playback system ($108,496; reviewed by Michael Fremer, January 2014, Vol.37 No.1 Review)
Grace Design m905 Reference Monitor Controller DAC ($3495; reviewed by John Marks, April 2014, Vol.37 No.4 Review)
Luxman D-06 D/A processor ($4990; reviewed by Art Dudley, July 2014, Vol.37 No.7 Review)
NAD Masters Series M50/M52 Digital Music Player ($2499, M50; $1999, M52; reviewed by John Atkinson, May 2014, Vol.37 No.5 Review)
Parasound Halo CD 1 CD player ($4500; reviewed by John Marks, January 2014, Vol.37 No.1 Review)
