Today, when it seems that the new DAC chips from reputable manufacturers through out the day, and the device advertised with them 2-3 times a day, it is useful sometimes to stop and look into the past. Golden age of audio equipment gave us a lot of interesting things, such as the TDA chip from Philips, and today I will talk about a portable DAC made at the TDA1305.
In General, this DAC from AKS leaves an amazing feeling on the one hand, it is small, smaller than many of today’s “top”, but it is able to develop the capacity to almost 2 watts. He does not support any fashion high resolution formats, but works with all devices without drivers. Add to this a good time of work and adequate price tag on its release date review price DAC1305P on the official website is $ 220.
Specifications
- DAC: TDA1305
- OH: LT1886
- Power output: ~ 2 watts @ 25Ω
- Output current: 300 mA
- Output voltage: ±4V @25Ω
- Total harmonic distortion: 0.003% of
- The ratio signal/noise: 108 dB
- Output impedance: 0,1 Ω
- Input: USB Audio Class 1
- Max resolution: 16 bit, 44.1/48 kHz
- Working time per charge: ~8 hours
- Charging time: ~4 hours
- Weight: 125 g
- Dimensions: 80 mm × 54 mm × 23 mm
Design and management
Packed this Capik minimalistic, but quite secure — the usual cardboard box with ribbed foam inside will surely protect the device from any adversity. The package includes a DAC itself and… that’s it. In principle, it is sufficient, and a MicroUSB laces you can buy anywhere.
The first thing that impresses in this device is the small size. It is, of course, slightly thicker than a typical modern player, but for other sizes — even less than most of them. Housing traditionally made of black aluminum, all the controls located on the front and back sides.
There is the volume control, it is analog, but used a good potentiometer without offset and channel noise during rotation. Then there is the switch gain and the headphone Jack (of course, 3.5 mm). The rear panel houses the power switch, two led indicator (operation and battery) and two MicroUSB ports. Each of them can be used to connect to the device, but one will charge the DAC from USB power, but not the second. “Clean” input is logical to use with different phones and players, which is important to conserve the battery, and the charging is more convenient when working with a PC. In principle, it is possible to use two wires simultaneously: one for charging, one for data.
While working AKS1305P in my test was 7 hours and 50 minutes, and charged it for 4 hours 10 minutes, the results are not phenomenal, but suitable for daily use.
Sound
To listen following equipment was used.
- Apple MacBook Pro Retina 2016 as the source
- Audirvana+ as player
- Headphones: Meze Classics 99, Audio Zenith PMx2, Noble Kaiser Encore, Campfire Audio Andromeda and other
- Recording high-resolution Lossless-formats (Dr. Chesky have The Ultimate Headphone Demonstration Disc and others)
Of course, the TDA1305 is not clean “multibit”, and one of the first chips that use hybrid technology (roughly speaking, a mixture of “multibit” and Delta-Sigma), but AKS1305P took the best of what you love solutions Philips, and tried to brighten up the shortcomings. It is capable of driving the flow with accented attacks on the lower half of the frequency range and slightly smoothed treble.
Bass there is a little allocated, but it is not done using the recovery response, and with the help of some gain microcontrast the filing of this range. Roughly speaking, the blows sound adarna, spanking — lepista, and so on. If we draw an analogy with photography, this is reminiscent of the winding filter “saturation” — the color balance is the same, but the colors are more expressive. Resolution bass remains good, although not prohibitive, and the power reserve allows you to monitor most models of headphones. Study of textures at a decent level, although a perfect separation of instruments, lower-case the DAC does not, it offers nearly continuous submitting, however, for many styles it is perceived as a more natural sound.
The midrange is built from the “showiness”. It is the maximum expression of emotions and drive is the brand of this device. This slightly smooths the AKS micronance, but emphasizes emotions and macrodynamics record, the maximum trying to capture the wholeness of the work, not dividing it into smaller parts. For lovers of audiophile “hearing the breath” it’s not, but fans of energetic styles and enjoying the melody as a whole this model is “just what the doctor ordered.” Imaginary scene about average width, but with good separation of instruments, depth slightly less than the average, plans are served almost together, is it proper for a “harvester”.
The high-frequency range, on the one hand, sounds with some simplification, on the other — many people will like it. There is a clear elaboration of the attacks, no “webbing”, provide faultless damping, it all — the lot of top-end modern solutions. But this kid is quite normal to cope with tweeter and definitely have to court fans of non-aggressive treble, the more General details and the number of “top” here is quite normal.
Many comparisons in this review, I will not paint, still portable Zaposlitev — not the most common phenomenon now, but speaking roughly, AKS a bit similar to the 600 series HiFiMan (with a good mod that fixes the “features” of the players) and not particularly similar to something else.
MyST OCUB PortaDAC 1866. For my taste, AKS is an example of how you can implement a similar concept is sound, but right. 1305 is also slightly emphasizes bass, also slightly simplifies RF, but does it in moderation, without bringing the idea of “vintage” to gipertrofirovannyy. Also on the side of the AKS — smaller size and price, so, in my opinion, the only reason to recommend OCUB — additional inputs and questionable implementation of Bluetooth.
CEntrance DACPortable. While I have not yet booked an overview of the new BlueDAC — “portabl” — best sounding unit from CEntrance in my collection. In General, CEntrance offers a completely opposite flow: neutral, detailed, with a bias in monitormost. Plus on the side of the CEntrance support of the modern bells and whistles such as DSD and hayreza of cons — higher price.
Compatibility
Power in this small package hidden with such a good margin, so AKS1305P was very versatile, it rocks, even fairly tight model, and the gain switch allows you to use it with IEM, although the most sensitive model, nevertheless, will make some noise.
The characteristic design of the RF makes this model a perfect choice for vintage records and different is not particularly well recorded “strand”, but other styles sound quite nice if you like that shot. The recording quality of the device is quite tolerant on a 10-point scale where a score of 6.
A few tracks as examples
Robert Plant — The May Queen. Fresh plant solo album shows that he still knows how to write nice hearing the hits. “Opener” of the album, as if specially created for the hero of today’s review — powerful drums, emotional vocals is what this DAC is strong.
Gustav Holst — Mars, The Bringer Of War (Boston Symphony orchestra). The composition, inspired countless rockers and metalheads, is also a great option for realizing the potential of AKS1305. Of course, for Symphony classics I would like a little more imaginary scene, but the drive that gives the baby AKS, makes you forget about all those audiophile requests and just enjoy what is happening.
Threshold — Snowblind. Well, since we’re talking about metal, do not leave the set without something heavy, but beautiful. All these requirements are a perfect match for the fresh work of the classics of progressive. Nice substrate, lyrical vocals, “resembling” RF the result is an optimal combination.
Insights
Unusual device with nice sound and good power supply. Of course, the need for a separate transport makes it less versatile, but modern players with a similar sound and affordable price is still there. So for lovers of this filing option AKS DAC + something like a Cayin N3 is a very good option.
Browse portable DAC AKS DAC1305P — the Golden era “figures”
Pavel Dmitriev