26-Sep-2016, 10:23
(This post was last modified: 26-Sep-2016, 10:25 by GuillaumeB.)
It gets even better... last night one of their engineers was answering questions openly and in some detail. Here's an extract:
Choosing a new DAC to base your entire product range on is not a decision to be taken lightly. Our previous generation of DAC has served us well since the original Klimax DS, and we expect to be using Katalyst for a similar length of time.
At the beginning of the Katalyst project, we decided to do a bake-off between our current DAC and three of the best available alternatives. We had access to some early silicon samples from some of the leading silicon vendors, and we set about designing what we thought would be the best implementation for each one. Circuit boards were constructed and thoroughly tested to ensure that each was given a fair chance. At this point we could simply have picked the one with the best measured results, but we chose instead to take them into the listening room and do some blind listening.
The listening tests were a revelation. There was clearly one DAC that shone above all the rest: The AKM4497. It was relaxed without being laid-back, confident without sounding brash. It sounded real. (OMG, I should totally be a hifi journalist).
This wasn't a totally unexpected result. The AKM part is a multi-bit switched-capacitor DAC like the Wolfson part that preceded it, so we knew it would have all the qualities we like to see in a DAC: low sensitivity to clock jitter, low out-of-band noise, etc. But the AKM part takes switched capacitor DAC performance to a new level - it has extremely low levels of distortion, very low out-of-band noise, and most importantly it gives us access to all the internal reference voltages and supply pins that make the Katalyst architecture possible.
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Now in contrast you have members of this forum that have been asking questions directly via email and weeks later still don't have any answers... the polar opposites could not be any further apart!
This isn't about which technology platform is the best, it's about communications, a spirit of openness, transparency and ultimately putting the customer first. It's about making us feel part of the Devialet journey...
Guillaume
Quote: Wrote:And why you chose DAC AK4497 for Katalyst? You consider it the best?
Choosing a new DAC to base your entire product range on is not a decision to be taken lightly. Our previous generation of DAC has served us well since the original Klimax DS, and we expect to be using Katalyst for a similar length of time.
At the beginning of the Katalyst project, we decided to do a bake-off between our current DAC and three of the best available alternatives. We had access to some early silicon samples from some of the leading silicon vendors, and we set about designing what we thought would be the best implementation for each one. Circuit boards were constructed and thoroughly tested to ensure that each was given a fair chance. At this point we could simply have picked the one with the best measured results, but we chose instead to take them into the listening room and do some blind listening.
The listening tests were a revelation. There was clearly one DAC that shone above all the rest: The AKM4497. It was relaxed without being laid-back, confident without sounding brash. It sounded real. (OMG, I should totally be a hifi journalist).
This wasn't a totally unexpected result. The AKM part is a multi-bit switched-capacitor DAC like the Wolfson part that preceded it, so we knew it would have all the qualities we like to see in a DAC: low sensitivity to clock jitter, low out-of-band noise, etc. But the AKM part takes switched capacitor DAC performance to a new level - it has extremely low levels of distortion, very low out-of-band noise, and most importantly it gives us access to all the internal reference voltages and supply pins that make the Katalyst architecture possible.
-----------------------------------------------
Now in contrast you have members of this forum that have been asking questions directly via email and weeks later still don't have any answers... the polar opposites could not be any further apart!
This isn't about which technology platform is the best, it's about communications, a spirit of openness, transparency and ultimately putting the customer first. It's about making us feel part of the Devialet journey...
Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research
220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD
UK
