The rear panel of the Iris houses one USB input as well as two inputs for external clocks (to sync with the clocks of other DACs such as the Terminator-Plus).
The Iris sits at the entry level of Denafrips’ DDC line which also contains the Aio ($1260) and the Gaia ($1710). It contains two FEMTO Crystal Oscillators (operating at 45.1584Mhz and 49.152Mhz) for its clock, along with eight sets of low noise, linear power regulars and an oversized O-Core Transformer to power the USB signal. That signal is isolated by 50-Mbps high speed photo couplers. The result, according to Denafrips, is a near elimination of any jitter in the USB signal. The processing ability of the Iris supports up to 24bit/768kHz PCM and DSD up to DSD1024. Like its DAC companions, the Iris does not support MQA decoding. Users with Windows systems will be relieved to know that the Iris comes with a licensed Thesycon USB driver. So, what is a digital to digital converter (DDC), and why would a listener need one? Not every digital source is created equal, and while many fine streamers, CD transports, and servers are very good at feeding those 1s and 0s to your DAC in a jitter and noise-free way, many USB devices are not so lucky. Computers, phones, tablets, and the like, find themselves as the source of many a digital audio system, and this can lead to a signal that is less than pure right from the start. The Iris and other DDC USB converters take the USB signal from your devices and do two primary things: provide clean isolated power to the USB signal, and reclock that USB signal. It is essentially a conditioner in a similar way we think about power conditioning in our AC line.
One of those devices: the Denafrips Iris ( $520) is a ‘digital to digital’ converter, a device classification of which I was hitherto unaware. Many HiFi enthusiasts firmly in the digital camp will decry the hassle of vinyl and analog. For myself, vinyl seems relatively simple compared to the plethora of digital options out there. Sure, things used to be as simple as a good CD player and perhaps an outboard DAC, but those days are long gone. Today, we have infinite ways to get digital music from files, streaming, multiple disc formats, and a seemingly infinite number of devices to sit between those songs and our preamp.
0 kommentar(er)
