Calyx Coffee DAC and Headamp
Good things come in small packages ! Well this does not always hold true for audio equipment, but nevertheless, the Calyx Coffee is really diminutive and cute as a button to boot. The Calyx sports the current in-thing for DAC chips, the ESS Sabre. At the Calyx’s asking price, you obviously luck out if you were hoping to get the Reference Sabre chip. Instead, you get the ES9023 which sports two D/A convertors (vs. the eight found in the Reference chip). Like the rest of the Sabre chips, the ES9023 also boasts technology such as Hyperstream Architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator (the complex technical details of which overwhelm my feeble mind). Interestingly, the ES9023 chip includes a 2VRMS driver which would presumably allow a designer to skip the op-amp stage and use the ES9023 as a single chip solution. On the bright side, your hard-earned money gets you a 24/96khz capable DAC with asynchronous USB connection, and a fairly competent headphone amplifier. The most obvious targe