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Showing posts from March, 2014

Resonessence Invicta DAC

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Introduction The Invicta was the first product launched by Resonessence Labs, a company founded by Mark Mallinson, former operations director of ESS Technology. Many members of his team are people that worked on the Sabre DAC project at ESS. Let's see what tricks they have up their sleeve to maximise the performance of the Sabre DAC chip. Fast forward a few years later, and the Invicta remains as Resonessence's flagship product, although it is available in two flavours now. The Invicta has a headphone stage, while it's sister product, the Mirus omits this, but instead deploys the DAC chip formerly dedicated to the headphone stage to be used together with the main DAC chip. This improves THD and noise measurements compared to the Invicta. Description and Features The Invicta is a compact, half-sized component. Pictures do not convey how solidly built this machine is. Measuring just 22 cm wide, 28.2 cm deep, and 5 cm high, the Invicta weighs 2.9 kg. The front plate, base and

Telos Quantum Noise Resonator

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I happened to drop by Audio Basic Singapore (local dealer for Telos) recently. Another customer walked in and Steven Cheah, manager and principal of Audio Basic asked him to listen to a demonstration of the Telos Quantum Noise Resonator ("QNR"). The QNR is a compact device about the size of a paperback novel. It is quite heavy, being made out of machined aircraft grade aluminum. The chassis has no visible screws, and a top cover acrylic window allows the user to see the circuit board, and a LED display that blinks meaningfully when the QNR is in operation. The QNR is an AC mains conditioner and works by means of production of eight different frequencies, which are namely, 120 Hz, 60 Hz, 30 Hz, 15 Hz, 7.5 Hz, 3.75 Hz, 1.875 Hz and 0.9375 Hz. Telos claims that the QNR is able to correct distortions in the AC waveform, and converts noise above 1 kHz into light. As the QNR is connected in parallel with your equipment, there is no current limitation unlike series type of line cond