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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 ...

Resonessence Labs Herus

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Introduction Thanks to the popularity of head-fi, there has been a proliferation of portable products on the market, such as USB powered DACs, combined DAC / headamps and the like. Head-fi does have a lot of advantages over conventional setups. The overall cost of ownership is more affordable - spending two or three thousand dollars could get you close to cutting edge performance. Further, head-fi is perfect for rigs in land scarce Singapore. Resonessence Labs was founded by Mark Mallinson, former operations director for ESS Technology. His team members include former ESS employees with intimate knowledge of DAC and ADC design. It would be sensible to assume that these guys know more than a trick or two in handling ESS DACs. Description The Herus is a tiny USB powered DAC / headamp based on the ESS 9010-2M chip. Measuring just 6.35 cm long, 3.17 cm wide and 1.9 cm high, it could slip easily into a laptop case for your long and lonely business trips. A USB Type B socket is located on on...