Specifications
The Ultimate High-End Statement, Better by Design
•
Designed and built in North America by Sonic Frontiers
•
24-Bit/192-kHz Precision Upsampler
All Digital-to-Analog Conversion (DAC) uses a reconstruction filter
as the final step in the conversion process. Without this filter
recreating the original signal would not be possible. The side-effect
of this filtering, however, is a harshness in the upper frequencies—
a result of audible errors in phase- and frequency-response. The
best high-end DAC designs go to great lengths to minimize this
distortion, with very good results. The D1, however, does even more …
UPSAMPLING: Increases the sampling rate of the incoming digital
signal. This allows the reconstruction filter to operate at a higher
frequency, making it less intrusive in the audible bandwidth. While
outboard Upsamplers can be purchased as an add-on component,
their output is restricted to a maximum of 96 kHz due to the bandwidth
limitation of S/PDIF (RCA/Toslink) and AES/EBU digital connections.
When outboard Upsamplers are used with SSPs or separate DACs
capable of 192 kHz they will, in reality, never operate at more than
96 kHz. In addition, they only operate on 2-channel PCM, not on
decoded Dolby
®
Digital or DTS
®
program material.
The D1 includes its own built-in state-of-the-art Upsampler incor-
porating Analog Devices’ AD 1896 and converts the sample rate
of all incoming digital signals to 192 kHz. Since this is done inside
the D1 there are no digital connections to limit the upsampling
frequency.
Our D/A converters then operate at their full 192 kHz
capability. Unique to the D1, our Upsampler also operates on all
decoded Dolby
®
Digital and DTS
®
program material.
OVERSAMPLING: Along with upsampling, the D1’s DACs also incorpo-
rate 128X oversampling to increase the sample rate to 24.576 MHz,
thereby ensuring the best phase- and frequency-response possible.
This combination of upsampling and oversampling allows the D1 to
use much gentler 3rd-order Bessel reconstruction filters.
Measurable results are profoundly superior, reflecting exceptionally
flat frequency response and THD+N in the upper frequencies up to
twenty times lower
than some of the best high-end outboard DACs.
Sonic performance is astounding—smoother high-frequency
response, superior detail, better image focus—in essence, a far
more transparent window on the original performance. While this
is enormously beneficial for music it is even more beneficial for
home theater. Since the D1’s Upsampler operates on
all formats
and
all channels
, the result is a much higher level of transparency
for both multichannel music and movies.
•
Dual Freescale
™
Semiconductor DSP Engines
– Our own precision Digital Signal Processing design uses two
Freescale
™
DSP 56367 engines, among the most powerful in
the industry. Each is rated at 150-million instructions per second,
providing DTS
®
96/24, with full bass management capabilities
and enough processing power to handle even the most complex
program material with matchless precision
•
Dual 3Mbit 8ns External Cache Memory
– Large enough to ensure that the powerful DSP engines never
run out of resources, even while running the most complex
algorithms
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An impressive resumé of superior-quality component parts including:
– Renowned audio-grade Wima film capacitors (MKS 2 metallized
polyester and MKP 2 metallized polypropylene)
– Audio-grade operational amplifiers (Burr-Brown
™
OPA-2132’s)
– Low-ESR electrolytic OS-CON SVP capacitors
– Audio-grade Nichicon
®
Muse
®
Series UK signal-coupling
capacitors with low voltage coefficient
–
High-value (1,000 µF) ADC reference voltage decoupling
capacitors for lowest possible THD+N below 1 kHz
•
4-layer, hand-designed motherboard with separate power-
and groundplanes
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Independent six-layer DSP, A/D and D/A converter boards
– A/D and D/A use separate analog and digital planes as well as
separate power- and groundplanes for remarkably low noise
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All critical signal paths are surrounded by groundplanes,
a painstaking dedicated process
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Massive toroidal power transformers provide separate Main power
(rated at 99 VA) and Standby power (rated at 26 VA)
– Shaped to minimize stray magnetic field radiation and tuned to
minimize hum
– Ultra-fast, soft-recovery, high-efficiency rectifier diodes by
General Semiconductor
®
(UG4D and UG8DT)
– Power supply filter capacitance of 46,000 µF maintains low ripple
voltages with higher loads
– Ten power supply regulation stages
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Individual low-jitter RS-485 line receivers on all digital inputs
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Unparalleled Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog conversion
essentially eliminates noise in the 20 kHz to 80 kHz frequency band,
thanks to the very high quality of our ADC and DAC designs
Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC)
– AKM
®
AK5394A ADCs capable of up to 24-bit x 192 kHz resolution
– Six stereo Crystal
®
CS3310 analog attenuators arranged in differen-
tial mode—one for each channel of the 6-channel input, promoting
greater dynamic range and an impressive reduction in distortion
Digital-to-Analog Conversion (DAC)
– AKM
®
AK4395 converters operate at their full 24-bit x 192-kHz
resolution
– Switched-capacitor output filters significantly reduce the DAC’s
sensitivity to rapid fluctuations in the bit rate during conversion
– The built-in state-of-the-art Upsampler allows the DACs to run at
the highest speed (192 kHz) regardless of the incoming digital bit-
stream, with extremely low background noise up to almost 100 kHz
– High-accuracy clock generator (49.152 MHz, ±0.001%) eliminates
the potential for errors in timing, contributing to a significant
reduction in the distortion common in D/A conversion
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Fully buffered audio and video inputs for minimum crosstalk
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State-of-the-art video switching circuitry laid out on isolated,
independent 2-layer glass-epoxy circuit boards
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Highest-precision thru-hole passive components
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Fine-grain brushed aluminum cover with heavy-gauge 14-awg
steel
chassis and extruded aluminum handles.
(Available in rack-
mount version, see dealer for more information)
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Massive mechanical shielding
Especially for the Purist
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Analog-Direct available on all inputs (bypasses A/D’s, DSP and D/A’s)
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Tone Bypass (removes Bass/Treble from the signal path)
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Balanced 2-channel XLR Digital input (AES/EBU) provides the best
digital signal transmission possible
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True-Balanced
™
2-channel Analog input for the best analog signal
transmission possible
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True-Balanced
™
Analog outputs provide the best noise rejection
and purest analog signal transmission possible
•
For best possible video performance, on-screen displays can be
disabled, completely removing their character generators from the
video signal path
4