UK company Computer Audio Design debuts with £6,900 USB DAC
Computer Audio Design, a new British company, has launched with the CAD 1543 DAC, a USB DAC designed for high-resolution music with a tasty £6,900 price tag.
Designed and hand-built in the UK, with 90% of the components supplied by UK companies, the CAD DAC claims to deliver a "sonic performance far beyond that of even the most luxurious CD players". A bold claim indeed.
Aiming to deliver a high quality sound reminiscent of the best analogue sources, this USB DAC deliberately keeps things simple.
There's a solitary asynchronous USB input and a single set of analogue RCA outputs, keeping the signal path from USB board to DAC short: just 1cm.
Aimed at computer music listeners, the DAC aims to deliver the best possible results from hi-res music files.
Designed by Scott Berry, a self-confessed "vinyl junkie" with a career in electrical engineering in the US, the CAD 1543 DAC has extensive internal isolation, power supplies with dedicated mains conditioning and visco-elastic polymer feet for superior damping. The devil's in the detail.
Modular in design, the Computer Audio Design USB DAC allows for future upgrades and updates to be added over time.
The CAD 1543 is available now priced at £6,900. Computer Audio Design will be exhibiting at this year's Bristol Show.
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Comments
£6900 and no balanced analogue XLR outputs?!
At this price i would expect a better range of inputs and outputs.
Surely a spdif and Coaxial inputs would help, and even an HDMI input for sources with dual HDMI outputs.
Then, some ability to use a FIFO memory buffer, and reclocking for non asynchronous inputs.
Can it do any upsampling from 16/48 to 24/96 with an apodising filter?
I suspect a Meridian digital preamp/processor will outperform this CAD DAC.
I also wonder how this will compare with the £999 Oppo BDP-105EU, which also has an asychronous input?
It might be expensive, but I guess that doesn't make it bad value. There will always be a customer who wants 'the best' of something and I admire anyone or company that sets out to make a no-compromise product. If you have the technical ability, why not try and push the boundaries and innovate a little?
There's plenty of choice on the market. If you have a lower budget, there are plenty of options. If you're lucky enough to operate in the high end, then it's nice to have greater choice of product I think anyone would have to agree that having more choice is preferable. I might not be able to afford this DAC, but I like to see people trying to get the best from audio equipment - I'm a hi-fi enthusiast after all.
If we didn't have brands like Mercedes innovating in automotive, then our family hatchbacks wouldn't have half the tech and safety features that they do. Good luck to CAD I say.
Andrew Everard Wed, 16 Jan 2013, 3:58pm
relocated wrote:How many 'magic beans' does it cost?
Given that 10 magic beans appear to sell for 99p, approximately 69,700.
Well the beans might actually not be 'magic' but your reply certainly is. Congrats Andrew, a blinding retort.
There's also a cable on its way, according to the web site. no doubt that will be as reasonably priced as the DAC!
This company has an awful lot of confidence in the current market. That they consider a product of this sort to be marketed at a price of nearly £7000 is quite astonishing. How many do they expect to sell in a year and how good can this item be to warrant such a high price. As has already been commented on this will appeal to only those with very deep pockets and even then you still have to convince them that it is worth the cost on top of what ever cd player/amp/speakers they have. I could buy a complete system for £7000 that I am sure would sound exceptionally nice to most people.
Given that 10 magic beans appear to sell for 99p, approximately 69,700.
How many 'magic beans' does it cost?
hmmm. a lot of money to use only with one source that must be a computer. Would love to see it up against the equivelant product in its category - the Audioquest DragonFly for £215!
Silly money, probably 1% of people could afford/prepared to spend that money on a DAC. Probably cost 5% of that to make it.
And how many does he expect to sell? 10?