Mytek Digital aims at Chord Mojo with budget portable DAC

Smartphone-savvy portable DACs like the Award-winning Cyrus soundkey (£100), Chord’s equally Award-winning Mojo (£400) and AudioQuest's just-as-Award-winning DragonFly Red (£170) may be the exceptions rather than the rule, but they’re proving convenience and good sound quality need not be mutually exclusive.

Now Mytek Digital – first and foremost a New York-based purveyor of professional recording studio equipment – is increasing its recent foray into the DAC/headphone amplifier consumer market with a similarly affordable and portable device.

The Mytek Clef is a 105g, pocket-size DAC/headphone amplifier designed to be the middleman between your device (a smartphone, say) and headphones.

The Clef can handle 32bit/384kHz PCM and DSD128 files, has an eight-hour battery life and, Mytek claims, can output more than double the volume of an iPhone.

Clef, which sports a piano black finish, will be available next month for €247 from www.clefmusic.com.

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Becky Roberts

Becky is the managing editor of What Hi-Fi? and, since her recent move to Melbourne, also the editor of Australian Hi-Fi magazine. During her 10 years in the hi-fi industry, she has been fortunate enough to travel the world to report on the biggest and most exciting brands in hi-fi and consumer tech (and has had the jetlag and hangovers to remember them by). In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.