Mana-DAC Digital To Analogue Converter

Housed in a composite casing for best vibration damping, using a bioplastic made from renewable plant-based materials and reinforced with carbon fibre, mass loaded with a brass plate and copper sheet. Further damped with PU rubber layers, the DAC housing is an innovative design completely isolating the DAC board from its surroundings, enabling a clean signal pathway.

The manaDAC has a pair of our favourite PCM1794A DAC chips operating in dual mono mode for best dynamic range, feeding into a discrete I/V stage using a pair of transistors on a single die for best thermal matching and transient performance, and a low IMD (intermodulation distortion) amplifier stage.

Power supplies and grounding are key to DAC performance to keep any noise out of the critical analogue stages. To keep supply rails pure, the manaDAC uses no less than 18 voltage regulators, 3 mains transformers and extensive L/C supply smoothing.

The USB input features complete optical isolation, and re-clocking to keep jitter at the DAC chip clock input down to around 300 femtoseconds, benefitting soundstage, imaging and space around the individual instruments.