DACport development blog

On to Something Else…

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:04:31 +0000

DACport turned out to be a very successful product. We are getting our first press reviews back and universally, people are saying “fantastic” about the sound quality. I’m very happy for our customers and will now be switching to a new project. Check in soon for a different devblog. No info on what that would be yet, but you already know that it will be as exciting and superbly-engineered as our other products. We are also closing the comments section on this blog. If you need to reach us, please use the CEntrance Contact Us page. Thank you for reading!

Michael

NAMM Show notes

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:34:21 +0000

The largest North American music show is in full swing. CEntrance is promoting the micport, axeport and dacport at the show and I’m meeting up with a lot of old friends. One person who got interested in the DACport is Herbie Hancock, a famous jazz musician.

CES is over, off to NAMM

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:04:48 +0000

CES was good. We are planning to beef up our presence in Europe and Japan in the result.

Meantime, John Atkinson of Stereophile really liked DACport.

Here is the most portable solution I’ve seen. A small AMD-based PC is the size of an iPhone, runs linux, works great with DACport.

A small Fujitsu computer can be a great portable rig. Runs Windows, works great with DACport.

I tested some Shure headphones and really liked the 310s – they seem to have the flatest responce. Met up with the old pals (I worked at Shure for 10 years long time ago).

Here is Las Vegas at night, Bokeh-style.

Now it’s crossing the mountains to Los Angeles, surviving the usual noise of the NAMM show, then back home to work on even cooler stuff!

CES notes

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:59:46 +0000

Las Vegas is crazy as usual with huge bright screens along the Vegas blvd showing fast clips and Cirque de Soleil ads. There are a total of three audio shows here – the Venetian has room devoted to speakers and amps, T.H.E. Show has vinyl records and more amps and CES has tons of consumer electronics gadgets.

The best talk so far was by Harry Pierson, the editor of Absolute Sound. He spoke among other things of demagnetizing the vinyl records. This actually makes sense, since the tiny metal particles embedded in the vinyl material can mess with the sensitive cartridge riding above… And with today’s low-noise oreamps the difference is actually audible… Wow!

Here is the picture of Harry and me taken after I showed him the DACport.

Off to CES and NAMM

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:07:49 +0000

I will be traveling for the next 10 days, first to Las Vegas for CES and then to Los Angeles for the NAMM show. The new DACport website is up, press releases have gone out, user feedback is outstanding. Time to celebrate with a muffin.

More User Comments!

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:45:16 +0000

A head-fi.org user and customer from Japan sent in these comments:

“I was impressed by the sea of details that DACport deliver. Not only the DAC resolution is good but the DACport is very quiet amp and the background is pure black… localization is also nice, music instruments are clearly separated and placed at the right position.

DAC port sounded neutral and flat, sounded like professional gears. DACport would be good to monitoring purpose as DACport reveals even tiny detail.”

For the complete review, click here

New batch of PCBs arrive this morning

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:52:50 +0000

Ah, we are breathing a sign of relief. Our factory came through and shipped us 40 sets of PCBs, which we can use to build more units and put them in stock. This means that we can take orders normally and will send out all review units out next week.

Meantime, the new DACport website is about 85% done. Planning to place it online this coming week, before running off to CES and NAMM. Incidentally, wanna meet up at either show? Leave a comment and we will hook up. Always happy to meet our readers!

Happy New Year!

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:32:31 +0000

From all of us at CEntrance, Happy New Year and best wishes of prosperity, health and friendship in 2010!

CEntrance turns 10 years old this year! Not old enough to drive, not old enough to drink, but already very smart

So we’ll drink to that and to you, our dear readers!

Running out of stock! 2 units left!

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:58:53 +0000

OMG, we are running out of stock on the first batch of units built. Only 2 left in stock!

This is disconcerting — we want our customers to get their unit and can’t be out of stock! The other problem is that we don’t have enough press review units to go out, but we’d rather make sure the customers get their product first.

But fortunately there is good news - our factory is building another batch next week, so we estimate that even if we run out over the weekend, we will have more units available to ship on Tuesday/Wednesday next week.

Sold our first DACport to Japan today! Domo Arigato Gozaimasu!

More Positive User Comments!

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:06:56 +0000

A DACport user at head-fi.org wrote this today:

“I received my DACport today, and listening to it as I’m typing this, with smile on my face.

My initial impression, with about 5 hours of burn-in is very positive. I’ve listened to a variety of materials, including pop, jazz, light-rock, and classical… There doesn’t seem to be any emphasis on any particular frequency (i.e., frequency response sounds pretty “flat” to me; just as CEntrance claimed on their development blog). The soundstage is wide, but doesn’t seem as deep. Clarity is amazing; I can hear very small details without much effort.”

It is worth $450? For me I think it is. I plan to use it mainly with my MacBook Pro… I also really like the design. The cylinder-shaped case makes it easy to carry and store. The brushed-aluminum looks very nice. The velvet carrying case is also nice to have.

CEntrance, congratulations for creating a great product.”

Remember, the 10% discount is good until December 31st!