CEntrance HiFi-M8

Selecting the right DAC chip

One of the biggest design challenges with our new product is the selection of the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) chip. By now you probably guessed that our new portable product is a digital audio device, so it’s natural to expect that it will have a DAC inside.

Yes, it’s a portable DAC product. And yes: It will feature high quality sound because it comes from CEntrance. But so is our DACport. What’s so different about the new product?

At least three things differentiate the new product fromDACport. Here they are:

For starters: Autonomy. This means an internal rechargeable power source. The product will go with you; wherever you go.

Secondly: Longevity. The product will work for a long time on a single charge.

And lastly: Fidelity. The product will play Hifi quality audio that rivals stand-alone playback devices.

So when we were selecting the DAC chip for our new portable product we needed to make sure it fits all these criteria. It should offer small size, low energy consumption and excellent audio quality.

Because of the requirement for size and the need for portability we could not choose an overly-complicated modern DAC solution with a buzzword name. It could hardly fit into a portable product.

Because of the requirement for long battery life we could not choose an extra-fancy design that takes a lot of power to run. The product would get too hot and would drain the battery in a couple of hours.

Because of the audio fidelity requirement we could not settle for a cheap, consumer-level solution. We had to prepare to spend money on quality. Our customers know that cost reduction is not the right move when audio quality is concerned.

So we had to choose the right DAC part, the one that’s a combination of the above criteria yet still fits within the budget. We searched and we found the right part. We believe you will like our choice when you hear the product in October.