DESCRIPTION
We began developing the Kassandra as I felt no source on the market would stand up to the task. There would always be a certain character, lack of dynamics, lack of musicality and true analog-like timbre and flow. And these shortcomings would project onto our efforts to create the best speaker-amplifier combination possible.
In the audio industry today, the market is in abandon with digital processors with a new dac presented every week, in a race of finding the best converter. A race of numbers, with THD of -110db, oversampling @ radio frequencies and 140db dynamic range. Yet, many audiophiles change dacs as soon as the next one arrives, without ever finding the one sounding “just” right.
In the process of development of our reference system, we were also searching for the best available converter. Yet no converter delivered the sound we expected, as a reference converter. Every dac presented an artificial feel to every recording, and almost all presented compressed dynamics and poor flow of music, easily noticeable with uncompressed recordings and ultra high sensitivity horn systems. So we began designing the best possible digital processor.
Delta sigma dacs are todays standard for digital processors. Not because they provide better audio quality, rather because of availability and ease of implementation of digital filters. Filters that became more and more complex, only because of the artefacts created with delta sigma modulation.
The Kassandra’s prototype was developed very early, not as a commercially available design, but as a cost no object lab tool, my personal reference tool for speaker and amplifier development. The decision to be put it in production and to be commercially available was decided at a much later stage. We found since then, with many new converters launching daily with impressive specs on paper, they fall short of what we call analog sound. They always presented that electronic signature that gives digital reproduction a bad name.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Output range: – 30Vpp output @ 0db 10Vrms (5Vrms on -6db setting)
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User selectable output: 10v @50ohms or 5v @12ohms -
Output: 2 x RCA -True Balanced output standard. Floating RCA output switchable(ground loop resolver) -
Output impedance: ~50ohms (balanced and SE output), 12ohm at -6db setting -
USB input: up to 24/384KHz -
Jitter attenuation: down to femtosec level -
Dimensions: 540mm W x 520mm D x 165mm H -
Weight: 60kg