Soulution 760 D/A Converter

Alpinist

Alpinist

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Due to popular demand. :) No analogue postings allowed. ;)

Ken
 
Mike,

According to Le Roy, Soulution will be unveiling a new digital product in their 7 series at Munich High End in May. I haven't been able to find anything on the Soulution 760 DAC though.

Ken
 
Alpinist said:
Thanks Le Roy! I would love to attend the Munich Show sometime. Have you ever attended?

Ken
Click to expand...

Hey Ken, I have not been to Munich. I am afraid that I will do something stupid if I go :)

But seriously I would love to go. I have been to Axpona and to CES. But I think that the High End show is probably the most desirable. From what I understand it is strictly 2 channel. I did enjoy my trip to CES last January. It was easy to get into any room that you wanted to. Hardly any waiting for the sweet spot.
 
Odyssey said:
Hey Ken, I have not been to Munich. I am afraid that I will do something stupid if I go :)

Not a chance, Le Roy, you haven't made a wrong move yet. :scholar: Two world class systems.

Ken
Click to expand...
 
Odyssey said:
Hey Ken, I have not been to Munich. I am afraid that I will do something stupid if I go :)

But seriously I would love to go. I have been to Axpona and to CES. But I think that the High End show is probably the most desirable. From what I understand it is strictly 2 channel. I did enjoy my trip to CES last January. It was easy to get into any room that you wanted to. Hardly any waiting for the sweet spot.
Click to expand...

Best show in the world. Highly recommended
 
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Design
In many areas the 760 D/A-Converter is based on the same proven technical solutions used in the 745 SACD-Player. It also embodies the same principles in its design: top grade digital inter*faces for optimal reception of the music data, a super-precise master clock generator to avoid jitter, intelligent digital signal processing with over*sampling and Zero Phase technology, analogue output stages of top end pre*amplifier quality and a husky power supply.

The 760 D/A-Converter is packed with cutting-edge tech*nology with one objective – the love of music. The parallels include a consistent dual mono design in the output stages and separate power supplies for digital elec*tronics and the analogue stages. The 760 D/A-Converter adds a digital volume control that allows direct connec*tion to a power amplifier.

Oversampling
A powerful SHARC DSP performs the 8x over*sampling to 24bit/352.8 kHz or 24bit/384kHz, depending on the digital input signa,l with the utmost precision. We believe precision of inter*polation is more impor*tant than high clock rates. Our players and D/A converters use an algorithm from the highly regarded Anagram Technologies followed by Burr Brown D/A converters in a digital symmetric configuration. As we consider the PCM conversion technology as superior, the DSD signals get converted before its final D/A conversion.

Zero-Phase-Technology
The 760 D/A-Converter is equipped with soulution’s innovative Zero-Phase-Technology. Smallest timing errors provoked by the analog low pass filter of the D/A converter get eliminated. Every D/A converter requires an analog low pass filter in its output in order to suppress high frequency noise and aliasing signals. The 760′s 3rd order bessel filter, with a cut-off frequency of 120kHz, does show a phase shift of up to 15° in the audio band. Due to the Zero-Phase-Technology the phase error of the analog music signal remains below 1°, 20Hz – 100kHz! The Zero-Phase-Technology brings you even closer to the beauty of the source material! The music gets even more realistic and 3-dimensional with a lot of “air” around instruments and voices. As close to the source as possible! No detail gets lost.

Clock
Utmost precision of the clock signal is a must have for a top class D/A-Conversion. Lowest phase-noise behaviour is by far more important than long term frequency stability. Together with experts for highend oscillators we did develop a TCXO which is optimized for this application. It does not run on its first harmonic but on its 3rd overtone. The clock modules work at frequencies around 100MHz, this re-quires extremely fast amplifier stages within the oscillator loop but allows achieving best results regarding phase-noise. Even the best OCXOs or rubidium based oscillators are not able to outperform these specifications. The 760 DAC does have a spate oscillator module for signals based on 44.1kHz and signals based on 48kHz.

With the synchronisation to an external clock signal the performance of these oscillator modules would be deteriorated. Therefore the 760 does not provide a clock-input. However, external components can be synchronised to the 760 D/A-converters high quality clock signal through its clock-output.

D/A-conversion
Burr-Brown devices perform D/A conversion only. Their internal upsampling and filter stages are not used. The output currents are converted to voltage and then filtered. With an internal bandwidth of 80 MHz, this current/voltage conversion stage allows best signal-to-noise performance and maximum dynamics in the analogue domain.

Output stage
The wideband output stage of the 760 D/A-Converter, which is based on an optimised circuitry with special power transistors which are further linearized by an analogue computing network, has a bandwidth of 40MHz (-3dB). With such speed of response all musical details are reproduced true to life creating a three-dimensional, spatial sound to bring real listening pleasure.

Power supply
Key to any good sounding audio source component is a stable, noise-free power supply – especially for the audio stages. The 760 is equipped with two dedicated power supplies: one for the audio stages and one for the digital circuits. For powering the audio stages an innovative, amplifier-like circuit design is used, providing an extremely stable supply voltage. With more than 500’000 µFarad of storage capacitance it provides almost unlimited impulse current for the analog circuits. Bus bars supply this power throughout the 760 D/A converter without any losses. A unique concept in the audio world!

Operation
The 760 D/A converter is operated from front-panel buttons and a rotary control. Further functions can be used to optimise and match an entire audio system around different components.

Connections

Analog outputs:
- 1 x balanced output (XLR)
- 1 x unbalanced output (RCA)

Digital outputs:
- 1 x SPDIF (RCA)
- 1 xAES/EBU (XLR)
- 1 x Optical (Toslink)

Digital inputs:
- 1 x SPDIF (RCA)
- 1 x AES/EBU (XLR)
- 1 x Optical (Toslink)
- 1 x USB
- 1 x Ethernet

LINK-System
- 2 x RJ45
 
I dont get it why Soulution put volume control in this DAC. So what now? 725 Pre is useless? 711 amp is amazing with 725, I dont believe that volume cotrol in 760 is as great as pure 725. On the other hand Im not sure that 760 alone can conquer the market. We will see :)
 
vagabundo said:
I dont get it why Soulution put volume control in this DAC. So what now? 725 Pre is useless? 711 amp is amazing with 725, I dont believe that volume cotrol in 760 is as great as pure 725. On the other hand Im not sure that 760 alone can conquer the market. We will see :)
Click to expand...

I would expect that you could bypass the digital volume control and it would run beautifully with the 725 Pre. Having the digital volume control, just like my Esoteric K-01, increases flexibility for those who do not want the preamp or plan to add one at a later date. When I finally added the 520 Pre to my system, I just bypassed the digital volume on my K-01 and voila...magic!

Ken
 
Le Roy, what do you think of the new 760 specs? Any plans to check one out?

Best,
Ken
 
Of course I know and understand it, but its not my point. You talk about Esoteric and this is great example - Esoteric is one of the few companies makes the best audio digital sources on the market. In Esoteric's case volume control have some point.
In Soulution case, well... They are one of the few companies makes the best amplifiers on the market (next to Vitus, Dartzeel). Do you think that 760 will be purchased as a single gear? 50k euro DAC, which probably will play amazing mostly in full Soulution system? In my opinion - no :)
Dont get me wrong, Im sure its an amazing DAC and Im considering at the moment listen and buy the complete, one-company system from Vitus or exactly from Soulution (I was waiting only for the 760 release). And I think that in this particular case volume control is not necessary.
Anyway... I am sure that I will borrow and listen to it :)
BTW. Alpinist - do you had some oprtunity to listen 746 player? Some comparison with 541? If so, please write a few words, it can be on PM. Thanks.
 
Alpinist said:
Le Roy, what do you think of the new 760 specs? Any plans to check one out?

Best,
Ken
Click to expand...

Hi Ken, the new 760 specs look very impressive.

I am very happy with the 541 SACD upgraded hi res streaming DAC that I have in my system. It is doing a great job for me. I am quite content with it now.

I'm glad I'm not going to Munich to hear how much better the 760 may sound!
 
vagabundo said:
Of course I know and understand it, but its not my point. You talk about Esoteric and this is great example - Esoteric is one of the few companies makes the best audio digital sources on the market. In Esoteric's case volume control have some point.
In Soulution case, well... They are one of the few companies makes the best amplifiers on the market (next to Vitus, Dartzeel). Do you think that 760 will be purchased as a single gear? 50k euro DAC, which probably will play amazing mostly in full Soulution system? In my opinion - no :)
Dont get me wrong, Im sure its an amazing DAC and Im considering at the moment listen and buy the complete, one-company system from Vitus or exactly from Soulution (I was waiting only for the 760 release). And I think that in this particular case volume control is not necessary.
Anyway... I am sure that I will borrow and listen to it :)
BTW. Alpinist - do you had some opportunity to listen 746 player? Some comparison with 541? If so, please write a few words, it can be on PM. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Vagabundo,

Odyssey (Le Roy) is your man when it comes to Soulution digital sources. He owns two of them. I have limited exposure with Soulution digital players.

Best,
Ken
 
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