Nearly four years of design and research headed by John Swenson has brought us to the release of this very special Digital to Analog Converter, the Bottlehead DAC.
Our first run of DACs has sold out. We hope to have another production run in the future.
For those of you who just need the highlights, here are the bullet points-
• 32 bits, up to 384kHz USB, 192kHz S/PDIF
• USB, coax digital, TOSLINK inputs
• Approx 2V output via RCA jacks
• A radical approach to digital filtering
Impressions
My BH DAC arrived last Friday . . . while I was away :'( Home on Monday and I hooked it up and
ran a burn in disc for 24 hours. Sat down on Tuesday night to take a quick listen. Put on Sarah
Jarosz Build Me Up From Bones and ended up listening to the whole album. I had tears in my
eyes and I’ve heard this album many times. …I’d been using an … which at this point in time was
my reference having beat out … that had been greatly enhanced and built by … Both these DACs
are in the mid 2k range so having the BH DAC soundly (no pun intended) trounce the … was a
very satisfying experience. After my brief listen what came to mind is and openness, smoothness,
and rich detail that I had never heard. Softened sibilance but no lack of high frequency
involvement. The sound stage seems slightly compressed but may be more real. More listening
will tell. Thank you, thank you, Bottleheads all for a truly remarkable DAC. I can’t wait to do some
more listening. -Chris Adams
My BH DAC arrived on Friday so I spent the weekend listening through my speaker system and
headphone setup and came to the conclusion that it is simply stunning. Has far exceeded my
expectations, and without a doubt it has been worth waiting for. To date my main DAC has been a
… which has a fairly unique design using a discrete transistor output stage and any reviews I have
read always praised it for being refined and analog sounding. The Bottlehead DAC immediately
stomped all over it, everything about it is improved, lovely tight and dynamic low end, sweet
detailed high end, nothing ever sounds harsh or sibilant or badly recorded. Even low quality MP3
files sound good. The more I have listened the one thing that has impressed me the most is its
ability to separate different sounds into different layers. It’s like listening to multiple sound sources
at once as nothing ever seems to get in the way of each other, truly remarkable imaging and
separation. I know it’s a bit cliché to say I am hearing things I have never heard before in songs I
know well, but it really is a case of listening to things differently as there is so much more depth
and detail to be found. I just love it, thanks Bottlehead! -mcandmar
