North Star Design Essensio specifications

Brand : Ess

Model: Essensio

Factory price approx.: 1.300 ,- Euro

Incredibly powerful high-end D/A converter from the Italian digital specialist. More than 10 years of digital experience have been incorporated into the Essensio and you can hear that too. Significantly more analogue / adult in terms of sound than, for example, the M2Tech Young (incl. Teddy Pardo-power supply). Dissolves wonderfully fine and builds a realistic wide and deep stage, without drifting into the annoying, like many other DAC. Everything is really just right with the Essensio. Special drivers for PC and Mac allow a "bit-perfect copy" of the audio data from the hard drive of the computer to the DAC. The asynchronous coupling reliably eliminates jitter and turns the computer into a "slave" that outputs the data packets under the control of the processor in the DAC. All incoming signals are cached in a FIFO and clocked by means of a high-precision quartz crystal. Any negative influence of interference signals on the audio signal is excluded by professional inductive coupling at the input of the USB interface using integrated modules (ADUM1400) from Analog Devices. The ground of PC and DAC is thus reliably decoupled from each other. In the actual DAC of the ESS ENSIO, North Star Design uses components from Texas Instruments. The PCM 1795 DAC module can process data up to 32 bits with a sampling rate of 192 kHz and achieves a dynamic range of 123 dB! The analog output stage was developed with the aim of achieving maximum linearity of the phase. Very low-noise amplifier modules from Texas Instruments (OPA1611) and National Semiconductor (LM E49710) are used here. The basis for the power supply of the circuit is a high-quality toroidal transformer with an upstream mains filter. In order to exclude a mutual influence, four separately regulated supply voltages are available for the digital range. A regulated supply voltage of +/- 19 V is generated for the analog output stage, which is intended to ensure a maximum of linearity of the output signal.

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