Source: Press Release, Last Accessed: 2014/09/10

The company from Italy appears to be very active lately as they presented their forth D/A converter in a period less than 18 months. Intenso complements the series of Impulso, Excelsio and Supremo models and offers many of their features but it is a product with a price well below €1000,-
It is of particular interest to see how North Star faced the problem of transferring of their know-how in a model in this price range that faces strong competition: First, the Italians are using the digital interface of the top of the range model Supremo. That means Intenso can handle PCM signals up to 24bit/384kHz and DSD signals up to 256x (11.2MHz). The DSD format and PCM sample rates over the 24/192 are supported, of course, only through the USB port implemented with the well known Texas Instruments chip (through an asynchronous, optical isolated connection) and the only difference from the top models is the absence of a separate power supply for this part. Intenso, also, uses a Sabre technology D/A chip from ESS and the DPLL to suppress jitter, as well.
In terms of standard digital connectivity, the new DAC includes two coaxial and three Toslink inputs, therefore Intenso does not include neither an AES/EBU input nor an IIS port.
The new converter uses National Semiconductor's LME series operational amplifiers for the analog output stage and offers only single ended outputs via RCA connectors. User-selectable digital filters are applicable only for PCM streams. Aesthetics of the new device are along the same, well-known, North Star lines.

For more information: http://www.northstar.it/

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