Source: Corporate website, Last Accessed: 2021/03/22

Without a headphone jack, how do you listen to music on your smartphone with the headphones and earphones you currently own? As streaming services begin to support high-quality, high-resolution audio, are wireless earphones and headphones able to provide the full audio playback experience? How can you enjoy high-quality music playback or games with dynamic and realistic sound on your computer without an expensive high-end sound card? A&K's development team set out to create a product that would answer these questions.
The USB-C Dual DAC Cable has been designed as an extension of the existing Astell & Kern DAP lines and features two Cirrus Logic CS43198 MasterHIFI DACs which supports native DSD256 and 32bit/384kHz playback. Astell & Kern’s expertise in audio circuit design has allowed them to create a complex and highly integrated circuit on a small, six-layer PCB the size of 14x41mm. In order to create a small device, micro resistors and tantalum capacitors, exclusively created for Astell & Kern were used. These same capacitors, which are used by AK DAPs, optimize the audio circuit to suppress power fluctuations, creating a USB DAC that provides stable operation and superb audio performance, the company says. The dual DACs are paired with an independent analog amplifier, designed to provide true audio playback and although it is a small and simple cable type external DAC, the circuit is able to sufficiently drive high impedance headphones with a 2Vrms (Condition No Load) output level.
The device features a USB-C connection, which can be found on the latest Android-based smartphones and Windows and Mac computers. Since the circuit draws power from the playback device it is connected to, there is no need for a separate charger. DAC/Amp supports any headphone or earphone with a 3.5mm connector.
For the connection to the smartphone, the company developed a custom-made, 4-core cable by wrapping silver-plated copper wire and copper wire in a spiral form around a center core made of Technora Aramid fiber, to block external noise and is reinforced to withstand up to 200N of tensile force. A separate shielding treatment is applied to the cable to block distortion and noise of digital and analog signals from the playback device. The silver-plated copper wire used in the USB-C Dual DAC Cable is thicker than typical silver-plated copper wire (0.3μm, usually 0.1~0.15µm).
The USB-C DAC Cable will be available from May 17, 2021

For more information: https://www.astellnkern.com/

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