headphone with built-in DAC?

[tropicalrips 0]

saw this in the AT website, i think its a headphone with built in DAC, its all in Japanese anyone can confirm? looks very interesting

 

from the drawing, it seem that the input cable to the headphone is actually an optical cable

 

[tropicalrips 0]

the drawing

[tropicalrips 0]

volume control on the headphone

[Q00 0]

Whoa... if it is built it...i reckon it would be pretty heavy from the batts and circuitry.

[Absolute0 0]

saw this in the AT website, i think its a headphone with built in DAC, its all in Japanese  anyone can confirm? looks very interesting

 

from the drawing, it seem that the input cable to the headphone is actually an optical cable 

 

Can you provide the link? I know some Japanese, but the drawing provided does not say anything about a built-in DAC. All it says are "wing support" (whatever that means), optical plugs (right angled to player, "circular" to cans) and a optical digital cable. The phones are plugged into the optical digital output of a CD/MD/DVD etc. player.

Edited January 16, 2005 by Absolute0

[skyskraper 0]

that would mean they need a dac to turn them in to raw analog signal again.....

[tropicalrips 0]

here's the link to the japanese site

 

this is the main page, there's also a few other new headphones in there

Audio Technica

 

this one is the product page for the D1000

ATH-D1000

Edited January 16, 2005 by tropicalrips

[Firefox 0]

that would mean they need a dac to turn them in to raw analog signal again.....

What do you mean 'again'? The SPDIF interface is directly derived from the digital information output by the microcontroller in the source. This information is then converted into the SPDIF format by the filter/ DAC. It's digital all the way.

[Absolute0 0]

Yup, apparently the signal is digital all the way, as AT describes it as "real, full digital reproduction". It uses a digital amplifier (to amplify the digital signal directly without the need for a DAC), which they claim to "reduce power consumption/loss and signal degradation" compared to analogue amps. Also, it plays DVD-A but not SACD, and only performs 2-channel playback (expected of headphones...). Very interesting indeed, but I guess it won't be cheap.

[Mackie 0]

How about US$629?

 

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/archive/ind...hp/t-74865.html

[skyskraper 0]

i missed the digital amplifier part but even that has to have a dac in it in order to convert the digital pulses to voltage when driving the headphones....

[Mackie 0]

No pal, its bitstream all the way from source to amp to headphone and only converted to analogue signal at the latter stage where the dac lies in waiting. The amp amplifies the input bitstream in digital form and not having it converted to analogue signal and thereby digital bits to feed the cans.

[Absolute0 0]

How about US$629?

 

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/archive/ind...hp/t-74865.html

I was expecting something much higher than that! Appears that bangraman liked it a fair bit. Anyone's gonna get one?

[Firefox 0]

i missed the digital amplifier part but even that has to have a dac in it in order to convert the digital pulses to voltage when driving the headphones....

Of course it has a DAC. I don't expect it to have a Class D digital output amplifier since the transformers used for digital drive would weigh more than 300 grams each. Imagine wearing 2 bricks.. Sheesh..

[tropicalrips 0]

so who's going to be the first guinea pig