ARIES CERAT
KASSANDRA II REF DAC
We believe the Kassandra dac is currently one of the best audio sources available today and can only be matched by top analogue sources in timbre and musicality, but keeping well ahead in aspects of dynamic presentation and resolution.
While in the process of setting up and building the company, at the earliest stages, the need for a true SOTA source was mandatory. You cannot claim to build speakers that aim to be the absolute best, top amplifiers designs and so on if you do not have a true reference source. And I mean reference in the true context.
The source must be absolutely perfect
We began developing the Kassandra as I felt no source on the market would stand up to the task. There would always be a certain character, lack of dynamics, lack of musicality and true analogue-like timbre and flow. And these shortcomings would project onto our efforts to create the best speaker-amplifier combination possible.
In the audio industry today, the market is in abandon with digital processors with a new dac presented every week, in a race of finding the best converter. A race of numbers, with THD of -110db, oversampling @ radio frequencies and 140db dynamic range. Yet, many audiophiles change dacs as soon as the next one arrives, without ever finding the one sounding "just" right.
In the process of development of our reference system, we were also searching for the best available converter. Yet no converter delivered the sound we expected, as a reference converter. Every dac presented an artificial feel to every recording, and almost all presented compressed dynamics and poor flow of music, easily noticeable with uncompressed recordings and ultra-high sensitivity horn systems. So we began designing the best possible digital processor.
Delta-sigma dacs are today’s standard for digital processors. Not because they provide better audio quality, rather because of availability and ease of implementation of digital filters. Filters that became more and more complex, only because of the artefacts created with delta-sigma modulation.
The Kassandra's prototype was developed very early, not as a commercially available design, but as a cost no object lab tool, my personal reference tool for speaker and amplifier development. The decision to be put it in production and to be commercially available was decided at a much later stage. We found since then, with many new converters launching daily with impressive specs on paper, they fall short of what we call analogue sound. They always presented that electronic signature that gives digital reproduction a bad name.
As I like to say, my aim was to make a true analogue source, which would take
Ones and Zeros as input, and I feel we succeeded.
Specifications: (for Reference model)
16 R2R converters per channel, complementary current output using the top grade Analogue Devices AD1865N-K with 8 converters per bank, 16 per channel.
Eight discrete ultra-low-noise regulators for the 4 converter banks.
Extensive local decoupling, using tuned LC filters.
Over-engineered power supplies, power input filters.
Transformer I/V conversion with custom wideband transformers, balanced current to single-ended voltage conversion.
Internal Super-Clock by-passable on the fly. , triple regulated supply.
Transformer loaded super tube output stage using the E280F tube. 5:1/10:1 step down transformer & double choke filtered supply.
Output range: - 30Vpp output @ 0db 10Vrms (5Vrms on -6db setting)
User selectable output: 10v @50ohms or 5v @12ohms
Output: 2 x RCA -True Balanced output standard. Floating RCA output switchable(ground loop resolver)
Output impedance: ~50ohms (balanced and SE output), 12ohm at -6db setting
USB input: up to 24/384KHz
Jitter attenuation: down to femtosec level
Dimensions: 540mm W x 520mm D x 165mm H
Weight: 60kg
Read more information at aries-cerat.eu