![]() At both the price point AND in the context of the similarly-priced Project Box Series DACs (AU$299 and AU$349), this is hardly unexpected or a let down. Now showing: a detailed letter-boxed stage that sits squarely between the ProAc Tablette Reference 8 stand mounts. Think: downsizing from a 60″ TV to a 32″. Swapping out a Metrum Octave (~AU950) for the Calyx Coffee sees the soundstage shrink in both height and width. Much like other desktop DACs that have gone before it – hello Pro-ject DAC Box USB and FL – audible compromises and shortcomings are exposed when connected into main, lounge-room systems (as per my time with the NFB-12). On the desktop, the Calyx Coffee holds up to expectations: it’s considerably more detailed, spacious and immersive than the MacBook Air’s in-built headphone action. Sabre-sonics like these are possibly why this chip brand is so widely deployed: detail immersion aboard the higher frequency skytrain keeps those synapses firing continually. With an easier drive, this head-amp/DAC’s sound really opens up – it takes us from pond to lake. TOO LOUD is reached at approximately 75%-80% of OS volume. Switching to my iPod ear buds – the excellent Yuin PK2 – and these volume limitations disappear. Instead, it’s a pleasing-but-distant firework show. The new Future Of The Left EP gets just enough juice for a Saturday night rage, but a rip of the 1980s issue of The Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs…isn’t. This is frustrating when wanting to crank older, quieter, poorer masters. However, this cuppa reaches maximum volume output just before the AKG spill over into LOUD. The little Korean fella is tighter, smoother and a little more polite. There’s little sign of the transient strain/distortion of the Audio-gd NFB-12/AKG pairing. Whilst not quite capable of doing justice to the (amplifier-fussy) AKG 702s, the pairing is by no means unlistenable. In-app play/pause is also gold-button man-handled.īehind headphones, there’s very good detail retrieval and the Calyx-Sabre sound is open and transparent. Here, the Coffee runs Audirvana’s volume attenuation (and leaves the user to set a separate system volume level in OS X’s sound preferences). What about other software players? I moved to Audirvana. With iTunes as software player I could play/pause – great for taking intermittent YouTube diversions – and skip between tracks with “< The six gold buttons that line the top of the Coffee are convincing when clicked, nicely-separated for fat fingers and – above all else – extremely useful. Calyx are here to extend the sound quality of one’s laptop PC with asynchronous USB transfer and 24/96 action. The Coffee’s portable and rugged design immediately points to use by road warriors, long-haulers and the office-chair-bound. My listening experiences with the aformentioned DAC*iT and John Kenny’s JKDAC tell me that the 9022/23 chip are a cost efficient way to extract an abundance of musical detail. Readers of the Peachtree DAC*iT coverage will recall the ESS 9022/23 chips’ vibe: they house in-built op-amps so that no additional output stage is required. He has also added headphone-amplifier capabilities so that the Coffee is a go-anywhere device that promises a similar (house) sound to that of its bigger brother for desktop folk. With this hot little beverage, he’s moved from the ESS 9018 (Reference) to the ESS 2023 chip and encased it in a VERY attractive and weighty aluminium shell. Few would expect it to sound as accomplished as its more expensive predecessor, but the continued use of ESS’s silicon says something about its sonic genealogy. Seungmok Yi has followed through with a smaller, cheaper, more portable Sabre-chipped DAC in the Calyx Coffee (AU$299). Korea’s Calyx Audio (Digital & Analog Co) have been doing it quietly for twelve years but the plainly named – and beautifully-looking – 24/192 Calyx DAC (AU$1799) arrived only last year.
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