Aavik D-580 DAC

Technologies and Components

Analog signature .

The ultimate goal in developing the Aavik DACs has been to transfer the digital signals into a natural, harmonious, yet, dynamic music experience without losing any of the enormous amount of information contained in the digital source. The engineers at Aavik have been extremely fastidious in selecting the electronic components and have spared no effort to exploit any opportunity for acoustic improvement.

Analog dither technology

Extended musicality.
This technology is another noise reduction technology. The technology origins from radars where it secured a stronger signal and thus a wider range. Ansuz active Tesla coils are sending pulsated signals in well-defined frequencies. These signals are sent in counter phase and thus eliminating the noise floor whereby the music signal is significantly increased.

A cabinet with excellent sonic qualities

The cabinet design represents a Aavik characteristic. The testing of new circuits and electronic components is often done without the enclosing cabinet. The disturbing sonic influence, which emanates from the material the cabinet is made of – mostly aluminium – results from its mechanical resonance. To eliminate this sonic distortion, the challenge was to minimize the use of aluminium in the cabinet to the absolute minimum that is unavoidable to ensure sufficient cooling. We began testing various materials and designed an innovative natural-based composite material, which reduces the mechanical influence, particularly the hysteresis. The sonic result is distinctly audible and reflects a further prominent cornerstone in Aavik’s quest for the ultimate music experience.

Copper chassis

The flagship 580 series are equipped with an inner chassis in solid copper. The effect of this is a further reduction in the hysteresis, which secures more energy and power to the music.

The DAC section

Secure the signal transport and the tonal balance.
The Aavik DAC section is designed around 5 digital inputs, which all excel in audio performance. The DAC operates without any digital signature. This makes any music sound natural and authentic. The digital circuits boast the best high frequency capacities and great care was devoted to the set-up of the *PCB design. By employing time-aligned, ultra-short, 4-layer *PCB traces, Aavik wants to preserve the natural and pristine sound quality of the wide and complex range of different signals. The DAC circuits are also fitted with ultra-low jitter onboard clocks. To minimize timing errors in the digital-to-analogue conversion, all DAC circuits are isolated with 13 onboard, separate, low-noise, **high-PSSR voltage regulators, each feeding only one stage of the signal handling. The USB input is galvanically isolated to avoid noise pollution from the host. The digital inputs are routed to an ***ASRC, where they are re-sampled and re-clocked to 200 kHz/24 bit PCM, feeding current output DAC chips. For the current-to-voltage conversion, Aavik uses a differential floating topology with virtual ****GND. This isolates the signal path from both potential GND noise and signal-induced GND modulation.

*PCB: Printed Circuit Board
**high-PSSR: High Power Supply Rejection Ratio
***ASRC: Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter
****GND: Ground

Individual audio settings

For your personal preferences.
To best accommodate individual listening preferences, and fit hand in glove into your existing audio system, Aavik has designed 4 individual settings. Since the selected signal source connected to the input can tinge the actual sound performance, up-sampling can be switched on and off. There is also a choice between a slow (soft high-frequency roll-off) and a fast (steep high-frequency roll-off) filter.