Resonessence Labs CONCERO DAC-ESS Sabre (w/Apple Remote & Anker Battery!)

Hate to part, with this awesome little DAC; but I've had to liquidate my 2nd system...to pay for upgrades to the Main rig. Do you know Resonessence Labs? You should! Anybody who knows DACs, knows ESS Sabre chips. Word on the street, is the 9018 has nearly unlimited potential; but it takes the right circuit, to really wring the best from it. Well...RL is an off-shoot of ESS! (Operations Director...aka Head Engineer...Mark Mallinson, bolted; and one can only assume...took some of his favorite/best guys with him, and formed RL). Many digital 'philes, consider their Invicta Mirus...the best DAC, at ANY price.

OK...so now you know RL, if you didn't before; let's talk about this special little DAC. It's made for streaming! It's USB powered; so it takes its power, off the PC that you're streaming with. One less cable...and one less, crappy wall-wart power-supply; which is what you'd undoubtedly get, at this price point.

So...if you're using a PC streamer (like a variation of the Computer Audiophile C.A.P.S. builds); this gets signal and power, right from your box. OK...but what about if you want to use s/pdif (as I did)? No problem...this thing is like a Swiss Army knife. If it doesn't sense a PC...and is getting power only, from USB; it assumes (correctly) you must want to use s/pdif!

And...how do you get it power, without using a USB signal? Well...you could go right off the wall; but IMO, that's akin to the previously mentioned, cheap wall-wart (or worse). So one of the things, that I really loved about this option...is it allowed you, to power it with the off-the-dirty-public-power-grid Anker battery charger. Many audiophiles, believe in battery-power...whenever they can get away with it. Obviously, it doesn't work for power amps...but a DAC is perfect. They don't really need that much power...and most of the big boxes, are full of chokes and filters to clean-up the crap they get out of the wall.

Let's see...what else: well, John Darko (look up his review on Digital Audio Review) thinks it makes one helluva USB>s/pdif converter (selectable with the accompanying Apple remote). It has 2 selectable, up-sampling filters: IIR, and Apodizing (my fav; for more info, on all the Concero does...go to resonessencelabs dot com/concero-specifications). Also...supposedly, depending on your streamer set-up; you can control media (play, pause, next, back). I never used it this way...but I'm sure they're not lying :)

You get the Concero DAC, original box; Anker 2nd Gen Astro3 12,000mAh battery charger, and Apple remote. All as new, 9/10 condition. Pics will show the DAC, not embarrassing itself...in my 5-figure Main rig; and absolutely the perfect fit...in my now defunct 2nd system. Perfect and long-standing feedback; so bid with confidence, and ask any questions you may have.

S&H and PayPal, may be extra.