Chris Connaker of Computer Audiophile has reviewed the DAC HD and found it worthy of a CASH listing:
The high level of engineering hidden behind this simplistic approach is enough to surprise many audiophiles. It’s hard to believe so much can be done in a 1.875 cubic inch package. All of the engineering has paid off for Halide. [...] The DAC HD is another great product from the team at Halide Design.
Read the full review on the Computer Audiophile blog post.
CNET’s Steve Guttenberg writes in his blog post “The little Halide black boxes are the best-sounding DACs I’ve heard on my desktop system. [...] The DAC’s effortless dynamic punch and uber clarity made me a believer; the little Halide delivers a full-size sound.” Check out the full
review at The Audiophiliac blog.
Rafael Todes, writing for HiFi World, found the Halide Bridge to perform excellently on all accounts!
The jitter measurements for the Bridge demonstrated world class performance and Rafael was quite pleased with the sound:
“Listening to the Linn Records’ version of Mozart’s Prague Symphony, conducted by the late Sir Charles Mackerras, I was blown away by the
smoothness of the sound, combined with a fulsome and rich quality, which imaged beautifully. [...] This is up with some of the best servers I have heard, and I am surprised to be getting these results from a humble Toshiba Windows 7 laptop!”
Check out the latest issue, available online or currently at news stands, for the full review.
Jon Zimmer of Sound Respresentation is touring CES with the brand new DAC HD.
You can also hear the Bridge in action at the Estelon demonstration room in the Venetian.
Twitter: twitter.com/halidedesign
Facebook: facebook.com/halidedesign
The Halide Design DAC HDs are in stock and shipping!
Orders will ship within 3 business days of your purchase. Please also check with your local retailer to see if they stock our products as we have a number of dealers in the US and abroad.
Happy listening!
The first review of the new DAC HD is in!
On audiostream.com, Michael Lavorgna writes “I have to say, I completely fell for the DAC HD’s voice from the first notes played through it. The DAC HD does a remarkable (and I mean that literally) job of unraveling music without turning it into a specimen. It struck me initially as offering a wonderfully balanced presentation between a truly stunning amount of musical clarity/resolution which is something all digital can do and some (most?) over-does, and tone which some digital seems to leave behind.” (read full review)
The DAC HD made its public debut at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, where Jon Zimmer of Sound Representation gave it a tour of the show.
We’re finishing up work on the new Halide DAC HD. This will be a complete re-work of the original devilsound DAC. The new DAC will keep the single cable form factor, but with all new circuitry inside, including the same Streamlength 96/24 asynch receiver code, and an all new 24-bit DAC section.
The Halide S/PDIF Bridge made the Stereophile recommended components list, in the “A” category! Check out the April 2011, “Recommended Components” issue.
The S/PDIF Bridge was reviewed in the December 2010 issue of Stereophile! In the five page review, John Atkinson compares the Bridge to a pack of competing devices, and finds the Bridge has the lowest measured jitter and first-rate sonics. (read full review)
“When I received the Halide Bridge, the sound took a significant change for the better. This wasn’t entirely expected, since the BDA-1 rejects all jitter faster than 10 or 20 Hz, but the change in the sound was undeniable. The dynamic flatness with the Toslink input was gone, while the improved soundstaging, imaging and detail retrieval was preserved. The combination of the Halide Bridge and the BDA-1 was the real ticket. The pair of components managed to improve on every aspect of sound [...]” – Secrets of Home Theater and High-Fidelity.
“This simple, small, single cable solution incorporates innovative design and the current holy grail of USB implementations asynchronous transfer mode … There are some fabulous DACs around without USB or FireWire input that will benefit greatly from the Halide Design Bridge. I highly recommend The Bridge from Halide Design … ” — Chris Connaker, ComputerAudiophile.com, (read full review). Added to the CASH list!
The devilsound DAC v2, predecessor to the current v2.1, was given a Best of 2009 award by Enjoy the Music.com! “Even when compared to a much higher-priced DAC, such as the Bel Canto DAC3, the Devilsound ranks very well. The DAC3 has a blacker background with no hint of noise, as well as a slightly more dynamic overall presentation. But the Devilsound is its equal in terms of depth, soundstage width, and even low-level inner detail. I was especially impressed with how well the Devilsound matched the DAC3 in terms of three-dimensionality and imaging palpability.”
Check out Positive Feedback Online’s article on “Getting your bang for the buck”. They pair the devilsound DAC with the innovative Virtue Two amplifier, for a killer low-cost (and tiny!) audiophile setup, “… and well the music rocks! This stuff offers the listener so much for so little that it is scary funny.” Read more …
“… the Devilsound DAC sounds incredibly pleasing to the ear. The top end is smooth and unobtrusive, and the soundstage offers depth alongside definition; it’s a remarkably pleasant playback path. I stacked the DAC against various convertors from RME, Digidesign, MOTU and Presonus—all at least five times the price of the DAC. And I’ve got to say it sounded very sweet. For a ‘listening’ system, i.e., one that you’ll have playing for appreciation of recordings, the DAC will be very hard to beat.” – Brad Watts, Audio Technology Magazine, Issue 63
“This DAC simultaneously brings you into the future of audio playback while taking you back to simpler times when a couple pairs of RCA cables were all you needed. If you have an open USB port and an open set of RCA inputs in your audio system you owe it to yourself to take a serious look at the Devilsound DAC.” – Chris Connaker, computeraudiophile.com (click for full review)