Audio4Soul is a small company based in Greece and they produce just two items, the Xtreme 16 (tested here) and the Xtreme 16 with USB streamer. The company has an interesting philosophy and one that will appeal to a good few people I suspect – they want to produce a straightforward product that simply allows people to enjoy the
very best sound quality at a price point that is achievable for most people. They also recognise that not all music lovers want to have boxes and boxes of hifi equipment strewn all over their living room. Of course, having a box of tricks that does it all means you have more to spend on great quality loudspeakers and this is another important aspect of the company’s philosophy.
It’s an attractive looking bit of kit and worth noting that is it is built by hand, though I’m sure it will have its detractors – the front panel is reminiscent of a piece of lab equipment. However, there is a lovely touch on the top of the unit where the ventilation grill is a cut out in the shape of a treble clef. On the front of the unit there is an SD card slot, a power switch, a small red LED screen, a switch to alternate between optical input and coaxial and a host of LEDs to let you know the status of the machine.
So what is it exactly? With the Xtreme 16 you get a16 watts per channel integrated digital amplifier that has a powered DAC onboard with a PCM/PWM converter. You can connect a CD transport (or laptop with appropriate converter) using Spdif or Toslink (the unit uses a Wolfson 8804 receiver) or you can use the front mounted SD card reader to play Ogg. Mp3 or Wav files. Aceptable files are up to 24/96 (16/44 for the SD card).
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or laptop computer with inbuilt amps and DAC. Connection is via a 96kHz/24 bit USB digital input.
“finest sound quality from computer audio sources”. Designed and hand-built in the UK, CAD’s debut offering, the CAD 1543 DAC, has been built as a “no-compromise” asynchronous USB DAC.
includes the AI-501DA class D integrated amplifier (pictured) with 192kHz USB Audio Input using BurrBrown PCM5102 D/A , the PD-501HR CD Player with 5.6MHz DSD-file-recorded disc nativeplayback, the HA-501full-analogue dual monaural headphone amplifier and finally the UD-501 DSD 5.6MHz / PCM 384kHz capable dual monaural D/A converter.
and a headphone amplifier.
introduction of their latest DAC, the Digitube DSD (Direct Stream Digital).
the state of art in music making. It is not about convenience, not about features and not about specs. It is only about music.”
Magni offers a fully discrete design and Modi has an AKM4396 D/A converter and active filter output stage for driving long cable runs. Both products are made in the USA.





















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