Schiit Audio, whose Modi DAC and Magni headphone amplifier we recently reviewed, and  announce the availability of its new Loki DSD companion DAC, which allows anyone to add DSD playback to any DAC for $149

“Customers have been asking for DSD in our DACs,” said Mike Moffat, Co-Founder of Schiit Audio. “But in our opinion, DSD and PCM playback should not be shared on the same analogue stage. The filtering requirements of DSD are drastically different. Because of this, we chose to offer DSD as a separate, dedicated DSD-only box with pass-through switching, so it can simply be added to any DAC.”

Mike emphasized “any DAC.” Loki is not limited to working with Schiit’s Modi, Bifrost, and Gungnir DACs–it works as a companion to any DAC that has RCA output. 

Loki decodes DSD 1X using the DoP spec and proprietary Schiit firmware on a Microchip PIC controller to provide bit-perfect DSD native playback with a variety of music players on both the PC and Mac platforms. It connects to any PC or Mac via USB, and is powered by the USB bus.