NekoAudio

Headphonista has posted a review of the D100 Mk2. "It

I don't think I fully understand your last sentence, but I'm viewing it from the perspective of the analog reconstruction. From a signal theory standpoint, 88.2kHz is fully sufficient for reproducing the audible analog waveform. Since 88.2kHz is half of 176.4kHz, it is perfectly fine to drop every other audio sample and you will end up with the exact same analog result as far as your audible spectrum is concerned because you haven't lost any of the information you care about. I would consider doing the same to go from 192kHz to 96kHz equally okay.

If you _really_ care about that, you can use internal PCB traces, epoxies that prevent disassembling or chip identification, etc. Then it takes an X-ray machine and some serious work to reverse engineer a product. Plus, a lot of advanced features like audio DSP are a software thing. But anyone shopping boutique audio shouldn't expect the BOM (bill of materials) + labor costs to be that closely tied to the MSRP. Somewhat similarly to how software pricing isn't based on reproduction costs. Small volume, R&D, the psychological and marketing aspects of higher or differing price points, customer support, and business growth goals all factor into the end MSRP. (I mention this in general, and not specifically with respect to Antelope Audio.)

Glad to see you got this figured out.

I support 88.2kHz but not 176.4kHz. It's a limitation of the WM8804 S/PDIF receiver chip that it cannot figure out on its own if something is supposed to be 176.4kHz or 192kHz. I don't exactly know why, but maybe it has something to do with its reclocking logic. It's outgoing clock isn't a function of the incoming clock. Anyway, it requires you to tell it what mode to use via software control, if you want to support 176.4kHz. I didn't consider it that much of a problem because it's rare for anyone except sound engineers to be working with 176.4kHz material. And even then, it's probably perfectly fine for your software to be downsampling to 88.2kHz if you're feeding into a DAC.

Yeah. I shared a room with them at Can Jam, which is how I know Marcel. I enjoyed having a chance to listen to the Zodiac+.

You could also try contacting Marcel (of Antelope) to ask some questions. He has an account over at HF. I'm not sure about on here though.

FWIW, as a separate perspective, I'm a very small operation so sometimes returning phone calls can be more difficult than returning emails. Which is why I suggest emailing me for the fastest response time on my contact page.

If you listen to _only_ the left channel does it still sound this way? (Disconnect your right channel.) If so, then you've probably got a high pass filter being created somewhere. If you run the DAC left channel into your amp right channel and it still happens, which is implied when you say you've isolated it to the DAC, then the high pass may be occurring due to the cable or something strange having happened at the output stage. Those would be my first two guesses at least. So if the cable isn't the problem, then you've got something odd inside. A bad or disconnected component in the analog output stage, or a wire that has shorted or disconnected, might be the cause. If you're willing to open it up you could look inside to see if you can identify any such problem.

Thanks. Doing well. Looking forward to being at RMAF this year.

Yep, the U.S. loaner program is still going on. And thanks for the shout-outs!

USB input is one of the most requested features. Right now I don't have anything in the pipeline, sorry.

Monkey got around to posting his review of the D100 as part of the loaner program. I've taken a few choice snippets, so check out the full review for all the details. "Never have I heard a digital rig anywhere reproduce HF as well. Every area of music quality improved." -Awedofile (full review) "With the D100, Neko Audio appears to have sought a well-rounded sound. I've had it with brittle, shrill DACs...instead of the sparkly highs, the D100 gives sumptuous mids and a bit of bass kick that I find very musically satisfying." -Monkey (full review)

I'm still here. I stopped posting much over there because it was hard to keep up and sometimes the threads got a little out of hand. The majority of my customer base has mid- to high-end speaker setups rather than headphones. I'll be at Can Jam 2010 again. Stop by if you happen to be going. I'm going to be using the Donald North Audio Sonett this time around.

If you don't already have one, I recommend buying a 3-prong outlet tester from your local hardware store. It has little blinky lights on it that tell you if your outlet is wired correctly when you stick it into the socket. Are you sticking your PWD onto a different electrical circuit?

If the bare wire doesn't help (it may just reduce the problem, but not solve it, based on my experience) you can also try using an XLR ground lift adapter. They're a few bucks and you can find them for sale on pro audio web sites. Not sure if your local pro audio shop would carry them. While you're out shopping, I also suggest buying a tripod for your camera.

Hey, thanks for posting this. I was just about to pop in a little blurb about this.

Not necessarily. There are lots of different ways to do a passive or active output stage, and both approaches can have an influence on the sound quality positively or negatively.

Well, I thought maybe you just didn't like me or something. It's been known to happen.

Every time I post in here something weird pops up. Now all my paragraphs get wrapped at half-width? Or am I the only one seeing that happen to my post.

A couple more reviews from the loaner program. "Very analogue sounding was my first reaction. Smooth and polite are two adjectives that best describe the sound of the Neko. Musical and involving would be others. Female vocals shone though and were very engaging with little harshness or stridency." -Pneumonic (full review) "It had a relaxed and analog like sound...which was seductive. For me this was the Neko

For those who aren't aware, all cables are blessed by Niea (one of my cats) at various points during the construction process. As a result, with my cables you'll get much smoother and detailed reproduction of the frequencies so high as to be inaudible to humans, but your cats will know the difference immediately.

I'm running a holiday special for the month of December. Order a D100 or D100 Mk2 and I'll throw in a pair of my high-quality interconnects for free! (cat not included)

Here's a couple more for you guys to chew on. "I found the soundstage deeper and a little bit wider with more

Silly rabbit. All civil engineers know you balance something with 3 feet, not 4.