AudioWise Inc. Announces SRC•DX™ USB to Dual-coax S/PDIF Bridge

AudioWise Inc. announces SRC•DX™, a USB to dual-coax S/PDIF bridge for upsampled playback at full 705.6/768kHz PCM rates. Although the industry has debated the technical merits of various upsampling filters, the commercial success of higher tap counts and symmetric linear-phase response indicates a degree of concord among audiophiles. Software upsamplers have implemented these filters at increased levels of quality to ostensibly rival the best FPGA-based hardware but a fair A/B comparison is hampered by differences in the USB and dual-coax interface.

SRC•DX reveals the true quality of software upsampling by converting the source USB signal to dual-coax. Avoiding the DAC’s USB receiver chip reduces internal RF noise. Low power consumption and signal filtering prevents excess RF noise at the dual-coax outputs. This helps elevate the quality of software upsampling so that it can sound as good as the best hardware. SRC•DX is a revelation for an affordable end-game.

SRC•DX is USB 2.0 class-compliant for plug-and-play operation with Windows, macOS and Linux—no supplemental driver or power input is needed. A push-button selects standard (S/PDIF) or high (DX) signal level.  Status LEDs indicate single-coax or dual-coax mode of operation. BNC connections ensure reliable transmission of high-speed digital audio to the DAC.

HQPlayer has, arguably, the best filtering technology and its latest ‘poly-sinc-long-lp’ upsampling filter has state-of-the-art specifications: 1M+ taps, single poly-stage design, linear phase sinc response and 240dB stop band attenuation. Real-time performance requires only a Core i3 and the higher precision 80-bit floating point available on x64 CPUs delivers 24-bit accuracy with low audio delay. HQPlayer can reside as a stand-alone player, a network appliance or integrated into Roon or other control application.

Software upsampling has the advantages of a scalable and upgradable computation platform and the benefits of cost and technology. Users with less capable systems can offline upsample their music files to 24-bit WAV and use lossless compression to APE (Monkey’s Audio) or WV (WavPack) for seamless playback with a significant reduction in storage requirements. With SRC•DX, the magic of hearing music at the highest quality can be enjoyed by every audiophile on every budget. SRC•DX can be combined with OPTO•DX isolation to provide an even more wondrous musical experience.

SRC•DX may be purchased directly from AudioWise (www.audiowise.ca) for $495 US dollars. Pre-orders are being accepted now. The first production batch will begin shipping in December. For more information, contact Dan Mance: dan@audiowise.ca.