THE NEW D-10000 OTL/OCL DAC
PROUDLY ANNOUNCING ALLNIC’S NEW FLAGSHIP DAC!...A World's First!
...Hot off the Press!
RAVE hi-fi+ REVIEW of Allnic’s D-10000 OTL/OCL DAC!
“...Allnic Audio’s D-10000 shows just how important a well-produced output stage is to making one of the best DACs in the world. And that’s outside of matching OTL/OCL preamps and power amps. That could raise the game still further and perhaps be the best digital audio sound ever.”
Alan Sircom, hi-fi+ Issue 221
The D-10000 OTL/OCL DAC is a truly ground-breaking product – for more, read on below!
Continuing to think about the theme of the last few blog entries here, it’s appropriate to pause from time to time and recognize again the incredible choices we are so lucky to have to enable the reproduction of music in our homes. Tubes and solid state, analog and digital, headphones and speakers, vintage and cutting edge, etc., and all their combinations and variations at all price ranges in the marketplace, we can take our pick and find what gives us the most pleasure in our private listening.
Allnic is a great choice and, first and foremost, analog but has ventured into the digital realm previously with the D-3000 and D-5000 DACs, both now discontinued. As with many of Allnic’s products, those two digital marvels used all-tube output stages coupled to Allnic’s in-house designed permalloy output transformers. The all new Allnic D-10000 OTL/OCL DAC is Allnic’s response to changes to digital processing industry-wide over the last decade and the great success of Allnic’s OTL/OCL (Output Transformer-less/Output Capacitor-less) headphone amp, the HPA-50000 -
HPA-5000 OTL/OCL Headphone amp
- and line-stage preamplifiers. The L-10000, L-9000 and L-8500 OTL/OCL preamps have been lauded by customers and professional reviewers alike for every sort of reason, from build quality and ergonomics to, of course, incredible sonics. See the reviews below, just for example.
L-10000 Preamp
https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2021/12/3/allnic-audio-l-10000-otlocl-preamplifier
L-9000 Preamp
https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1031#most-read-equipment-reviews
L-8500 Preamp
L-8500 Audiophilia Review – April 2021
A 2021 PRODUCT OF THE YEAR!
Audiophilia Products of the year 2021
Why OTL/OCL?
In common circuits, output capacitors or output transformers are required to separate the AC music signal from the DC operating potential. If this is not done, the latter will destroy the power amplifier, the loudspeakers, or both. However, these two coupling devices also introduce their own influences on the transmission of the musical signal, adding their own character (colouration), increasing distortion, and consuming small signals, all as predicted by physical efficiency theory. In addition, they also limit signal dynamics. For these reasons, the elimination of output transformers and capacitors has been considered the best solution for the design of the most accurate amplifiers. Removal of these two coupling devices from the signal path achieves the best results possible:
⦁ No colouration of the musical signal
⦁ Extremely detailed expression, natural harmonics, and subtle musical decay
⦁ The lowest possible distortion
⦁ The widest musical dynamics
Taking these factors into consideration, KS Park, Allnic’s founder and chief designer, decided it was time to look again at the world of digital music reproduction with the goal of producing a DAC that reproduces digital music on par with the very best analog devices he has created, to see if he could wed the purity of his OTL/OCL analog output designs to the very best of today’s DAC technology.
He has succeeded! The new flagship ALLNIC D-10000 OTL/OCL DAC is the product of this challenge, and according to early user feedback, is a fantastic addition to the top tier of Allnic’s products, a machine of true beauty, in sonics, audio engineering and industrial design.
D-10000 in use
As an OTL/OCL design, the D-10000 is without transformers or capacitors in its signal path, and the D-10000’s RCA and XLR outputs both provide the OTL/OCL design’s benefits. KS Park’s design of the D-10000’s signal path takes full advantage of the tubes it employs and results in its output connections passing along a converted digitally sourced music signal of a quality equivalent to that produced by Allnic’s very best analog products - as Mr. Park intended.
Speaking of the tubes, the D-10000 uses four tubes per channel: two 6C19P tubes, a 12AU7 tube, and a 7258. There are no equivalents for the 6C19P and 7258, but they are plentiful and inexpensive. The 12AU7 allows for tube rolling among the various brands, vintages and variants of this famous, almost ubiquitous valve.
D-10000 under inspection
That’s the analog side. The digital processing in the D-10000 is designed by South Korea’s Waversa Systems (Kevalin Audio is also the North American distributor for Waversa), producers of exceptional digital products. The D-10000’s digital features include:
⦁ Operations via Linux OS with UAC2, Windows 10 and above and MAC OSX, with the Thesycon driver incorporated for use in Windows OS environments
⦁ Waversa custom built, FPGA based, 1.5 MHz up-sampling to 384 KHz
⦁ Waversa proprietary 32bit WAP engine
⦁ Dual mono ES9018K2M SABRE 32 Reference Audio DACs – No digital processing: final digital to analog conversion only.
⦁ Real-time PCM to DSD 128 conversion using a custom built 5.6 MHz up-sampler and FPGA DSD converter
⦁ High end DSD decoder for better DSD quality
⦁ One optical, one AES/EBU and two coax inputs served by a customized S/PDIF receiver accommodating rates up to 192 KHz
⦁ One USB input, UAC2 standard compliant custom audio interface design with Cypress FX2/FPGA handling:
- DoP: DSD 64, DSD 128
- PCM 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 96 KHz, 176.4 KHz, 192 KHz, 352.8 KHz and 384 KHz.
⦁ In and out reference word clock connectors for use with an external clock
Note: The Constant Impedance technology developed for the 61-STEP Attenuator also is applied to the analog output stage for improved dynamics, depth, layering and detail. Overall a more realistic presentation regardless of genre.
The D-10,000 can be optioned for a fixed industry standard 4V output or 1.6V (recommended with Allnic Linestage Preamplifiers). In addition to SPDIF optical, AES/EBU inputs your unit can have two COAX, two BNC, or one of each. Custom units are built to order and have a one to four week delivery time.
D-10000 rear panel
For more on Waversa Systems unique approach to digital, go to:
Kevalin Audio Informational Page on Waversa Systems
The D-10000 is a product of cutting-edge tube and digital design offering world-class sound quality. We’re confident that it will become an icon of digital music reproduction devices among the very, very best DACs currently available, at any price from anywhere in the world. Early purchaser extremely positive feedback is coming in and reinforcing our opinion. In addition, D-10000 units are currently going out for professional reviews.
More information, photos and a manual will be available soon. In the meantime, the D-10000 is priced at $19,000 USD and available for purchase here at Kevalin Audio and, in Canada, at Corby’s Audio.
To discuss purchasing any Allnic product for the first time, or moving up the Allnic product line, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me, John Ketcham, here at Kevalin Audio if you are in the USA. If you’re in Canada, please contact Don Corby at Corby’s Audio, at the coordinates below.
Don't forget: quality trades are always welcome!
USA:
Kevalin Audio
Corvallis, Oregon
Website link: Kevalin Audio
Email or call John Ketcham:
Email: info@kevalinaudio.com
Tel: +1 503–292–5592
Canada:
Corby’s Audio
Freelton, Ontario
Website link: Corby’s Audio
Email or call Don Corby:
Email: info@corbyframing.ca
Tel: +1 905.689.1976
Toll free: 1.877.689.1976