Owner`s manual

FEATURES
The following section describes the DAC-100 and DAC-100t’s basic features. The features are
subject to change without notice or obligation.
PRODUCT FEATURES
The Cary Audio DAC-100 & DAC-100t are made in the USA and designed to provide high-quality
music reproduction from today’s digital sources. All digital audio information needs to be turned
back into analog to be handled by the amplifier and speakers/headphones so we can listen to it.
Whether from a computer, handheld music players, cable or satellite boxes, disc players, or
streaming from cloud-based storage, digital data streams suffer from distortions caused by jitter
(timing errors in processing the digital information) and the poor quality of built-in digital
converters. An outboard digital to analog converter (DAC) is the solution to these problems.
The heart of the DAC-100 and DAC-100t are two high current custom built toroidal transformers,
one each for the digital and analog sections of the unit. We, at Cary Audio, understand the
importance of a good power supply and have spared no expense in designing transformers that
perform above their normal requirements. The separate analog transformer has a Faraday shield
to reduce noise, and the audio circuits are designed to drive a wide variety of impedances to better
match other associated equipment.
The audio output section, responsible for providing the actual musical signals, is based on proven
Cary Audio designs for the best sound quality. The DAC-100 audio output uses high speed
monolith buffers operated with non-global feedback to ensure optimum sound quality. The DAC-
100t audio section consists of two (2) 6922 tubes operated in a non-global feedback configuration.
In both cases, the audio section is fed with its own discreet low noise power supply.
The digital bitstream is handled by a new front end designed in conjunction with one of the
industry’s acknowledged digital leaders. A Wolfson WM8805 chipset is used as the input receiver
for the four (4) (2-coaxial and 2-Toslink) SPDIF digital audio inputs, as chosen by many of the
finest DACs in the world. The USB input uses XMOS processing for asynchronous processing of
USB computer based music, stripping away the computer’s timing and replacing it with a much
more accurate master clock for a more stable bitstream. It is able to handle multiple 24 bit/192kHz
channels with extremely low latency, all at 500 MIPS.
Once the digital bitstream is managed it is sent to the digital to analog conversion section,
comprised of two (2) ESS Sabre ES9023 24/192 DAC chipsets. These circuits accurately recreate
the analog musical signals and send them to the buffered solid state (DAC-100) or vacuum tube
(DAC-100t) analog output stages, and then out to the gold-plated RCA or XLR balanced outputs.
All of these processes are designed to have no compromises in sound quality, and provide the very
best musical reproduction in its price class.
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