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Of course this machine is not an ideal, meaning it is not perfect. Mentioned earlier were the not very impressive soundstage depth and the somewhat overly powerful bass. A part of the upper midrange is also slightly laid back to create an impression of greater plasticity. But this is good. In most systems it will offer an effect of incredible depth. If you compare it to players like my Prime or Accuphase DP-700, you will notice that it lacks openness whereby instruments are not shown as precisely nor are their textures. But that's it.



On one hand it's a lot but on the other it is not such a big difference. After all this is what most good turntables do and everybody is happy with their ‘analogue’ sound. That is exactly what Simon, owner of Acousticbuoy, pursues as well: a smooth analogue sound. He is a man with a clear vision plan and all actions are perfectly attuned to achieving his goals. His is not a machine for every audiophile nor is it the best in the world but, it is extremely attractive. That's the 2488 DAC. Did I mention already that it is beautifully crafted? I have? Okay, my apologies…






Description: The Canadian 2488 digital-to-analogue converter by Acousticbuoy is built in an extremely solid fashion. Your attention is first caught by the very rigid heavy chassis and the finish of its front panel. The enclosure has been made of thick aluminum slabs bolted to extruded corners. I mentioned the special fascia whose wavy yet smooth finish recalls Jeff Roland's. In the front there are only two small blue LEDs for power and lock to confirm synchronization between DAC and transport.



The name and logo are engraved, the latter placed in a slanted cutaway similar to Wadia. There are excellent WBT RCA and Switchcraft XLR for the outputs and the two digital inputs are on XLR and RCA. The latter isn’t special and it would be great if WBT was used. A little toggle selects between the inputs. On the other side there is an IEC power inlet with a mechanical switch. All writings on the chassis are engraved, not silk-screened.. The device is equipped with three feet carefully placed so that the center of gravity is exactly where it should be.



To get inside you have to remove the top panel. It's a massive aluminum slab in a kind of bluish tinge. The insides are simply beautiful! The whole circuit is mounted on a single PCB with the digital section on a separate small board connected via gold-plated pins. The latter contains three chips: a Wolfson Microelectronics WM8805 on the input whose digital 24/192 receiver is theoretically capable of accepting 192kHz signal from S/PDIF. This also handles jitter reduction. Next comes a robust Latice DSP working as digital filter and most likely it is also responsible for oversampling. From there the signal goes to an Analog Devices AD1852 D/A chip. This is a multi-bit sigma delta 24/192 converter.



The 2488 also uses an outstanding ultra-accurate temperature compensated crystal oscillator or TCXO. The analogue circuit is placed on the main PCB. There are three chips, an LT845, Philips NE5534 and AD642 in the output buffer. It is worth mentioning that one of the best available resistors (e.g. Dale) was used. There are Sanyo and BC capacitors and for power we find two small shielded toroidal transformers. The power supply is quite complex, with separate stabilization and rectification for the digital section and each analogue channel. The design of the DAC2488 separates all low-level analog grounds from the digital signal grounds and terminates them at a single designated point on the system’s ground conductor. There is also a big current filter integrated with the IEC socket. This is really a great job!




opinia @ highfidelity.pl
Acousticbuoy website