What the nCore amplifiers sorely lack is a sound of their own. In our opinion, they are the closest thing yet to the mythical straight wire with gain. We kicked off with Tidal and again encountered some sharpness in that same little edge which was most prominent with cymbals. John Patitucci’s latest Brooklyn release features Brian Blade on drums (Qobuz actually list him as the album’s main artist). Switching between Tidal and Qobuz a few times made clear that Qobuz held the musical lead. With real muscle amps in the system now, there was as expected more control and slam. Also there was more magnifying power. Any flaw was no longer masked by sweetness or covered in love but right in your face. To further examine the capabilities of the AV streamer, we had another test in mind. PS Audio support the I²S-via-HDMI connection with their Perfect Wave Transport and matching Perfect Wave DAC. Here it had been completely clear from the start that this was favourable over any form of S/PDIF which the combination offers as well. Recently PS Audio went a step further with their Direct Stream DAC. Still offering the I²S-over-HDMI input, this converts all data to DSD. Compared to the Pink Faun, that’s a different concept but I²S over HDMI is a shared factor. Only the protocol differs, with TLL for Pink Faun and LVDS with a twist for PS Audio (the twist is the left-right switch on the HDMI receiver end).

When we informed Pink Faun of our desire to asses their AV Streamer in combination with the PS Audio DSD converter, Mattijs offered assistance. Hence we took his streamer to Pink Faun’s headquarters for an upgrade. They installed a new bridge which took a few minutes. Instead of the multi-channel output from the bridge—L/R front, center and surround—it now sported the TTL output for the DAC 2.32, standard LVDS and as a third option, a left/right-inverted LVDS output aimed at the PS Audio implementation. After returning home with the upgraded streamer, we ran it for a few days to give the new bridge module a chance to settle in. For the previous setup, JRiver had done the upsampling. With the everything-DSD DAC in place, that task became obsolete. Again this DAC converts all data to 30 bits at 10 x the standard DSD rate or 28.224MHz to push conversion noise deeply into the ultrasonic sphere. Before this signal hits a low-pass filter to convert back to analog, it is down-sampled to DSD128 at 5.6448MHz. The FPGA which does all this work has plenty of bit headroom to dedicate 20 bits to just volume control over 100 x 0.5dB steps across 120dB. In total, this DSP environment will process 50 bits of data density.

Hence we unchecked all boxes in JRiver that had previously been ticked to upsample for instance 16/44.1 to 32/196. The idea was to feed the DSD with native content and free the streamer’s CPU of conversion duties. The less a computer is asked to do, the quieter it will run. Also think of the way Peter Stordiau uses his streamer software. In XXHighEnd, all calculations are done prior to actual playback. Source files are converted to their desired sample rate and bit depth, then written back to disk. From there WAV files are read to memory and from there sent to the DAC via USB. At playback time, the CPU essentially idles. Something like that was now possible too with the PS Audio DSD doing all the work. We restored the PTP Audio Blok20 to repeat our auditions all over again. Once the desired music was found, be it from local storage via JRiver or the cloud via a streaming service, playback was instant. Hit play, sit back and enjoy what’s coming at you. With the PS Audio DAC, we enjoyed somewhat more dynamic power than with the DAC 2.32. On the other hand, the Dutch deck excelled at control and ease; maturity comes closest. Still, we compared apples and oranges aka PCM via BurrBrown chips versus DSD via FPGA; a tube-buffered output stage sans NFB versus a passive coupling transformer; and marginal vs. extreme upsampling. Returning to the nCore, we tried both our passive magnetic and PS Audio’s lossless attenuator. Where the gainclone integrated played the intimacy card, the class D monos scaled up the aural arena. Common to either setup was that Tidal became our least preferred source compared to the local hard drive or Qobuz Desktop.

Given that we focused on the AV Streamer as the review subject, we will reiterate that it supports I²S over HDMI regardless of DAC or converter type. In conclusion, we state that Pink Faun have succeeded in designing and building a multi-purpose streamer of which we only explored the 2-channel audio capabilities which are super strong indeed. Operating it is as easy as pie, no computer skill required. All that abstract Jazz is taken care of by the pre-install. Idling or at full boogie, the streamer runs dead quiet to conceal the fact that it is really a computer in an amplifier enclosure. The innovative design and purpose of the I²S bridge pay off big time and the multi-signaling option breaks any proprietary barriers to open the market for Pink Faun and other DAC suppliers. For the future, an investment in the AV Streamer is sound because its platform is fully modular. New hardware developments will plug in just like software upgrades do. The default JRiver software is adequate and user friendly. When more or other options are desired, another player software may be installed in parallel. Pink Faun’s own ASIO driver is the link between that and the final output. Streaming non-local sources is child’s play to support any newcomer to the market. This puts the user in full control. In short, we loved it!

PS. In a subsequent email exchange with Mattijs, he suggested that we really ought to try his full Pink Faun setup with one of our tube amplifiers. The DAC 2.32 is a zero-feedback design and so are our valve specimens. According to Mattijs, a full zero-feedback setup will bring out the best in their kit. So after the formal auditions were over, we experimented with our Audio Note Meishu and Trafomatic Reference One/Kaivalya options. It so happened that we listened to these late at night. The soft glow of tubes in plain sight or through cover slits asked for dimmed lights and matching low volumes. Normally our tube amps are doing chores in our analog corner whilst solid-state or chip-based amps are used with digital inputs. Here the Pink Faun DAC with its tube buffer was a kind of hybrid. With analog sources, we think that a bit of character injected with a preamp or power amp is no problem. Vinyl and the older recordings embedded in its grooves are chockfull of character already. Now we added some character to our digital arena. Mind you, we have tuned our tube amps wherever possible for our own taste. That is part of the fun in this hobby. Our Meishu is far from stock thanks to Peter van Willenswaard and some heavy tube rolling. Ditto the Serbian Kaivalya monos.

Aside from listening at low volumes, we were lured to play classical music. One of the more memorable things we played was pianist Javier Perianes with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Lyrical Pieces. A big orchestra at low levels is an adventure but the all-tube or better, zero-feedback system put up a very open and clear virtual image of the Barbican Centre. This recording is a must hear. Overall, the combination of music arriving in bits (and pieces) from somewhere in the Qobuz cloud, being put together again in the AV Streamer, converted to analog in the DAC 2.32, then amplified by tubes to generate enough power to have cones move the air, was a very rewarding experience. Maybe even a bit magical as tubes have a certain magic about them, already for the fact that they change over time. We don’t really notice that small deterioration until it is too late. This remains food for thought and an idea for a future review session...

Pink Faun website