It's time to come clean why none other than this elite DAC was my prey. Its upsampling design converts all incoming digital to DSD while its short yet broad frame with DHT adds hot-rod appeal. LampizatOr's Golden Gate which I had the pleasure of using for several years was similar in concept so this gig rekindled an old flame. In late 2018 when I still had GG under my roof, Maciek visited and had a blast during our brief audition. Recently he revealed that this experience was both memorable and inspirational and how he holds Lukasz Fikus in high regard. I applaud him for being so upfront. I find it refreshing when audio designers who know their onions appreciate the work of competitors. To him a DAC based on DSD processing with direct-heated triodes was a starting point from which he set off in his own way. He's nobody's copycat and it shows. Quite a few tube audio houses like LampizatOr fit their models with a range of tube brands and types but here Audio Phonique's DAC DHT is a closed chapter. Maciej pursued a specific sonic effect achievable only by combining EML's globe 45 and 274B rectifier. Although his DAC was built with this particular glass in mind, customers are naturally free to experiments as long as their output tubes are happy on 2.5V filament voltage. As a 5U4G fan I asked whether Maciej tried them which he had but the higher output impedance of the 274B was more useful for low-level signals; plus he preferred its sonics. Fair enough.

Although this machine looks minimalist if not plain, its highly reflective chassis works brilliantly in busy spaces. Gently rounded edges and a uniform aesthetic give reason to think that its frame was cast or machined from solid billet. Neither. This far more labor-intense affair comprises 2mm 316L stainless steel cut, bent, welded and manually polished to achieve a uniform mirror-like effect as flawless to the eye as it can realistically be. The manufacturing process described was a horror which swallowed up a small fortune before finding a local shop capable of getting it right. As for the steel itself, it does what 10mm aluminium equivalents would yet is non-magnetic, non-corrosive, much harder and still heavier to secure extra points on mass damping. Being thrice as costly and a royal pain to finish to perfection is naturally reflected on the final bill. The DAC sits on four 316L steel pucks with rubber O-rings while two slotted rows between these footers vent inside heat. Bolts consigned to the underbelly allowed Maciek to avoid them pretty much everywhere else and land those superbly clean monolithic visuals. The front features just one tiny red LED to report readiness a minute after turning the power switch on the business end. There we see an IEC inlet, three digital inputs (USB, coaxial S/PDIF and AES/EBU), a selector between coax and AES/EBU and one each 2Vrms RCA and 4Vrms XLR analog output. Although both are live simultaneously, it's advised to only use one at a time. USB overrides the other inputs so to use those one either unplugs the USB cable or turns off a connected source.

By now it's clear that our Audio Phonique is fully automated to get by without remote. Just flick its power mains. Its shiny enclosure is a potent fingerprint magnet that also gets very hot near its tubes to burn skin with just a short contact. It's also very stable. I didn't turn it off for several days and it worked flawlessly. It's also worth knowing that its output tubes ring over sensitive speakers during loud playback, in particular just prior to a track's final blast. To some listeners who don't tolerate high microphonics this could be a dealbreaker but to me it's the nature of these particular direct-heated triodes. The 3mm motherboard with gold-plated OFC traces contains the analogue circuits, power supplies and two small piggybacked digital PCB. Amanero's USB receiver sends out I²S on 3.3V from a custom-made linear PSU instead of USB's 5V as we already saw with the LessLoss Echo's End Reference. The second digital board features the S/PDIF receiver and AKM's upsampler which reconverts all incoming data to DSD passed on to a CS4398 D/A converter with only one of its function engaged. Then the differential analog signal hits a 1st-order low pass based on Cornell Dubilier silver mica caps. Although this DAC DHT and LampizatOr's Golden Gate both go analog from DSD, the latter's chip-less nature can't handle native PCM while the former's ΣΔ heart can all day long.

Audio Phonique's analog/digital circuits power respectively by 200W/30W toroidal transformers from local company Toroidy.pl. Double voltage stabilizers are low-noise discrete types and those for the digital boards reach a PSRR of 150dB. Filter caps are Elna Silmic II, Vishay black MKP and M-Lytic AG by Mundorf. The tube heaters use the same Mundorf caps and discrete stabilizers controlled by op-amps. The anode voltage section incorporates a rectifier tube, 5 x Mundorf MCap® Supreme Classic oil-filled silver/gold coupling caps, Audio Phonique's own power supply choke and one large Mundorf M-Lytic HV cap. Then steps in a stabilized discrete PSU filtered by smaller M-Lytic HV and TubeCap MKP followed by Lundahl's anode choke and finally the DHT. Each sits in a gold-plated Teflon socket and enjoys its own cathode current source based on a transistor which remains Maciek's sweet secret. Now it's finally time to find out how it all translates to sonics.