The Pacific retaliated with unplugged acoustic jobs demanding speed, finely honed string plucks and being up close and personal with the main instruments. Rodrigo y Gabriela's take on Metallica's "Orion" is one such track. My reference DAC remained unrivalled in showcasing how energetic and zippy its guitars are and how much power their resonant sound boxes release. On this score the DAC DHT's guitar strings were thicker, softer and suspended deeper in the soundstage for a more sonorous less rapid, surrounding and percussive effect. With Luca Stricagnoli's "The Last of the Mohicans", those observations matched. Although with such minimalist fare both machines were equals on elasticity, vividness, ambience, spatial sortedness and image sizing, the Pacific's higher illumination, oxygenation, detail extraction, speed, energy, spice and larger frames had the upper hand over the DHT DAC's extra fruitiness, heft, meticulousness and romantic touches.

The DAC DHT had its revenge on all big drums. At party levels it bested my machine on slamming potency and guttural feel yet remained snappy and in control next to being tonally generous and massive. Once dynamically demanding music was on, the newcomer's lesser contrast pop and greater distance didn't matter much. My ears and eyes registered all performers properly large, tactile and fluid and admirably sorted on textural qualities. On those scores the Pacific came in second yet moved ahead each time tracks built upon a single vocal line against large ambient background. Eivør Pálsdóttir's "Tròdlabùndin" features substantial bass that in my room doesn't benefit from extra filler which the LampizatOr prevented while its ability to outline Eivør's voice more pronounced and closer was useful. On Carter Burwell's "Blood Trails" I had a draw. The Pacific extracted more dust bits and shimmer from the backdrop and landed its 1'04" crack more thunderous while the DAC DHT moved greater denser air for a more anchored darker perspective.

Today's battle essence came down to my subjective choice of either high intensity, acceleration, precision, contrast ratio and closeness or tonal suchness, fetching thickness, slamming eagerness and impact. So I exploited both DACs situationally as repertoire dictated. Each clocked roughly similar time which was telling. And the Audio Phonique proved extremely useful in targeting where the Pacific could do more in ways I hadn't heard before. Ideally I'd combine the newcomer's tonal qualities and image density with my reference's horsepower, lucidity and surrounding MO. At this time I simply haven't the faintest how to go about such a hybrid; and I've tried. Upon connecting the Audio Phonique via XLR to the 915R preamp, some of its fatty tissue traded for extra muscle to spell progress yet its thick bones still shone through. The Pacific with KR Audio T-100 instead of LV300B gets noticeably beefier at a cost of less speed and articulation which in my book is a sideways not up move. Still, upon sampling either of these two DACs, most listeners will be blown away big time.

Although the gates of Audio Phonique opened just recently, founders Maciej Lenar and Wojciech Murawiec are no freshmen. Their best DAC stresses that and accurately reflects their grand aspirations. Priced at €40'000, this painfully expensive kit belongs to the realm where well-established ruthless competitors from dCS, MSB et al roam. The task of breaching that zone let alone conquering it is anything but trivial. Considering its visual appeal, automation, build quality and luxo feel, Audio Phonique's DAC DHT will, I'm sure, survive those wilds. However, its profile built upon generous euphony, outstanding tone and dynamic potency is really a weapon designed to dominate not just defend. Kudos to team Audio Phonique for landing a performer that blends these virtues so expertly and sounds terrific!