Should you question why USB needs cleaning, Antipodes and Innuos are just two serious brands with plenty of info on the subject. It relieves us of having to regurgitate it. Suffice to say that in my experience, network switch + iMac + Audirvana + external USB bridge = audiophile music server, Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube et al built in. The sonic yardstick is a superior CD transport. It's still the digital source to beat. That €20K servers should at least equal it is expected. However, I prefer serving up local tunes for 2/3rds less; or still bigger savings. Now computers need help. Today is about that. On my desktop that help is a Singxer SU-2 USB bridge plus iFi iPurifier. In the main system it's a Singxer SU-6 USB bridge under super-cap power. Upstairs it's a Soundaware D300Ref with super-cap power. You might say that I'm thrice sold on such helpers. It's why when this gear announcement dropped, I heard a sledgehammer pound on my door to open it pronto.
With small LP1 power supply.
By April 7th 2023 Alvin Chee of Vinshine had put Weng Fai Hoh in charge of sales & marketing for their Soundaware account. Vincent Ong moved to after-sales and product tech support. Then came this: "We just received a DAM-1 unit from Soundaware. Let's just say it's a very very good DAC. It works like a charm with 
PA1-REF from which it draws super-cap power. Once we launch our own DAM-1 page, we'd like a review of PA1 + DAM-1. Are you game?" Since game so easily rhymes with lame and blame, I said 'yes'. In the photos we appreciate more clean/dirty thinking. The DAM-1's dirty power supply is always offboard to keep its signal path clean. The PA1 enable button above the USB 3.0 input implies at least one alternate power option. Chinese online reseller Taobao just then listed three: the LP1 custom and Signature plus big LPX.
The quartet of dip switches adjacent to the I²S HDMI port configures its pins for 16 different schemes. Denafrips do it with a combo of front-panel controls and associated LED. Ferrum's new Wandla runs proprietary software steering and a touch screen to upload alternate configs to its initial PS Audio mode. Ancient's pending Lektor Plus CD transport will have I²S over HDMI but no word yet on how they'll implement adjustments.
The need for them is very real to not jam up clients when a transport/DAC combo with HDMI ports won't shake hands at all to emit noise instead; or invert channels or phase. Prior to the formal spec release, I wondered whether Soundaware had built in remote-controlled volume for amp-direct fanciers. I view it an attractive feature easily bypassed should an active preamp be preferred. Having it commits nobody to using it. But for the right install/client it eliminates an extra box, interconnect, power cord and rack shelf. Successful digital solutions include the French Leedh code favored by Lumin, Métronome, Soulution, Vermeer and Wattson. For analog there's the popular resistor-ladder-on-a-chip Muses PGA. It's what Cen.Grand and Ferrum use, the latter buffered.
Soundaware hold a patent for what they call their high-fidelity audio playback algorithm. It's code on an FPGA. The basic schematic above shows the hardware blocks surrounding it. Being able to do native DSD eliminates digital volume. As for analog volume, the schematic shows none so I likely had my answer. It does show a single-ended driver to indicate that the converter chip itself operates balanced.
The firm's FB page had this stack of D2 server with 200W built-in linear power, HQPlayer 7EC DSD128 upsampler and dual PA1 noise-filtering systems; DAM-1 DAC and LPX power supply; all mated to Sennheiser's over-the-top HE1 earspeakers and 8-tube amp. Relative sizing suggests Soundaware's kit being ¾th width. If we're judged by the company we keep, aligning themselves with a legendary cost-no-object headset says something about Soundaware's current ambitions.
As Kinki Studio already showed with a soft reveal of $45'000 combined flagship separates, the ChiFi scene is no longer content to be judged on cheap labor and attendant value. If one knows where to look, mounting evidence suggests that hifi components from the PRC now go head to head with top-tier competition from Europe and the US.
Are Soundaware about to join this league? Given their photos, I suspected as much. It was timely to test their latest flagship DAC with outboard super-cap power supply and built-in patented USB purifier. This segregation of DAC into twin chassis alone speaks to upscale ambitions. More-is-more shoppers already have their cue card: "This is serious stuff, señores!"
