A solution has appeared in the form of the U-DIO8 multichannel interface from miniDSP. "There has been a serious impediment to the spread of multichannel playback among audiophiles." Thus did Kal Rubinson describe, in his September 2018 "Music in the Round" column, the scarcity of commercial multichannel D/A processorsat the moment, there appear to be only threeand its stultifying effect on hobbyists interested in surround sound. MiniDSP U-DIO8 Multichannel Interface: $375 ★ KR described his delight with the Anubis's sound, noting in particular its "sense of natural balance and smoothness," and praised this most recent Merging Technologies product as "a superb multichannel DAC that has redefined my entire system." (Vol.42 No.11) Add to that the Anubis's two headphone outputs and two analog inputsthe latter could accept, say, a stereo phono preamp, FM tuner, or other sourceand you have an unusually flexible, high-quality Swiss-made product at a distinctly reasonable price. It is, in other words, a pro-audio studio controller that does double duty as a domestic multichannel D/A processor. Merging Technologies MERGING+ANUBIS Monitor Controller Premium: $2599Īnother category-defying product from Swiss manufacturer Merging Technologies, the Merging+Anubis Premium combines a 32-bit 384kHz DAC with the processing power required to accept an eight-channel stream via Ethernet and concomitantly control up to eight studio monitors. If you already own an AV8802a, should you replace it with an AV8805? Quoth KR, "Maybe, but only if you're using it for more than just multichannel music playback." Nonetheless, Kal regards the Marantz AV8805 as "the standard bearer in home theater and multichannel audio." (Vol.41 No.11 WWW) The AV8805 is the fourth Marantz pre-pro used by Kal Rubinson, who assures us that "the most widely promoted features new in the AV8805 concern home theater … and video." What really interested KR were the carryovers from the AV8805's predecessor, the AV8802a, such as Marantz's Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Module (HDAM) buffer output stages for each channel, and the AV8805's support of Audyssey's brand-new MultEQ Editor app. Marantz AV8805 preamplifier/processor: $4499 KR found the Sigma to be "easy to use and completely functional as a network link" for his own exaSound e38 and e38 MkII DACs. It supports PCM to 32/384, DSD to DSD256, and MQA (full unfold). The simple Sigma, which streams via wired or wireless LAN, is a Roon-ready endpoint, can function as an HQPlayer network audio adapter, and is compatible with UPnP, OpenHome, and AirPlay protocols. To those who already own an exaSound DAC, the exaSound Sigma Streamer offers an affordable and tidy alternative to the company's PlayPoint digital-source components.
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