About the Matrix Audio ND-1 DAC

I’m still getting emails about the HifiRose RD-160 and I still don’t have any idea what “Switched resistor” really means or is it another way to say ladder DAC. I definitely want to know more about “VELVET-SOUND” technology is. 😳

“HiFi Rose's RD160 ($5995) is a D/A converter built around a pair of Asahi Kasei (AKM) chips: the AK4191EQ delta-sigma modulator and the AK4499EXEQ DAC. The AK4191 receives digital audio and applies filters, noise shaping, and oversampling. The AK4499EXEQ, a cording to the Asahi Kasei website, "is a stereo premium DAC chip based on the Switched Resistor DAC method employing VELVET-SOUND technology.”

@curiousjim 

Didn’t the guy from Pursuit Perfect System do a review of that DAC?  

@stuartk 

Yep. Everyone seems to love it. That’s my biggest concern with reviewers.  Just once, I’d like to see a reviewer say don’t buy XYZ, it’s a piece of 💩

@ghdprentice 

How fascinating.  I guess if you stayed there for twenty years, you must have enjoyed what you did.  Out of curiosity,  where were Burr-Brown chips assembled back then?

@Curiousjim

We had a waferfab, with testing and packaging done there in Tucson. 

I was head of IT for most of that time and implemented global systems. Yeah, it was a blast. We got purchased by Texas Instruments around 2000... and I was with them for two or three years. They still produce Burr-Brown trade marked DACs.