[NEW! COS Engineering D2 DAC review on Hifi Knights]
January 5, 2018[NEW! LampizatOr PACIFIC flagship DAC review on Hifi Knights]
January 24, 2018December last year was a great harvest time for COS . Their newly launched D2 machine continue showing of its great quality and versatility for the reasonable budget. This came earlier than HFK‘s one , but I left it for later as competing with Xmas makes no sense. All show appearances were equally successful and we are going to add to that during this year too. For time being however, enjoy reading Srajan’s comparative review which is quite interesting as he owns COS D1 DAC and uses it as his reference, unlike David who referees to his memory. As we do have here the current version of the D1 mkII ,I can only tell you that we also do have our own perspective which would hugely surprise you. But that is easy to verify – just get in touch and book a demo , then you will know what we are talking about .
Meanwhile read that summary below for the reference and first thoughts , and if you atracted enough follow the link to the full write up
Conclusions:
In the bigger context beyond the brand, €3’900 with volume control and remote obviously remains still quite the number. Cynics might even say that the D2 is what the D1 should have been all along. But no matter which side you come down on, finding a machine that is as sharply dressed as this clean-edged Taiwanese; that is as carefully featured to even think of that defeatable buffer for video lip sync and defeatable USB 2.0 for driverless WIndows; that is as purposeful about preamplifier use with a quality analog attenuator of 0.25dB steps yet which makes that a €700 easy retrofit option so buyers with already serious preamps won’t pay for redundancy… finding such a direct competitor won’t be so easy. And yes, direct drive’s ultimate success will rely on you being completely content with how your amp/speaker combo dovetails. The D2 won’t add any real seasoning to it like one might pursue with a valve preamp or very high-current transistor unit to increase dynamics or fill out tone.
The D2 presupposes that its source and volume control duties should focus on neutrality and resolving power but should manage those tasks not with just clinical expedience but demonstrable elegance. Admittedly elegance is a dificult word to assign as an audio quality. Again I return to a truly superior tweeter. It aces elegance by what it doesn’t do. Yet its telltale reveal of airiness and luminosity still touches everything else. That’s very much also the action of the D2. Whilst I’ve never heard folks complain of too many transistors, I routinely see tube lovers caution against too much glass. According to their beliefs, a tube DAC plus tube preamp plus paired tube amps gets excessive and sonically counterproductive. Enter the D2 in either DAC or DAC/pre guise. It’ll take out one or two of these tube components like Timothy Olyphant’s laconic federal marshal Raylan Givens does it: looking and sounding cool. Especially lovers of direct-heated SET who, most carefully and often involving costly trial and error, have set for themselves a very particular valve aroma could really find the light-filled sophisticated D2 ideal. If I didn’t already own the D1, I’d be most tempted to keep the D2 as a one-box DAC/pre. In fact I quite prefer its display, digital XLR and more easily set volume controller. I’m positive you’ll do the rest of today’s math. Now what’s your favourite synonym for unreasonable?