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Streamers — Cary Audio DMS-550
Description, images, technical data and specifications
Cary Audio DMS-550
Image source - (c) Cary Audio
The DMS-550 is a network audio player and DAC from Cary Audio, announced with preorders opening on 2 November 2018 at a retail price of USD 5,495. Cary introduced it as a direct replacement for the DMS-500, adding a built-in headphone amplifier, aptX HD Bluetooth and Qobuz support. It sits in the same family as the DMS-600, which uses a higher-grade AKM converter and drops the headphone stage. Beyond streaming, the unit plays files from USB drives and SD cards and accepts external digital sources.
Key specs that matter
Conversion uses two stereo AK4493EQ chips from AKM, one per channel for true balanced output, followed by a 32-bit 8x oversampling digital filter and a third-order Bessel analogue filter. PCM from 44.1 kHz to 768 kHz and DSD up to DSD512 play natively. Cary lists 113 dB signal-to-noise ratio, 125 dB dynamic range, 107 dB channel separation and 0.0004 percent total harmonic distortion, all measured at 1 kHz. Balanced XLR and RCA outputs deliver 2.0 V at 0 dB volume or 3.0 V at the +8 dB setting. Digital inputs are three USB ports, one SD card slot, AES/EBU, two coaxial and one Toslink, plus Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX HD at 24 bit and 48 kHz. The chassis measures 438 x 95 x 413 mm, weighs 10.7 kg and draws 45 W.
Engineering and use context
The front-panel headphone amplifier is a Class A design with discrete output transistors and its own volume control, separate from the main outputs. It delivers 850 mW per channel into 32 ohm and holds 5.2 V RMS from 8 to 600 ohm. Cary's TruBit upsampling runs on a 128-bit DSP engine with up to ten selectable sample rates and can convert PCM to DSD64, DSD128 or DSD256. OSO reclocking buffers and retimes every incoming signal against the internal clock to reduce jitter. MQA files are decoded and rendered at 16x, and Tidal, Spotify, vTuner and UPnP servers are also supported, along with Roon Ready and AirPlay playback. Wi-Fi covers 802.11 b/g/n/ac, and its MU-MIMO mode operates only on the 5 GHz band. A 127 mm (5 inch) colour LCD shows playback data, and control comes from the IR remote or iOS and Android apps.
Pairing
A master volume setting lets the DMS-550 drive a power amplifier directly as a digital preamplifier, while the independent setting fixes its level for use ahead of an integrated amplifier. A 12 V trigger input and an IR control input help it join a larger system.
Alternatives
The Cary Audio DMS-600 is the related network player based on AK4497EQ converters without a headphone output.
Key specs that matter
Conversion uses two stereo AK4493EQ chips from AKM, one per channel for true balanced output, followed by a 32-bit 8x oversampling digital filter and a third-order Bessel analogue filter. PCM from 44.1 kHz to 768 kHz and DSD up to DSD512 play natively. Cary lists 113 dB signal-to-noise ratio, 125 dB dynamic range, 107 dB channel separation and 0.0004 percent total harmonic distortion, all measured at 1 kHz. Balanced XLR and RCA outputs deliver 2.0 V at 0 dB volume or 3.0 V at the +8 dB setting. Digital inputs are three USB ports, one SD card slot, AES/EBU, two coaxial and one Toslink, plus Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX HD at 24 bit and 48 kHz. The chassis measures 438 x 95 x 413 mm, weighs 10.7 kg and draws 45 W.
Engineering and use context
The front-panel headphone amplifier is a Class A design with discrete output transistors and its own volume control, separate from the main outputs. It delivers 850 mW per channel into 32 ohm and holds 5.2 V RMS from 8 to 600 ohm. Cary's TruBit upsampling runs on a 128-bit DSP engine with up to ten selectable sample rates and can convert PCM to DSD64, DSD128 or DSD256. OSO reclocking buffers and retimes every incoming signal against the internal clock to reduce jitter. MQA files are decoded and rendered at 16x, and Tidal, Spotify, vTuner and UPnP servers are also supported, along with Roon Ready and AirPlay playback. Wi-Fi covers 802.11 b/g/n/ac, and its MU-MIMO mode operates only on the 5 GHz band. A 127 mm (5 inch) colour LCD shows playback data, and control comes from the IR remote or iOS and Android apps.
Pairing
A master volume setting lets the DMS-550 drive a power amplifier directly as a digital preamplifier, while the independent setting fixes its level for use ahead of an integrated amplifier. A 12 V trigger input and an IR control input help it join a larger system.
Alternatives
The Cary Audio DMS-600 is the related network player based on AK4497EQ converters without a headphone output.
Specifications
Model name
DMS-550
Has internal DAC
Yes
DSD compatability
Yes
Parameters
up to PCM 32/768 and DSD512
DSP processing
N/A
Frequency response low +/- 3dB (Hz)
2
Frequency response high +/- 3dB (Hz)
100000
Gain (dBu)
N/A
Input Impedance (balanced) (Ω)
N/A
Input Impedance (single-ended) (Ω)
N/A
Output Impedance (balanced) (Ω)
N/A
Output Impedance (single-ended) (Ω)
N/A
Analog outputs level (balanced) (V)
N/A
Analog outputs level (single-ended) (V)
N/A
Signal to Noise Ratio (dB)
113
Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (% at 22 kHz)
0.0004 (at 1 kHz)
Dimensions (mm)
N/A
Weight (kg)
N/A
Official link
N/A
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