ЦАПы — Kinera Audio Celest CD-30

Kinera builds the Celest CD-30 as a pocket-sized USB dongle combining a DAC with a headphone amplifier, and places it in its Celest line of portable converters. It is meant to sit between a computer or phone and a pair of wired headphones or in-ear monitors, taking over digital to analogue conversion and headphone drive from the host device. The list price is USD 89.

Key specs that matter

At the core sits an ES9039Q2M converter chip from the ESS Sabre family. PCM playback covers 44.1 kHz to 768 kHz at 16, 24 or 32 bit, and native DSD is accepted at DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DSD512, the last running at 22.5792 MHz. Kinera specifies a frequency range of 20 Hz to 40 kHz. There are two headphone sockets - a 3.5 mm single-ended jack and a 4.4 mm Pentaconn balanced jack. Into a 32 ohm load the single-ended output delivers 150 mW, while the balanced output reaches 550 mW, more than three and a half times as much. The body measures 56.6 x 22.7 x 13.8 mm and the unit weighs 21.3 g.

Engineering and use context

The ES9039Q2M is specified for ultra-low noise, high dynamic range and precise channel separation. The CD-30 houses it in an all-metal gunmetal chassis machined to shape, which keeps the enclosure rigid and gives shielding against radio frequency interference from nearby phones and wireless gear. The device works as a plug-and-play USB audio interface on Windows, macOS, Android and most other operating systems, with no driver to install. The package is short - the CD-30 itself, a Type-C data cable and a printed manual. With the full PCM and DSD range accepted natively, high-rate files and upsampled streams from computer players reach the chip without being converted down in software first.

Pairing

With the modest single-ended power, sensitive IEMs and easy-to-drive portable headphones are the obvious match, while the balanced output gives room for harder-to-drive full-size headphones fitted with a balanced cable. Both ratings are quoted at a low load, so higher impedance headphones will receive less power than these figures. Android phones connect through OTG, laptops and desktop PCs connect directly, and hosts with a different USB port type may need a suitable adapter. The small size lets the unit stay attached to a phone in a pocket or bag.

Alternatives

The Kinera Celest CD-20 uses the same ES9039Q2M chip in a lighter 16.2 g body rated at 250 mW single-ended and 480 mW balanced into 32 ohm.