ЦАПы — Musical Fidelity NU-VISTA DAC

The Nu-Vista DAC is a fully balanced converter by Musical Fidelity, priced at EUR 11,000, that combines ESS conversion with the nuvistor valve technology of the Nu-Vista range. It is built around the ESS 32-bit HyperStream II architecture and comes with a machined Nu-Vista remote control running on AAA batteries.

Key specs that matter

Two ES9038Q2M chips operate as a dual differential pair, giving a dual mono design, and eight digital filters are provided. The USB Audio Class 2 input accepts PCM up to 768 kHz at 24 bit, DSD256 via DoP and native DSD512, with full MQA hardware decoding. Three TOSlink inputs, one coaxial input and one AES/EBU input each take up to 24-bit 192 kHz PCM, MQA at 384 kHz and DoP DSD64. Frequency response is minus 0.5 dB at 10 Hz and 20 kHz. SNR exceeds 120 dB A-weighted, THD is below 0.002% and THD+N below 0.003%, and channel separation is better than 130 dB at 10 kHz. Total correlated jitter is under 12 picoseconds peak to peak. RCA outputs give 2 V RMS and XLR outputs 4 V RMS at 0 dBFS, both usable at once, with an output impedance of 10 ohms.

Engineering and use context

The circuit includes a Time Domain Jitter Eliminator, and upsampling, reclocking and an oversampling bypass mode are optional. With upsampling on, PCM up to 192 kHz is resampled to 352.8 or 384 kHz. At 705.6 and 768 kHz the oversampling filter block of the ESS chip is bypassed and powered down. The filter list includes Optimal Transient, a proprietary Musical Fidelity filter with zero pre-ringing and post-ringing and a slight roll-off at 20 kHz. Processing runs on a 16-core XMOS and a CPLD MAX II Altera chip. Volume runs from minus 90 dB to 0 dB in 1 dB steps, or the outputs can be fixed. LEDs under the nuvistor valves turn red while muted, orange while warming and blue after about 20 minutes. An HDMI-type I2S input is reserved for the Nu-Vista CD, and dedicated sockets accept the optional Nu-Vista Uni PSU. Spike feet with cups and felt pads come supplied. The unit measures 483 x 187.5 x 491 mm, weighs 21.5 kg and draws up to 40 W.

Pairing

With the volume control enabled the Nu-Vista DAC sets the level itself for a connected power stage or active loudspeakers, and a 5 to 12 V trigger jack switches it with other equipment.

Alternatives

The Musical Fidelity M8x DAC is a lighter same-brand converter with the same dual ES9038Q2M arrangement and a built-in balanced headphone amplifier.