ЦАПы — ONIX Zenith XDA20

The Zenith XDA20 is a mains-powered DAC that also drives headphones, sold under the ONIX name, a brand run by the Chinese company Shanling. It pairs two ESS converter chips with a discrete current-to-voltage stage, carries six digital inputs and both balanced and single-ended line outputs, and sits in a CNC machined aluminium case in the black and gold style of the ONIX range, with an 86 mm touchscreen and an infrared remote handset.

Key specs that matter

At the core sit two ES9039Pro chips, fed by an XMOS XU316 USB interface. Over USB and I2S the unit accepts PCM up to 32 bit and 768 kHz and native DSD up to DSD512, while the optical, coaxial, AES and BNC inputs take PCM up to 24 bit and 192 kHz and DSD64. Frequency response runs from 20 Hz to 40 kHz within 0.5 dB on every output. The XLR output delivers 4.2 V with 127 dB signal to noise ratio, and the RCA output gives 2.1 V with 123 dB signal to noise and 123 dB dynamic range, both with THD+N of 0.0003 percent. The 6.35 mm headphone socket produces 101 mW into 32 ohm on low gain, 1,620 mW into 32 ohm on high gain and 252 mW into 300 ohm, with 3.3 ohm output impedance and 0.003 percent THD+N. The case measures 320 x 240 x 62 mm and weighs 5.7 kg.

Engineering and use context

Shanling developed its own current-to-voltage conversion stage for the XDA20, called Brighton, which uses eight OPA1611 op-amps after the two DAC chips. The headphone section is driven by a TPA6120 chip. The power supply uses two Talema transformers, one rated at 15 W and one at 25 W, with filtering by four Vishay capacitors of 3,300 uF and 63 V. Inputs comprise I2S over an HDMI connector, USB-B, coaxial RCA, optical Toslink, BNC and AES/EBU, which lets the unit sit behind a computer, a network streamer or a disc transport using I2S. Since the high-resolution formats are reserved for USB and I2S, a transport feeding the coaxial or optical socket is limited to the lower rates listed above.

Pairing

ONIX also offers the XST20 transport as a matching source, and an I2S link over HDMI from such a transport carries the full high-resolution rates. Balanced XLR sockets feed amplifiers with XLR connections, and the RCA sockets cover single-ended equipment. High-impedance headphones are within reach of the headphone stage, and low-impedance planar designs benefit from the high gain setting.

Alternatives

The ONIX Mystic XP1 is the brand's portable DAC and headphone amplifier, built around two AK4499EX chips with a 7,000 mAh battery.