Стримеры — Cary Audio DMS-700

The DMS-700 is a network audio player with an onboard DAC from Cary Audio of North Carolina, announced in December 2020 at USD 7,995. It replaced the DMS-600 and sits in the middle of the DMS family, below the DMS-800 Professional Version, with which it shares the same DAC chips and analogue output stages. The chassis comes in silver or black anodised aluminium.

Key specs that matter

AKM AK4499EQ chips perform the conversion, used from one to four channels for a fully balanced output. After them comes a 32-bit 8x oversampling filter in the digital domain, and a Bessel filter of the third order sits in the analogue path. PCM playback runs from 44.1 kHz to 768 kHz and DSD from DSD64 to DSD512, with MQA decoding indicated by a front LED. Cary quotes a frequency range of 2 Hz to 22 kHz at 44.1 kHz, 124 dB dynamic range, 127 dB signal-to-noise ratio, 0.0001 % distortion and 107 dB channel separation, all measured at 1 kHz. Digital inputs cover three USB ports, an SD card slot, Bluetooth, one AES/EBU, one Toslink and a pair of coaxial sockets, and the unit also offers coaxial and Toslink digital outputs next to XLR and RCA analogue outputs. A wired RJ45 port and 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO connect it to the network. The case measures 95 mm high, 438 mm wide and 413 mm deep, weighs 12.7 kg and draws 45 W from a factory-set 110-120 or 220-240 V supply.

Engineering and use context

The AK4499EQ replaced the AK4497EQ of the older DMS-600, and an FPGA works alongside it to prevent crossover distortion in the current-output stage. Timing comes from a dedicated crystal oscillator clock. Seven independent regulated supplies feed the circuit, and the internal layout gives roughly a third of the space each to the analogue stage, the digital section and the power supply, all shielded from one another. Streaming support includes Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect and Roon Ready status, with a 60-day Roon trial in the box. Owners can choose PCM or DSD upsampling or convert PCM to DSD. A NAS function serves files from attached USB and SD storage, and tracks from network, internet and local sources can be queued without interrupting playback. The front LCD has twice the resolution of earlier DMS screens, and a Pure Audio mode and sleep timer are included.

Pairing

Line-level XLR or RCA feeds suit any preamplifier or integrated amplifier input, and a 12 V trigger input lets the player switch on with the rest of the system. Control comes from free iOS and Android apps or the supplied IR remote, and the digital outputs can pass the stream on to an external converter.

Alternatives

The Cary Audio DMS-800 Professional Version is the network player placed above the DMS-700 in the same DMS range.