We all love listening to music, but in the past 15 years or so video certainly didn’t kill the radio star, the MP3 started taking over and partially ruined the music experience for me! Yes, it is a convenient file format, especially as the file sizes are so much smaller than WAV (highest quality). However, studies have shown that low quality mp3’s can cause headaches & fatigue because the brain has to put so much effort into piecing it all together (many technical reasons we won’t get into now).
ZuperDAC, The Portable Hi-Fi USB-DAC by Zorloo has saved the day, transform your music experience into a majestic smartphone Hi-Fi explosion!
“We just want to bring Hi-Fi music enjoyment to everyone.” ZuperDAC transforms your existing PC, Mac, Android, iPhone and Raspberry Pi into a Hi-Fi music system. Plug in ZuperDAC to a USB port and it will faithfully reproduce the music with all the details. Connect to your headphone or speaker system for great music anytime, anywhere.
Less is More
ZuperDAC measures just 46mm(L) x 23mm(W) x 10mm(H) (excluding the USB connector) and weighs only 16g. It is housed in an Aluminum casing with 2 matte color options, Gold and Silver. The Aluminum casing provides solid protection to the inside electronics as well as interference shielding. Even in such a small size, we still manage to incorporate full USB Audio Class 2 functionality, HiFi AudioDAC and Headphone Amplifier.
Anytime & Anywhere
You can carry ZuperDAC around without even noticing it. It is the perfect companion for your PC & smartphone as it instantly upgrades your audio system to HiFi quality. No matter you are at work or having fun, you can enjoy HiFi music anytime and anywhere you want.
4x Sampling Frequency
High Definition Audio standard record music at 192kHz versus CD at 44.1kHz, meaning 4x more samples are recorded and more details are revealed. ZuperDAC supports all different sampling frequencies up to 192kHz so you can play all versions of music recording. Be it CD or High-Definition grade, you are now fully equipped.
1.5x Bit-Depth Resolution
Regular CD recording uses only 16-bit representation for each channel but latest recording technology has been beefed up to High-Definition 24-bit. It is like measuring with a higher precision ruler. ZuperDAC supports up to 24-bit and you can now enjoy all the latest High Definition music without compromise.
World Class HiFi AudioDAC
The AudioDAC is the mastermind in the USB-DAC design. At ZuperDAC, we used the best HiFi grade ESS Sabre ES9018K2M AudioDAC. With its patented 32-bit Hyperstream DAC architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator, it faithfully reconstructs the original music. You will be surprised to find all the details you have missed before.
Integrated Headphone Amplifier
A USB-DAC won’t be complete without a good headphone amplifier. ZuperDAC uses the latest ESS ES9601 headphone driver. It delivers unmatched performance for audio headphone or line-out output. With its pop-noise suppression design, you are free of any unwanted power-up and power-down noise. You can just plug in your headphone and immerse in HiFi music.
Multi-Platform Support
ZuperDAC is fully compatible with USB Audio Class 2 (192kHz, 24-bit) specification. That means it is plug and play compatible with Mac OS X and Ubuntu. Windows default only support USB Audio Class 1 (96kHz, 24-bit) and we provide USB Audio Class 2 driver for Windows to unleash ZuperDAC full potential. By using an OTG cable, you can connect ZuperDAC to Android mobile phone (if it supports OTG and USB Audio, see our compatibility list*). For iOS mobile phone, you can use the Apple Lightning to USB Camera adapter to connect ZuperDAC. ZuperDAC also works with Raspberry Pi 2 with Volumio Audiophile Music Player Distribution.
The Birth of ZuperDAC
Computer and smartphone excel at computation, storage and connectivity. However, due to different design constraints like space, interference and cost, it is hard to build a good computer or smartphone audio system.
USB-DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) is an elegant solution to solve this problem. By streaming raw digital audio data through USB to the USB-DAC, it bypass the internal audio system and reconstruct HiFi music externally.
When we look at existing USB-DAC products, they are mostly bulky and expensive. We therefore decided to build one.
ZuperDAC is a truly portable USB-DAC at only 11 cm3 and 16 gram. It is based on ESS ES9018K2M HiFi grade AudioDAC and supports USB Audio Class 2 192kHz 24-bit resolution. It supports Windows 7/8, OS X Yosemite, Ubuntu, iOS and Android*. That means you can use it anytime and anywhere.
We would like to build HiFi audio product affordable by all music lovers. We hope that you can support our vision. ZuperDAC is now offered as a reward for the early bird adopter at $49. This is a truly portable HiFi USB-DAC that you can contribute to make it real.
Technical Specification
*Android Compatibility List
Due to segmentation of Android and the hardware design, we cannot guarantee the compatibility of ZuperDAC with every Android phone. We have tested ZuperDAC to work with the following phones:
- Asus Zenfone 2
- Samsung Galaxy S3/S4/S5/S6/S6 Edge
- Samsung Note 2/3/4/Edge
- LG G2 Pro/G3, Nexus 5
- Sony Xperia Z1/Z2/Z3
Some phones like HTC M7/M8 and Oneplus One will disable volume control at USB audio operation (Volume key can only turn on or off USB audio output). If you use it with a headphone, there is no way to control output volume level (which is set at the maximum level and may be harmful to your ears). If you connect to an external powered speaker or amplifier with volume control, it should work well.
Credit: Edited // www.indiegogo.com