Arcam irDAC

Arcam irDAC

Arcam was readmitted into the DAC market a few years ago, when they released their high quality digital audio converter, the rDAC. The stand-alone concept for a DAC was not a new idea for Arcam, as they were actually the first company to release a cost-effective, outboard DAC almost 25 years ago. Building upon the success of the rDAC, and utilising feedback from rDAC owners, the engineers at Arcam have formed the 'irDAC', which is an enhanced design that dramatically increases the performance bar and is elegantly simple to manipulate and use.

The irDAC gets it's name from the infra-red features of the remote control, and is essentially based upon the same sonic ideas and concepts as the D33 DAC. The irDAC is filled with contemporary and cutting-edge technology that brings its high-quality performance to a vast range of sources. It's phenomenal sound quality offers nothing but sheer music enjoyment for all music lovers. 

Arcam engineers learned a number of things while developing the class-leading FMJ D33 DAC. Things like isolation of digital and analogue stages, as well as ultra-low noise power supplies and direct coupled signal paths make a huge difference to the final sound. The irDAC makes use of the prestigious Burr Brown 1796 DAC and 8 separately regulated power supplies. This ensures the best possible performance, and enables the irDAC to become unmatched when put against other DACs in the same price range. Reducing jitter has always been Arcam's biggest goal, and the circuits developed for the D33, and in turn, reused within the irDAC create a signal that's almost entirely jitter free.

The irDAC has been designed to be the heart of a digital sound system, and can be connected to integrate an array of different types of digital sources and connections, including an asynchronous USB and direct iPod/iPhone connection, which takes the digital signal straight from your apple device to achieve the best possible sound quality. Each of the inputs can be controlled from the irDACs infra-red remote control handset. The remote can also control PC's, MAC's and Apple devices bia the HID (human interface device) controller.