Audio Note has introduced the IZVOR D/A converter, based around a fully discrete ladder DAC design.
At a time when integration has become the norm, a move toward discrete components is rather unusual—especially in something like a DAC. Yet that is exactly how the new Audio Note UK IZVOR DACs are built. Selecting the precise 1-watt resistors required for the design was reportedly no simple task. The accompanying software has also been developed entirely in-house.
According to the manufacturer, the resulting sound quality is “spectacular.” The overall architecture is radically different as well. The designers concluded that for a truly discrete implementation, traditional computer-oriented circuitry needed to be replaced with something far more analog-friendly. There are still ICs used within the system, but the actual D/A conversion stage is genuinely built from discrete resistors (as shown in the image above)—the large, tangible kind you can physically touch.
Whether the end result lives up to expectations is something listeners can judge for themselves after purchasing one of the DACs based on IZVOR technology—of which several models are planned.