For anyone looking for a compact device that combines a DAC, pre- and headphone amplifier, there is the Violectric DHA V590.
The headphones are more popular than ever. And even very affordable ones can offer excellent sound quality. Provided coupled with a good source. Golden times for example for small homes that have no room for a large hi-fi system. You don’t have to sacrifice quality, on the contrary.
Take a look at the Violectric DHAV590. Besides a headphone amplifier, this compact device is also a preamplifier and a DAC. Digital inputs are all there: AES / EBU, Cinch / Toslink S / PDIF and USB. Upsampling to 32 bits is present, and the digital feeds are presented to a dual-mono set-up of the AKM-AK4490 dac. Maximum quality via USB is 32 bit / 384 kHz and DSD to DSD512.
Extra option: relay-controlled volume control
As promised, the Violectric DHA V590 can also function as a preamplifier. For this purpose, analog line inputs are logically available: we see some XLR symmetrical connections and some stereo cinch connections.
For the volume control an ALPS potentiometer is used, as well as for the balance adjustment. You can connect two unbalanced and one balanced headphones, via pre-gain you can adjust the signal level for each headphone used.
Finally, at the back of this multi-functional Violectric wonder, you will also find XLR and cinch outputs.
The standard version of the DHA V590 costs €3199. For enthusiasts who prefer a relay-based implementation instead of a potmeter-controlled volume control: this is possible for an additional charge of €500. At the time of writing, nothing can be found about the device on the manufacturer’s site. However, we did see it ready in several webshops, including this one (see screenshot at the top of this article, where you can see the ‘relay variant’).
