The Digitale 2000 has a junior sibling, the Digitale 1000, which enjoys the same feature list and functionality, the higher model designation indicating the use of selected parts and superior performance. Otherwise, both units are essentially identical. So, no variable output, no balanced connections (digital or analogue), no phase switch, mute, multiple digital connections or remote control. Switching sources means engaging the Mk.1 index finger, hand-eye coordination and your perambulatory powers, assuming you can’t reach the DAC from your listening position.
At this point, you are probably wondering why anybody would want lower resolution? But that’s to misunderstand the situation. No one actually WANTS lower resolution: they just don’t want the musically destructive artefacts that so often accompany higher resolution. When it comes to information, you need to be careful what you wish for. Music is all about pitch, placement and amplitude: together those axes might be viewed as presenting a three-dimensional pattern – a pattern that separates music from noise. So, anything that doesn’t fit the pattern ain’t music. Which means that if you are going to start adding information or filling in the gaps, you’d better make darned sure that things go exactly where they should – because your ears will tell you if there are aberrations, kinks or wobbles in structure, spatial or timing relationships that define the performance. That’s why the number of companies that actually get the high-res approach right is so small – and why the ones who don’t actually end up missing by a mile.
‘Little Maids All In A Row’
How hard can it be to get stuff in the right place? Harder than you might think and, just to make things worse, how hard it is varies with your approach. The more you over-sample or up-sample, the more vulnerable you make the analogue output to jitter. Compare a straight 16bit conversion to an 8x over-sampled equivalent and the over-sampled version can tolerate way less jitter before you hear it at the output. Way less? Try more than two orders of magnitude (or more than 100x) less! Given that 8x over-sampling is relatively modest in today’s terms, it makes you realise just how critical clock performance and jitter levels really are. Turn that on its head and you can begin to see why those who advocate filter-less DACs feel they have a greater chance of success – or at least achieving musically coherent results. Listen to the Digitale 2000 and you might well conclude that they have a point.
Hook the Konus DAC up to an S/PDIF source (I used the CEC TL-2N, Wadia S7i and CH Precision D1.5 at different times and in different systems) and the first thing that’s going to strike you is the sheer musical substance it projects. This is music with body, presence and colour. It is also music with a real sense of forward motion and purpose, helped by a sure-footed rhythmic confidence and propulsive dynamics. Play Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space (MFSL UDSACD 2021) and you’ll quickly identify the Digitale 2000’s essential character, the weight, easy dynamic coherence, natural flow and rhythmic integrity that allow it to slip between the shifting musical densities, to navigate the catchy, undulating rhythm of the title track, the slower, down-beat pacing of ‘Real Bad News’ or the driven, insistent tempo of ‘The Moth’, effortlessly shifting gears, never allowing the music to slow, flag or disconnect. In fact, the Konus DAC makes this a real singalong experience, pulling you in with those explicit rhythms and intimate, equally explicit lyrics (explicit in the emotional sense, that is). There’s a feeling of purpose in the performance, that the musicians are doing this for a reason. It centres on the natural and beautifully projected vocals, the bond between the lyric, the singer and the other musicians. The inherent simplicity of the core recording, a ‘front-room’ special, plays straight to the Digitale 2000’s uncomplicated approach, putting the key structural elements front and centre. Which is what makes this musical example so telling.
