KingRex UD-01 USB DAC
Special Edition II

Our further development of the bijou KingRex UD-01 DAC fully liberates its considerable potential and represents an uncommonly uncompromised digital-to-analog solution.

The standard UD-01 board is fitted with upgraded Oscon capacitors throughout, specified by Audiocom. The finest fully discrete op-amps from Burson Audio are installed, and then the entire DAC is then deep cryo-treated. One of the most significant and ground-breaking upgrades, however, is what we left out . . .

It's a ubiquitous truism that 'the best connector is no connector at all', but how often is that put into practice? The KingRex UD-01 boldly dispenses with an entire set of lossy interconnect terminals and hard-wires a superb pair of silver-plated, cryo-treated Nordost Solar Wind interconnects direct to the board using the finest Mundorf Silver solder. This results in significant gains in sound quality: greatly improved transparency and resolution, and a major cost saving to boot (top quality RCA cables cost considerably more than this DAC). The SE II can be specified with integral interconnects ranging from 0.25m to 1m in length at no exra cost. Longer lengths are available (with surcharge) by request.

The new casework is special, too: bespoke made to provide strain relief for the cabling: entirely free of metal, yet fully shielded against electromagnetic and radio frequency interference by the strategic deployment of EM-rejecting paint and Stillpoints fabric.

Recent auditions have demonstrated that this DAC really comes to life with the KingRex SLAP power pack, but it works surprisingly well, too, with the Item Audio 12V regulated PSU. Although the SE-II will ship with a free switch-mode transfomer for DC input, we strongly recommend an appropriate power supply to get the best from it. The 2.1mm DC input permits a range of power upgrades down the line.

Sonically, this little DAC now plays with the grown-ups: everything that makes the base model so appealing has blossomed into a full-blooded presentation with amazing speed and fluidity. Against a velvety-dark background, instruments are richly coloured and timbrally organic . . . in other words, it sounds like a really good non-oversampling DAC, but it also has a top end: sweetly extended without ever being showy or 'etched-sounding'. It's a forget-me DAC: melting away to just leave the music. Soundstaging, too, is bigger and better-lit than the standard or SE version, size and depth growing in proportion to the quality of the PSU used, as does the weight of the lower registers.

We strongly recommend the Wireworld Starlight USB Cable (or better) to get the best from the SE-II, which is more revealing of cable quality than the stock or SE unit.

Please note that there is a two week turnaround time on this special order item.

• Decoder chip: Burr-Brown PCM 2702E
• 16-bit 44.1 or 48kHz
• 2x fully discrete dual Burson Audio op-amps
• Cryo-treated
• Oscon capacitor upgrades
• Hard-wired Nordost interconnects
• Vibration-free shielded casework
• Stillpoints fabric installed
• Coupling capacitor-free design
  
• Power rating: DC 12V / 0.5A
• Adaptor input: AC 100-240V (47-63Hz)
• Single USB 1.1 input.
• Comes with UK transformer / power lead.
• No driver required: plug and play with any Windows, Mac or Linux PC
• 12 month UK warranty

Dimensions & Weight: TBA

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