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Jriver media center 28 review9/3/2023 A good plan - that way, you always get the latest driver. There’s no CD-ROM with a Windows driver, which you’re advised to download from ARC’s website. Included in the DAC9’s shipping carton are the remote control, the power cord, ferrite clamps to wrap around the cord if it picks up noise, and an envelope containing extra screws for the top plate. I use aftermarket power cords, footers, and tubes in my reference gear, but not for the product I’m reviewing - unless its stock cord looks like a throwaway. I’ve owned several ARC components and have never had any problem with them - they’re built like brick outhouses.ĪRC goes to a lot of effort to provide power cords that sound good, and expects reviewers of their gear to use the stock cords. When I opened the case to install the tubes, I saw that the parts quality is first-rate - in particular, the solid-state power supply is substantial. The DAC9 uses the Burr-Brown/Texas Instruments PCM1792A chip. The warranty for all ARC gear is three years, parts and labor, and 90 days for the tubes - typical for a tubed component at this price. The 6H30Ps are expected to last about 4000 hours a tube-life timer built into the DAC9 tells you how many hours of playing time your tubes have accrued. Fortunately, the 6H30P is still in production in Russia, so replacements are available from most tube stores however, I recommend buying replacements from ARC, which rigorously tests the tubes before selling them for use in their products. They’re 6H30Ps, the same tube type now used in the low-level circuits of nearly all ARC models. The DAC9 has one feature the DAC7 and DAC8 didn’t: tubes in its output section. The all-aluminum DAC9 measures 19”W by 6.5”H by 13.7”D and weighs 13.9 pounds. The Foundations look like smaller versions of ARC’s Reference models, and that’s a compliment - they and ARC’s upscale Galileo series were all designed by the same team. The ARC logo, previously stamped on the front panel, is now printed on the black glass. (Tip: I keep a small monocular on my coffee table for those components that don’t pass the Squint Test.) The information displayed is useful and complete: no proprietary abbreviations used.īelow the display is a row of six pushbuttons: Power, Menu, Option, Enter, Input, and Mute. (Both marques are now part of the McIntosh Group, which also owns Pryma, Sonus Faber, Sumiko, and Wadia.) The small characters of the DAC9’s display barely passed the Squint Test they were difficult though not impossible to read from my listening position, about 10’ away. The black glass looks even better than it does on the gear made by ARC’s stablemate, McIntosh Laboratory. Available in Black or Natural (ARC’s term for silver), the DAC9 borrows stylistic features from previous ARC gear - rack handles, a styling groove around the edge of the front panel, and a digital display with green alphanumeric characters - and adds some new ones, including a panel of black glass at the center of the faceplate, surrounding the display. ![]() Along with the price, the DAC9, LS28, and PH9 also share a similar appearance. Except for the VT80 ($8000 USD), each Foundation model costs $7500 - they are very nearly the least expensive models ARC makes. The DAC9 is part of ARC’s Foundation line, along with the LS28 line stage, PH9 phono preamp, and VT80 amplifier. It can, however, play DSD files previously, the only ARC component that could do that was the GSi75 integrated amplifier. The DAC9 is ARC’s first standalone, popular-level DAC since 2010 - in DAC years, an eternity - and, like most DACs, it doesn’t include the latest development in digital audio playback: the ability to decode Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) files. That was before files with such exotic initials as DSD, DXD, and MQA appeared. ![]() For a conservative company like ARC, that feature was somewhat innovative, it having only recently emerged as the sonically preferable way to play recordings at what was then the highest resolution available: 24-bit/192kHz. In March 2011, I reviewed Audio Research’s DAC8 DAC on SoundStage! Hi-Fi, which used a now-ubiquitous asynchronous USB 2.0 input to play files of sampling rates higher than 96kHz.
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