The news that AKM will be unveiling a new flagship stereo DAC is certainly welcome by the audio industry and in particular the many high end audio manufacturers. The new Velvet Sound | Verita AK4499EX DAC solution offers a completely new design that evolved from the company's predecessor AK4499 Current Output DAC, involving a complete separation of digital and analog circuitry in conjunction with the AK4191EQ premium discrete delta-sigma modulator.
The AK4499EXEQ solution offers a stereo premium D/A conversion stage based on Switched Resistor DAC method employing AKM's Velvet Sound technology. The design uses the company's latest high-quality approach that explores completely separate digital/analog signal processing to achieve a completely transparent and realistic experience that breaks down the perception barriers of digital and analog audio.
When used in conjunction with the separate AK4191EQ device, the AK4499EX becomes an ideal analog conversion solution for playback of industry-leading high-resolution sound sources. Applications that AKM believe will benefit highly from this discrete approach include network audio devices and USB DACs, all digital, HRA-capable players, wireless speaker systems and soundbars and professional audio mixers and studio interfaces.
As AKM details, the AK4499EX premium multi-bit stereo DAC takes the newly developed Switched Resistor technology to a new industry-leading level of low distortion and low noise, which makes it suitable for playback of high-resolution audio sources and the reference demands as networked audio systems and USB-enabled sources become widespread. Leveraging a separate multi-bit modulator input for a high-precision audio source playback, allows the solution to achieve a new performance level that AKM admits exceed those of the integrated D/A predecessor AK4499.
When used in conjunction with the AK4191 the AK4499EX is the ideal analog conversion solution for playback of ultra-high-resolution sound sources, up to 64-bit PCM with 1536kHz sample rate, or 44.8MHz sample rate DSD (DSD1024). The AK4191EQ is a new concept multi-bit sigma delta modulator data converter employing a built-in digital filter - effectively, six types of 64-bit digital filters - and 256 times oversampling processing that minimizes the effects of digital noise within the analog output, resulting in a perceived improvement of the ratio of signal to noise.
Combined with the AK4499EX, AKMs newly developed DWA (Data Weighted Averaging) Routing Technology suppresses noise caused by manufacturing process factors and achieves world-class analog characteristics that exceed those of the predecessor flagship DAC, the AK4499. Specifications available indicate a signal to noise ratio of 135dB per channel (A-weighted) and -124dB THD.
And the new "asynchronous operation mode" feature in the AK4191 makes it possible to completely separate the digital and analog portions of the clocking. This allows the combined AK4499EX + AK4191 two-chip solution to provide high-precision D/A conversion with a low-jitter clock.
Since January 2022, AKM is sampling its latest generation of improved Velvet Sound D/A converters (DAC) and A/D converters (ADC) products (16 different references listed so far), with mass production scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.
Both the new AK4499EXEQ solution and the already announced AK4493SEQ products will be available for listening at the AKM exhibition booth during the High End Show (May 19-20, 2022). Sample shipments are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022, with volume production in the third quarter of 2022.
www.akm.com
