DiDiT High-End

SYSTEM212

"the 212se’s most accomplished sonic attribute was its ability to resolve spatial information"

If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be embracing a sigma-delta DAC I would have thrown a couple of spuds at them. But keep in mind that in my experience there’s a narrow path toward optimal sound, which involves selection of the slow roll-off filter and a Qsize setting of 7. So configured, I find the DiDit 212se to be enormously compelling musically, so much so, that it is currently my favorite DAC/pre. Make no mistake about it, this is a major endorsement by a reviewer who was for years dogmatically attached to R2R DACs. I think I’ll be taking my dogma out for a walk about now. Be sure to give it a listen. I think that you’ll be as amazed as I was by the musical prowess of the 212se..
Dick Olsher for the Abso!ute Sound

"this is one of the most open, well separated, and transparent digital systems I’ve enjoyed in a long time"

Continued listening had me totally hooked on the DiDiT pairing which is so open and revealing that I have rarely encountered better.
It pulls out so much vitality but no glare from Van Morrison’s ‘The Way Young Lovers Do’ [Astral Weeks, Warner], which is still tonally thin but musically as compelling as it’s ever been without vinyl as the medium.
Putting on more and more tracks convinced me that this is one of the most open, well separated, and transparent digital systems I’ve enjoyed in a long time.
It delivers a level of transparency that is in another league to the price.
Jason Kennedy for HiFi+

DAC212
AMP212
SYSTEM212

"The first thing noticeable with a DiDiT 212 DAC in my system was how the sound became more focused"

The DAC never sounds exasperatingly fast, but the quickness in which it deals with leading edges is undoubtedly accurate and controlled. Beat driven music has an instant toe tapping appeal and smile factor which is just so addictive.
Play any good acoustic music which has strong female vocals and the 212 is pretty stunning.
The DiDiT 212 from Rients and the team in the Netherlands is a stunning piece of engineering, a real classy looking product with an equally classy sound – especially for the money.
For me the vocals are standout with this DAC, if you are a valve fan vocally, but go potty at the pitfalls such as the looser bass and the loss of that bottom most octave and want to try something in the solid state arena again, then I’d suggest you have a ‘money back’ listen.
Dan Worth for Hifi Pig

"The sound was vivid and offered up a deep aural vision"

The guitarist’s mostly acoustic performance enhanced with synclavier pieces came to us full of flavour and richness.
The sound was vivid and offered up a deep aural vision on the settings the producer hade made of the recordings.
Truly stunning was the rendition of the 24bit/176.4kHz recording of Sera Una Noche La Segunda on M.A. Recordings.
This is a very airy reading captured with just two microphones. Its dynamic range is really rare these days and the musical style of early tango ideally suited.
The DAC212 locked on to the higher bit rate without issue and just as all incoming PCM material, oversampled the input to 1.5MHz before further processing. As we played more hi-res PCM materialwe became more and more fond of the DAC212’s ‘sound’.
Speaking of sound might suggest that the DAC212 had a sound of its own. But that wasn’t the case.
Marja&Henk for 6Moons

DAC212
design
features

DAC212 design: The compact housing is part of the DiDiT philosophy that signal ways must be as short and minimalistic as possible.
The diminutive casing necessitated the use of smaller circuit boards and hence more direct signal pathways.

The beautifully designed aluminum enclosure is milled out of one piece of aluminium.
This gives the DAC212 a very sturdy frame preventing any resonances from interfering with the audio range.

Each channel and section (digital and analogue) have their own milled chamber separated from the other circuits.

The circuit board is "sandwiched"between these chamber walls.
This robust construction removes any possible deleterious resonances in the PCB.

In order to isolate the chassis from vibrations we manufactured stainless steel footers with an integrated Sorbothane ring, so that the DAC212 "floats" on the three Sorbothane rings.

The Sorbothane rings have been specifically tuned to absorb the resonance frequency of the chassis.

Thus no deleterious vibrations can affect the PCB and signal pathways

All connectors use high-grade teflon and are gold-plated, which guarantees optimum conductivity minimizing signal loss.

The DAC212 features: In order to optimize the entire music experience we have incorporated advanced technology in the compact DAC212.

The front-panel houses a beautiful capacitive touch button, turned from stainless steel, surrounded by an illuminated ring.

The ring is lit whenever the DAC212 is in standby mode. The touch sensitive button is used for turning the DAC212 on/off and for input selection

The touch-sense button is used for switching the DAC212 on or off and for input selection.

A solid aluminium remote control adjusts volume, selects inputs and mutes the device.

To set the muting on or off a soft-switching software is used, avoiding abrupt changes in volume.

Volume spikes are avoided by utilising a soft switching software which ameliorates abrupt changes in volume.

A micro-controller stores the last volume setting(s) for both the RCA outputs and headphone socket.

Switching the DAC212 on `self-cleans' the relays, as they rapidly open and close thereby avoiding the build up of corrosive particles detrimental to the audio signal.

The microcontroller performs a self-diagnostic on power up in order to prevent system errors.

The DAC212 advanced functions can be accessed via the remote controls progressive menu, for example display brightness and initial volume settings can be determined within the menu structure

" The dynamics are truly exceptional, especially the micro dynamics.."

Overall I really liked how it sounds, its ability to faithfully reproduce the sound message without adding or removing anything.
The dynamic are truly exceptional, especially the micro dynamics, many little details that come to our mind, the result of a great job done with the power supply, as proof that the switch mode supply, especially for digital sources, are anything but mediocre.
Distortion, virtually absent, this is perhaps the greatest strength of this converter.
The device is certainly interesting, with its well-defined character, able to fight on equal terms with its competitors, beautifully designed and built with the criterion. A choice to definitely consider.
Giuseppe Castelli for Remusic (Italy)

"The difficult controllable AKG 240DF headphone gave no problems, on the contrary we they never sounded so good"

In most situations, the dac212 will be used as DAC for digital signals via the S/PDIF, TOS-link or USB inputs. But the in the ESS9018 integrated volume control makes it possible to also use it as a preamp. We have also tried this capability. The very low impedance line outputs are capable to drive preamp flawlesly . Although the purist will abhor a volume control in the digital signal process, with the all the best will in the world we could not detect any adverse influence.
And we have experienced this differently with several competitors.
It remains to mention that also the headphone output is of high class.
The difficult controllable AKG 240DF headphone gave no problems, on the contrary we they never sounded so good.
Bert Oling for HVT (the Netherlands)

DAC212
design
pcb
specifications

Electronics design: Component layout and PCB design greatly influence the specifications and sound of audio equipment.
At DiDiT we use advanced CAD/CAM software simulations to optimise the PCB layout. Our design is based on the concept of "virtual grounding and balanced interfacing".

This technique prevents interference generated when multiple circuits share a common ground from causing disturbance to the signal path.

: "The DAC212 uses a highly efficient switched mode power supply (SMPS) which has a very fast response time to power draw.
Moreover, by utilising ample capacitive buffering virtually all of the negative effects of using a SMPS are avoided.

At DiDiT we are fastidious about reducing noise levels in our circuits, as we believe that this greatly improves sonic clarity.
Thus, besides the abundant use of capacitive buffering the DAC212 uses 12 independent ultra low noise local power supply regulators

: Each channel, every stage and the system clock have their own very low noise power-supply regulator, thereby separating the sensitive circuits.

Combined with "Virtual Grounding and balanced interfacing" this results in a very clear signal, free from interferences and conveying the music in its purest way.

DAC212 PCB design: The DAC212 is designed around multilayer circuit boards. With multilayer board designs we can assign one layer to an unbroken ground plane, which will give a very low induction design with reduced crosstalk.

All power supply layers are designed in differential pairs. So high and low current traces are individually paired but are separated from each other using the different layers. This design was created using advanced CAD/CAM computer software simulations.

This way of designing drastically reduces overall distortion down below the 0.001% barrier.

: For the DAC212 we selected the best components designed around the famous ESS Sabre 32bits Reference DAC chip and combined this with Crystek femto clocks

The ES9018 is configured with 4 D/A converters in parallel per channel to reduce noise and improve linearity.
Followed by an extremely low noise analogue output stage (-135dB @1kHz full scale).

Most of the components are SMD mount. This greatly reduces the electric field of the component, but the components are also less prone to outside interference.

: Consistent use of our design philosophy results in crystal clear music reproduction.

DiDiT has no sound signature. We just reproduce the music the way the artist meant it to be heard.

General & Inputs

Display: Matrix display
Switch: capacitive touch
Mains: 100-240VAC
Inputs: 2 Toslink, 2 Coaxial, USB audio input
Supported formats: PCM, DSD
Supported Sample Rates PCM:
- 44.1kHz to 384Khz
Supported Sample Rates DSD, DXD:
- DSD64 to DSD512, DXD352.8
Optional slot
Ambiant light sensor
Aluminium remote control for basic functions

Measured Performance

THD+N: 0.00035% @ 100kOhm
Linearity: +/- 0.5dB by -115 dBFS
S/N ration: 122dB (A weighted)
Output Level: 0 dBFS: 1.9 VRMS
DC Offset: 0.1mV
Frequency Response: DC to 50kHz +/- 0.1dB DC to 90kHz -3dB
Total jitter measured at output: 48picoseconds RMS
Output: DC coupled
Output Impedance: 1.6Ohm @ 1kHz Max.
Output Current: 0.25A

Dimensions

212mm x 212mm x 45mm (W x L x H)
Weight: 2.7kg