Audio Analogues AAdrive CD transport and AAdac digital-to-analogue converter are the latest high-end audio components from the Italian companys four-strong PureAA line. The Pure AA models are all half-width but robust designs, which combine the companys twin ideals of making it sound good and look good. The price differential might suggest the AAdrive is in some way the lesser of the two devices, but thats not the case. In reality, both represent a pinnacle of performance for the brand, and beyond that, both fit well into Audio Analogues ever-expanding product portfolio. Come to think of it, the biggest stumbling block the PureAA line might have is that people have welded shut their minds when it comes to audio, and that means the success of the Puccini integrated amplifier might pigeonhole the company as an amp brand. This would be both wrong and foolish. Audio Analogue has a long and illustrious career making audio electronics of all shapes and sizes, and at all price levels. A CD transport and a matching extremely well-specified DAC/headphone amplifier are very core to Audio Analogues product line. Moreover, the singing shoebox form factor shared by the AAdrive, AAdac, AAphono (guess what that does for a living), and the full-width AAcento integrated amp all combine to offer a delicious looking system The AAdrive is perhaps the easiest part of the group to process. Its a well-built, modified TEAC-CD5020A CD transport with a front-loading drive, a small but readable display beneath that CD sled and only an RCA S/PDIF and an AES/EBU digital output to its name. The top of the panel has a small inset allowing you to view the spinning disc, but thats more cosmetic than functional (it does look good, though). Its chunkily put together, with some rear-mounted ventilation, although it doesnt run especially warm. A new CD transport is a rare and useful thing to see in todays audio world, even if its a comparatively specialist-interest device in todays stream-heavy world. Its often easy to kick CD upstairs and call upon some of the most expensive devices with clock connections, SACD replay and more. While these devices are great and long may they continue, we also need a damn good CD transport at a more reasonable level, and that has become all too rare in 2021. It doesnt just get points for showing up, and the AAdrive needs to pass muster both in build and performance, but its a welcome addition to the pantheon of modern audio. By way of contrast, DACs are ten a penny these days, and the AAdac needs to carve out more of a niche if it is to succeed. And the AAdacs place has to be more than being Robin to the AAdrives Batman. Fortunately, the DAC is well specified, including the increasingly important aptX Bluetooth receiver alongside the more commonly featured S/PDIF inputs (two RCA and one Toslink optical input), AES/EBU balanced XLR input and USB-B. There is no provision for Ethernet of any description, so network streaming is best left outside of the PureAA (and the Audio Analogue) ecosystem. Where it gets fascinating is the AAdac also has a surprising degree of flexibility in set-up and operation. You have a choice of seven different filter options. Theres also a remote control where you can change the intensity of the front panel LEDs, control channel balance and allocate that volume control to headphones only or if you want to use the AAdac as a DAC/preamp in a conventional two-channel system. At its heart, the AAdac sports a top ESS Sabre ES9038 DAC chip. The DAC allows the AAdac to process PCM audio to a potential 32bit, 768kHz precision and DoP (DSD over PCM) to native DSD512. MQA is MIA, however. The only other observation in terms of outright specifications is the headphone socket supports 6.35mm minijack inputs, but not any kind of balanced headphone solution. Unbalanced output tends to be something that headphone enthusiasts get animated about, and traditional audio types hardly notice enough to pass comment. In a way, it probably speaks more about the aspirations and directions of the company rather than any actual sonic limitation on the personal audio output.Suffice it to say, the headphone output of this DAC is excellent; its more than powerful enough to drive all bar the most punishing of headphone loads with ease and sounds both dynamic and transparent. In truth, it sounds rather like the DAC through loudspeakers. We are now so programmed to think of digital in terms of streaming, it seems odd to focus attention on the combination of transport and DAC, but they work exceptionally well together. I have no insight into Audio Analogues design process. Still, given how the two complete one another (I wrote this around the time of St. Valentines Day) must point to designing both in parallel, even if the AAdac hit the streets first. Given that you are limited to S/PDIF or AES/EBU choice, I prefered the overall balance of the unbalanced operation. AES/EBU seemed a little too bolted down, but frankly there wasnt a great deal between them. What the drive and DAC together brought to the party was at once a sense of poise and solidity to the sound. Such a performance works exceptionally well because usually poise and solidity are contradictory (think ballet dancer in hob-nail boots). Still, here the two are in a kind of dynamic balance (think Gene Kelly). Orchestral pieces are at once rooted in place thanks to the percussion and soaring thanks to the strings. You can best hear this interplay with something large scale, such as the last movement of Mahlers Eighth Symphony [Solti, Decca]. This piece deploys practically every instrument in the composers arsenal, more or less at full tilt, and as a consequence needs that combination of poise (to allow the massed choirs the chance to soar) and solidity (to let the brass and percussion hammer home). Few do both so well at anything close to this price (this also explains the choice of S/PDIF, as the balanced option was a little too rooted in place here). However, such is the sea-change to digital audio in recent years, the combination AAdrive and AAdac is sadly now just a minor interest. The big question is, how does the AAdac work as a digital converter when dealing with the big wide world of digital, and not just the comparatively limited CD-only section of that market? Fortunately for Audio Analogue, it does well. A big part of why it does well here is because the AAdac has a unique combination of being at once insightful of good digital sounds and surprisingly forgiving bad ones. Lets be honest here; not every digital sound we get online is a pristine, high-resolution recording made by demigods of the studio. Some tracks are just straight poor. Maybe its a YouTube video that caught your attention, or you are feeding the output of your TV through the Toslink. Or perhaps its that you just cant be bothered one evening and just listen to some random Internet radio station or even a few podcasts. Some are not that well recorded or are prone to a spot of compression sickness, but the AAdac treats such recordings with a remarkably gentle hand. You might find yourself flipping through the different filters in extreme cases; while digital filters are not tone controls, a spot of gentle noise shaping can work wonders. The rarity here is that the AAdac doesnt flatten the life out of good recordings in the hope of making the bad ones less vexatious. Play something remarkably well recorded I usually dip into the ECM label material for a go-to generic recommendation. However, specifically, try something likeConvergenceby Malia and Boris Blank [Boutique] and you hear a rich, detailed and extremely spacious sound, with a remarkable coherence and vocal articulation.Convergenceis a very expansive sounding recording, and it can quickly become overblown and exaggerated sounding, but the AAdac plays with a near-perfect balance. I often like to think of good digital audio performance as a Venn diagram, with grace, pace and space as the individual sets. The better the digital device, the closer it gets to the middle point where all three groups are in some kind of equilibrium. Typically, though, few DACs are equally adept in all three areas. The AAdac is definitely toward that middle point, although it scores exceptionally well on the grace and space sides, it gets a good+ in terms of pace. While that means the Malia mentioned above, the recording is exceptionally well covered (because its mostly in straight 4/4 time at a leisurely tempo). However, more challenging rhythms, such as Blue Rondo la Turk by the Dave Brubeck Quartet on Time Out [Columbia], is harder to follow with great accuracy. Similarly, I like to picture digital products as existing somewhere on a line between moodily rolled off at one extreme and paint stripping brightness at the other. Few take that centre point between the two, but the AAdac comes close. It errs on what I feel is the side of caution, as it doesnt sound bright or brash unless the recording demands such a presentation. But neither does it go too dark or too cuddly-sounding. However, the difference between comes close and nails it in this tonal continuum is expensive. You are potentially looking at something like the APL or Kalista range of digital converters to get a perfect overall tonal balance. That means anything from four to ten times the price of the AAdac. In both these parameters, the goal is more finding something that fits your requirements than a notional and most likely, the fictional digital product with universal appeal. AAdrive and AAdac (either in combination or DAC only) appeal more to those who like that refinement and openness to their sound, rather than those who crave energy and dynamism. The Audio Analogue devices are more Lark Ascending than Thunderstruck; although they can do the latter well, the overall sound is about passion and grace, and theres nothing wrong with that. I dont like to class products as being good for classical or similar. Its not as if a built-in music snob dictates what a digital product either likes or dislikes. Its also somewhat patronising toward all kinds of music; the complexity of King Crimson is arguably more classical in orientation than a Gilbert Sullivan comic opera, while the energy of a lot of modern European and Briitish jazz has more to do with punk rock and electronica than it does the big band. However, the combination of that refinement and spatial qualities of the AAdac does lend itself toward more naturally recorded live, acoustic instruments, which often means jazz, folk or classical music. Its not too mellow when playing rock, and does give rock both energy and intensity it needs, but the AAdac remains at its best when making an expansive, expressive sound. As such, I think the AAdrive and AAdac are both something of a high-end star combination in the making. They deserve to be at the front end of some extremely high-grade audio. I keep thinking of how well they would partner something like conrad-johnson amplification; the combination of big-boned scale and soundstaging with the comfortable, effortless dynamics of both would combine well.In truth, however, I was surprised at how good the Audio Analogue combination sounded, and I really shouldnt be. I know what that Italian audio company is capable of, musically speaking, because it has shown itself to be a maker of fine components in the past. It can do to digital what it does so well to analogue shouldnt be a surprise. However, the fact it does it so well, making this one of the go-to digital front-ends to beat at a price still comes as something of a surprise, in part because the AAdac, in particular, takes on an extremely contended market. And wins. Finally, the AAdrive and AAdac combination taken together is worthy of note, as they too represent one of the best ways of making a good sound from CD for the high-end enthusiast without 50k to burn. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AAdrive Type: CD transport Drive: TEAC Digital outputs: Coaxial 75/AES-EBU 110 Dimensions (HWD): 10 22 39cm Weight: 5.5kg Price: 1,749 AAdac Type: DAC with headphone amplifier DAC type: ESS Sabre ES9038 Inputs: AES/EBU, S/PDIF (optical and 2RCA), USB, Bluetooth aptX Formats supported: PCM to 32bit/768kHz, native DSD (DoP) to512 Filter options: seven settings Outputs: RCA, XLR, headphone 6.35mmjack Output level: 2.9 V (22 Hz 20 kHz) Output level (A weighted): 2.1 V Output voltage balanced(1kHz/0dB): 3.35 VRMS Output voltage unbalanced (1kHz/0dB): 3.35 VRMS Dynamic range (A weighted): 124 dB THD+N(1dB, 1kHz, FS = 48 kHz): -108 dB Dimensions (HxWxD): 10x22x39cm Weight: 5.5kg Price: 3,499 Manufacturer: Audio Analogue URL: Audioanalogue.com CREDITS: ALAN SIRCOM OF HI-FI PLUS (UK)Audio Analogue is on demo at Absolute Phase (Exclusive India Distributor)
