Audiolab 8000DAC DAC
Here we have a DAC that is cleverly designed, excellently made and well-equipped; which measures superbly and which has earned the enthusiastic approval of a broad spectrum of listeners. The fact that it is also competitively priced is the icing on an exceedingly fine cake.
That's how we concluded our eulogy of the original Audiolab 8000DAC when we gave it one of only three Audiophile Awards last year. In the interim, nothing has happened to tarnish our opinion of it. Quite the opposite, as it happens: one of our favourite pieces of affordable hi-fi - an epitome of what can be achieved by small, specialist manufacturers in their maturity - has just got better.
Cambridge Systems Technology, trade name Audiolab, has always espoused a philosophy of continual, low-key product development. The 8000A integrated amplifier with which the company made its debut has progressed through many subtle and not-so subtle revisions, but without there ever being an 8000A Mk II, GTi or Turbo. In fact, most of the improvements were undertaken without so much as a press release. The new 8000DAC is similar in that its designation has acquired no vulgar accretions, but the fact that it is substantially different from its predecessor could hardly go unremarked when the facia and back panel have so obviously changed. As you would expect of Philip Swift and Derek Scotland - and as a peek at the innards confirms - those exterior revisions are only the half of it. The changes to the 8000DAC are more than skin deep.
You can read more about precisely what those changes comprise in the panel alongside. Suffice to say here that the Audiolab 8000DAC now boasts DAC7 BitStream converter chips, has seven inputs rather than four, uses BNC connectors for the unbalanced digital inputs in preference to phonos, now comes supplied with a carefully selected 75ohm coaxial connecting cable, and incorporates a novel 'sleep' mode in which all internal clock activity is suppressed.
The latter is a response to people like me who have consistently complained that idling digital circuitry can degrade the sound quality of other digital and analogue system components - a thoroughly undesirable and (particularly for hi-fi retailers and reviewers) inconvenient phenomenon that can very easily render product comparisons meaningless. With the new 8000DAC the problem is solved. No longer is it necessary to power-down the converter to be assured of its inertness - simply prod the Input button until the AES input is selected, then press Select. Hey presto, the units clock oscillator is disabled and will remain so until re-awoken by another press of the Input button. It's a simple, effective solution - and a provision that other DAC manufacturers would do well to copy.
It has often been said that it was only when a revised product was reviewed that the reader got to learn what was wrong with the original. In all the interim, I have yet to find a way around this. What everyone wants to know is: how does the new product sound compared with the old?
In the case of the original and revised 8000DAC, however, the conundrum almost solves itself since the two generations have much more in common than they do in diversity. Their tonal balances are similar (that is, neutral) as is the essential musicality of their presentation - always a strong point of this design. Only when you throw something challenging at them do the disparities become apparent.
Take, as one pertinent example I discovered, the Huguette Dreyfus recording of W F Bach's Nine Fantasie for Clavier (Denon CO-72588). The harpsichord is a pig of an instrument to reproduce at the best of times, the more so when played on bright stops and given a close recording such as this. Resolution is a first priority if you are to hear through the welter of notes to the vibrant tone colours beneath, but if that resolution is accompanied by even a hint of harshness then your ears will rapidly wilt under the bombardment of over-insistent transients.
No DAC I have used has been able to match the control and power of the costly Pink Triangle DaCapo on this music, and that includes the revised 8000DAC. But it does sound cleaner and slightly better-resolved than its predecessor when the chips are down, and of course is considerably cheaper than the DaCapo. To a degree I was tom between past and present Audiolabs in that the old unit has more in the way of presence and dynamics, but the tighter control of the new is undeniably a valuable asset, as is its meatier bass.
Add Audiolab's traditional first-class build quality and the fact that - despite the extended input facilities, DAC upgrade and addition of a high quality digital cable - the price has risen by only £50, and you have all the ingredients for continued and thoroughly-deserved success.
