Dodson Audio
DA-218

NEWS FLASH! 
The very latest version version of the Dodson DAC is now available! The 218  incorporates many new upgrades!

Read the review on Ultimate Audio

          Taking flight from where the vaunted 217MkII-D model previously perched, the 218 extracts newfound (and unexpected) performance from the digital medium. After careful comparisons, Ralph tells me his listening panel felt the new 218 equals and even exceeds the performance of analog! Listening tests were carried out in several systems, with analog rigs ranging in price from $2000.00 to $20,000.00 in value. 
          The 218 represents the first production DAC to be fully 100% cryogenically treated. The process offers a number of advantages, the details of which you can read about in the White Paper on the Dodson Website. For now, we will simply state that cryogenic treatment brought significant benefits, which are both audible and measurable.
          Further, Mr. Dodson discovered that strong attention to shielding from RFI/EMI can pay surprising sonic dividends. While the digital section was encased in an RFI/EMI-proof sub enclosure in previous models, the entire chassis of the 218 has been protected with special non-magnetic shielding. This now benefits the sensitive analog circuits within against nasty RFI/EMI gremlins.
         Price on the Dodson 218 is $8000.00. Interestingly, every penny of the cost increase over the 217 was put towards the upgrades; Mr. Dodson’s margin remaining exactly the same! You can tell he is intent on offering the very best value possible.

           To give you an idea of the sophistication found in the Dodson circuitry, let’s follow a signal through the 218. Digital inputs received by the Dodson are first stripped of the clock signal and then fed into a buffer via a precise Phase Lock Loop (PLL). This process isolates the incoming signal and eliminates any jitter. The signal is then up sampled to 96kHz using a state of the art algorithm. From there, the digits are over sampled to an astounding 768kHz (24 bit word length), before being sent to the DACs. This ultra-high bandwidth requires a very sophisticated analog circuit, in this case one with 100kHz bandwidth. 
          The Dodson does so many things well, it’s rather hard to select the highlights, but let me try. The unit soundstages with the best of them. Here you’d expect the tubed units to do a bit better, but I’ll be darned if I can hear more air or dimensionality in them. Midrange, too, is usually the hallmark of tubes, and maybe there is tad more richness there on some, but the Dodson is so close as to render the point mute. Transparency is superb, and as good as I have heard from any processor. Bass, too, is excellent, and equal to or better than the best.  
           Suffice it to say, the Dodson is a spectacular digital to analog converter. As good as it gets, in my book. I doubt you’ll find a better sounding DAC anywhere, at any price. $7995.00.

• Cryogenically treated circuitry

• Balanced and single-ended outputs.

• Up sampling to 96kHz, over sampling to an incredible 768kHz! Advanced software programs the up and over sampling filters, extending the musical image's transients and air.

• Special non-magnetic shielding surrounds the entire chassis, and full Faraday shielding further protects digital circuitry.

• Input jitter reduction circuit 

• Bybee Quantum Noise Filters reduce noise floor and improve resolution.

• Unique four-layer circuit board, twice as thick as other designs.

• 100,000mfd of filter capacitance - more than many amplifiers!

• Dual PLL circuits to eliminate jitter.

• Non magnetic, constrained layer chassis vibration damping material

        For Ultimate Audio Lars Fredell writes of the older DA-217: "Suffice it to say that I have personally never encountered an electronic product that even remotely compares to this, in fastidious and fanatical design effort. It’s almost ridiculous at any price level, but certainly at this one! If you pay more than the price of a Dodson, you’re not paying for better sound quality, you’re paying for other things."
       Commenting on the earlier DA-217, Paul A. Boolin for Absolute Sound writes: "So, while the Dodson may look like pure Clark Kent, just put on a CD and Superman is in the house kicking tails and taking names. Highest possible recommendation."

        I'd be hard-pressed to try and add more to those comments. So, at this point, let me invite you to call and order a sample to try for yourself!