High End 2013

French digital-audio specialist Metronome Technologie unveiled the Nausicaa Signature DAC, which inhabits the same tri-point acrylic casework as its range-topping transports. It is described as an upgraded version of the C8 DAC and runs two 24-bit/192kHz converters per channel in a fully dual-mono circuit that thus far is not DSD ready but does have USB alongside traditional inputs. Priced at €30,000, it sits on a 60mm-thick Perspex cradle that Metronome calls "the Silent Base," and this rests on three steel-ball feet, the system being designed so that you can stack the transport atop the converter. The output stage is switchable between two modes -- triode tubes or transistors -- and has balanced and single-ended connections.