Drive I
DAC I-MK3
by Constantine Soo

July 19, 2005
Drive I Specifications:

Type: solid-state CD transport

Digital outputs: 1 x S/P-DIF; unbalanced - 75 ohms(RCA); HF-tranformer
1 x S/P-DIF; unbalanced - 75 ohms(BNC); HF-tranformer
1 x AES/EBU; balanced - 110 ohms (XLR); HF-transformer

Output voltage:  S/P – DIF; unbalanced:  0.42 Vss on 75 Ω
AES/EBU; balanced       3.1 Vss on 110 Ω

Dimensions:  4.1 x 19 x 14.8 inches (H x W x D)

Weight:  33lbs

MSRP: $5,500
DAC I-MK3 Specifications:

Type: solid-state 32 bit/384kHz DAC

Digital inputs:    1 x AES/EBU; balanced - 110 Ω (XLR)
1 x S/P – DIF; unbalanced - 75 Ω (RCA)
1 x S/P – DIF; unbalanced - 75 Ω (BNC)

Maximum input word length: 24 Bit

Digital outputs:  1 x S/P – DIF; unbalanced - 75 Ω (RCA)
1 x AES/EBU; balanced - 110 Ω (XLR)

Digital filter: Premium quality parallel multiplier with 32 bit accumulator, 8-
times oversampling, 3-pole FIR filter with constant group delay time,
digital deemphasis, damping in the restraint range > 119 dB, transmitted
ripple < +/- 0.00004 dB

D/A converter: PCM 1704K (selected version); 24 bit, 96 kHz BiCMOS
Sign-Magnitude Digital/Analog converter

Analog filter: GIC filter optimized regarding pulse, phase and group delay
time  

Analog output:   DAC I-MK3: 1 x unbalanced (RCA, 33 Ω)
DAC I balanced-MK3: 1 x balanced (XLR, 2 x 33 Ω)

Total harmonic Distortion (THD+N):  0.0012% with 24 bit; bandwidth
22 Hz – 22 kHz

Crosstalk: 117 dB with digital 0 dB

Dimensions (H x W x D): 3.9 x 19 x 14.8 inches  

Weight: 22 lbs.

MSRP: $5,700 (DAC I-MK3), $6,000 (DAC I balanced-MK3)
Manufacturer:

SAE – Schunk Audio Engineering GmbH & Co. KG
Hoher Steg 7, D-74348
Lauffen/Neckar, Germany
www.accusticarts.com

U.S. Distributor:

Brian Ackerman
Aaudio Imports
27591 Kathy Court
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
Tel. 949-643-0800  Fax. 949-362-3933
Website: http://www.aaudioimports.com
Email: brian@aaudioimports.com
accumulator chip cost more than a normal CD player, and the cost was further compounded by the necessity to use an expensive DAC
chip that would fit into the 32-bit accumulator’s design schematics.
Associated Equipment:

Digital Front End

47 Laboratory 4704 PiTracer CD transport
Audio Note DAC One 1.1x Signature
Audio Note DAC 5 Special

Amplification

47 Laboratory 4706 dual mono Gaincard S with DACT24 & Cardas posts
Audia Flight PRE
Audia Flight 100
Audio Note M5 preamplifier
Decware SE84C power amplifier
Harmonix Reimyo PAT-777 300B stereo amplifier
Linn Klimax Twin stereo power amplifier
Loth X JI300 integrated amplifier
Monarchy Audio SM-70Pro monoblocks
Reference Line Preeminence Two passive preamplifier
Reference Line Preeminence One Signature power amplifier

Speakers

47 Laboraotory 4722 Lens minimonitors
47 Laboratory Essence
Acapella LaCompanella
Apogee Duetta Signature
Audio Note AN-E SEC Signature
Audio Note AN-E SEC Silver
Celestion SL700
Ensemble Figura
Genesis G6.1e
Genesis G928
Genesis VI
Loth-X BS1
Tannoy Churchill Wideband
Tannoy Dimension TD10
Tannoy ST-200 SuperTweeter

Cabling

Audio Note Sogon digital cable (1m, RCA)
Audio Note Sogon interconnect (2m pair, RCA)
Audio Note AN-Vx interconnect (1.5m, RCA)
Audio Note AN-V silver interconnect (RCA 1m, 2 pairs)
Audio Note Sogon LX speaker cable (5 feet, spade/banana, bi-wired)
Audio Note AN-SPx speaker cable (2m, bananas, bi-wired)
Audio Note AN-La copper speaker cable (8 feet, bi-wired)
Boelen Digital-Precise digital cable (1.5m, RCA)
Canare L-5CFB 75-ohm digital cable (RCA, 1.5m)
Canare D206 110 ohm digital cable (AES/EBU, 1.5m)
Cardas Quadlink 5C (8 feet)
Ensemble Magaflux
Granite Audio #470 silver cables (RCA 1m, 2 pairs)
Granite Audio #560 AC Mains (2)
Harmonix HS101-SLC speaker cable (1.5m, spade/banana, bi-wired)
Harmonix X-DC Studio Master Wattagate 330+350 power cable (4)
Illuminations D-60 75 Ohm digital cable (1.5m, RCA)
Loth X
Van den Hul MCD-352 (8 feet)

Accessories

Salamander Synergy 20 (2), Twin 30 and Amp Stand
ASC Tube Traps and Flat Traps
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DAGOGO
FOREWORD

Sony’s creation of the Super Audio
Compact Disc was to provide audio
experiences more fulfilling than
Redbook CD in a high-end audio
system; in actuality, the hi-rez media
infused the audio industry with renewed
energy and prospects.  Most
significantly, the new format blessed us
with the subsequent proliferation of
ultra-wide bandwidth electronic and
speaker designs.
The new format’s own reception in its intended target market,
namely the audiophile segment, however, has not been as
favorable as many have wished.   Since the dawn of stereo,
audiophiles have long gotten used to owning several amplifiers,
loudspeakers, and even CD players, because it is exciting and
fun to experience different sound from different machines; but
the audio industry had not expected audiophiles’ reluctance to
the idea of spending money on a more expensive disc of the
same music just to get a better sound.  Buying and selling
audio equipment is a norm in our hobby, but selling our old CDs
is a pain, if they are worth anything at all.
end when they upgrade.

Most importantly, the SACD group needs to engage the entire
high-end audio industry to engineer SACD machines worthy of
their namesakes.  If Audio Note’s Peter Qvortrup or 47 Lab’s
Junji Kimura design an SACD transport, the audiophile
community will take note, and I’ll chase either man to the end of
the world for a Dagogo review unit.  

For the time being, I sold my Sony SCD-777ES CD/SACD
player after reviewing the Accustic Arts CD Player I, because
the $6,500 German player’s competence in playback of DSD-
remastered CD music prompted terminal realization of SACD’s
In my opinion, the most immediate
survival of the SACD format hinges on
the audiophiles’ embrace of the multi-
channel, surround-sound method.  In
the long run, the industry needs to be
able to sustain market infusion with as
much variety in SACD machines and
hybrid discs as possible, so as to foster
gradual adoption of the SACD in both
the current and the future audiophiles.  
Lastly, the SACD industry needs to woo
today’s audiophiles with wide-availability
of supremely engineered machines
worthy to become their next digital front
inessentiality in my system, in light of the fact that I had also long been harnessing sonics from hybrid SACD’s DSD-processed CD layer
via the 47 Laboratory PiTracer/Audio Note DAC 5 Special digital front end.

The Drive I and DAC I-MK3 being reviewed here are Accustic Arts’ latest versions of their best efforts in CD playback.   
A fortified version of the CD Player I,
the Drive I is of an identical top-
loading design, while equipped with
Philip’s top-grade CDM Pro, cast
metal transport mechanism with
mechanical decoupling.  The top-
loading method of the Drive I and CD
Player I is the kind with which I have
had tremendous satisfaction from my
days with the CEC TL1.  A large,
magnetically shielded toroidal core
TECHNICAL DETAILS ON
DRIVE I
transformer, and four separate power supplies are provisioned for laser control, digital signal processing, display control and
display heating.  Then, the digital output stage is also fitted with extra large power supply unit with voltage stabilization.  Both the
XLR and RCA digital outputs are supported by dedicated transformers.

Housed in the resonance minimizing aluminum chassis, the drive mechanism, mains power components, digital signal processing
and display control sections are further shielded in separate compartments.  The Drive I’s digital outputs include one 75Ω RCA, one 110Ω
XLR, and one BNC.
TECHNICAL DETAILS ON
DAC I-MK3

The DAC I-MK3, on the other hand, is hardly
just a refuge for the CD Player I’s
segregated DAC section; it is exclusively
equipped with some of the most advanced
technologies from Europe and America.

The world’s first DAC to feature a
32bit/384kHz conversion technique, the DAC
I-MK3 utilizes an Accustic Arts exclusive: an
8-times oversampling, 119dB dynamic,
premium quality parallel multiplier with 32-bit
accumulator that boosts incoming, 16-bit
signal beyond 24-bit, to 32-bit resolution
before conversion.  When asked details
about this wonder chip, Martin Schunck of
AA was very tightlipped, explaining that the
company did not apply for patent protection
due to the considerable costs it would
involve.  He, instead, remarked that the
proprietary accumulator chip cost more than
a normal CD player, and the cost was further
The 2nd technological innovation incorporated into
the DAC I-MK3 was in the form of a Texas Instrument
Burr Brown op-amp chip for the I/V conversion stage.  
Dubbed the OPA627 DIFET®, this laser-trimmed,
advanced class-A biased op-amp differed from other
popular FET op-amps, such as BB’s own OPA111, in
lower noise, higher speed, increased bandwidth,
improved operational stability from aging, and clear
and natural sonic performance.  In fact, Burr Brown’s
specified “high performance audio circuitry” as an
intended application for this advanced op-amp.  Every
DAC I-MK3 runs on ten of these wonder chips.

DIFET® is only a Burr Brown registered product
designation, while MOSFET describes a widely-used
technology.

A word of caution from Martin: this op-amp is over 10-
times more expensive than the best bipolar, MOSFET
op-amp, and is easily subjected to damage even by a
finger’s touch.  
The DAC I-MK3 also runs on a 100VA, magnetically shielded and encapsulated toroidal transformer, with a class A output stage derived
from professional engineering used in the studio operation of Accustic Arts.

The DAC I-MK3 comes in the standard RCA analog-out version, as well as a $6,000 balanced analog-out version named DAC I balanced-
MK3, as Accustic Arts intended for its DAC to be a “no-
compromise” design, operating at an optimum for a specific
analog output.  Unit being reviewed is the RCA iteration.  Each
DAC I-MK3 offers the digital inputs of XLR, RCA and BNC, as
well as the digital outputs of XLR and RCA.


SYSTEM SETUP AND AUDITION

As a custom digital system, the CD Drive and the DAC I-MK3
produced a more spacious soundstage via a 1.5meter Illuminati
Orchid XLR digital cable, contrasting a more intense tonal
presence via the Audio Note Sogon digital cable.  The $27k, 47
Laboratory PiTracer CD transport and the $30k, Audio Note
DAC 5 Special also partook into the review process.

Then, in conjunction with efficient loudspeakers at my
household, such as the 95dB/8Ω, $40k Audio Note AN-E SEC
Signature, the $35k Audio Note M5 preamplifier/Harmonix
Reimyo PAT-777 300B power amplifier system was put into
action.  Alternately, the new, $18k Audia Flight PRE
preamplifier and 100 power amplifier solid-state system from
Italy were employed in driving Tannoy’s $20k Churchill
Wideband, as well as other less efficient speakers.  Linn’s $9k
Klimax Twin power amplifier also rotated with the Harmonix
Reimyo around the M5 preamplifier when driving less efficient
speakers.

With the exception of the XLR digital cable, all cablings are via
Audio Note, namely the Sogon from DAC to preamplifier, the AN-
Vx from preamplifier to power amplifier, and the Sogon LX
speaker cable when distance permitting, otherwise the lengthier
AN-SPx would take the Sogon LX’s place.

Distinct instrument localization was the most prominent trait of
the German digital front end, in the orderly and stable insertion
of instrument images.  
Be it a portrayal of a string
orchestra onstage inside Vienna’s
Friend of Music orchestra hall, or
of a modest gathering of a jazz
produced most discernable bodies of sonic origination, with a
spectacular spatiality permeated by an out-of-the-box
phenomenon continuing beyond the outer vicinities of the
transducers.
Vangelis’ “Memories of Green”
from his Themes enjoyed
conspicuous airtime in Ridley Scott’
s Blade Runner, and being a
master illusionist of sound, his
interjection of sonic fabrics
resembling cruising, mid-air police
vehicles, amidst a sonic backdrop
of agitations of gadgets, achieved
the effect of installing the listener
ensemble in a more confined studio
venue inside the Paul Stubblebine
Studio at San Francisco, the CD
Drive and DAC I-MK3 consistently
in an alien and harmonious world simultaneously.  Via the
Accustic Arts Drive I and DAC I-MK3, the expertly reenacted
effects sounded as if they were real occurrences in real space,
hence conveying the artist’s intentions hauntingly amidst the
double-chore of providing for a rinsed-like tonality most
representative of the synthesizing variety.

Listening experiences on the Accustic Arts digital front end also
highlighted the 32bit/384kHz converter’s top-end articulation.  
Consistent in its handling of orchestral
instrument groups, or gems from the Electronica, as well as the
soaring of a soprano, the DAC 1 MK3 is perhaps the first DAC
to manifest a top-end definition of the most sophisticated in a
solid-state design, sounding extended and eminently stable
during dynamic swings.  There was none of the excess
artifacts that lesser transistor-based electronics are prone to
produce.

But the most powerful testament on the BB DIFET® suited DAC’
s intrinsic worth came to pass when the $5,700 DAC operated
in partnership with the $27k, 47 Laboratory PiTracer CD
transport.
Costing a mere 1/5th of the 47 Lab
PiTracer, the Accustic Arts DAC I-
MK3 successfully preserved and
reconstituted the PiTracer’s
incomparable feat at dynamics and
tonal subtleties contrasting, holding
music’s integrity intact with a tonal
balancing act the most
consummating I’ve heard in a solid-
state DAC.  Whether it was a rendition of Dame Kathleen Battle’
s definitive singing of Johann Strauss’ Voice Of Spring amidst
the 100+ member Vienna Symphony, or the complex rock’n roll
studio mix of U2’s Mysterious Way, or that of
Tibetan horns in the soundtrack to
Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, the
PiTracer-enabled DIFET® DAC
seemingly lifted the floodgate to
magnificent levels of detail retrieval in
its capturing of every minutely
recorded sound in awe-inspiring
discretions.

At the end, it was the 47 Lab/
Accustic Arts digital front end’s
unique ability to laid bare all levels of micro- and macrodynamic
rendition without the slightest degree of chaos or haze, that
presented the most uncompressed sonic events literally
unheard of at this price range.


CONCLUSION

Though not the equivalent of the $57k digital front end of the
47 Lab PiTracer and Audio Note DAC 5 Special, the sheer
performance of the Accustic Arts digital system of Drive I CD
transport and DAC I-MK3 DAC puts it in the echelon of sonic
excellence led by the 47 Lab/Audio Note system, an excellence
further authenticated by the extensive application of advanced
and sophisticated technologies.
Hence, the fact that the German system only costs $11,200
makes it a most significant Dagogo find in digital front end to
date.  

But the $5,700 DAC I-MK3 holds a promise of gargantuan
proportions to audiophiles who are currently using CD
transports of higher calibers.  The world’s first 32-bit/384kHz
oversampling DAC, the Accustic Arts DAC is an embodiment of
the most amazing case study in superior engineering.  
Incorporating an advanced, unique 32-bit accumulator and a
suite of the latest in operational amplifier technologies, the DAC
I-MK3 rivets in astounding levels of resolution retrieval, and
considering its MSRP, the DAC I-MK3’s ability to compliment the
47 Lab PiTracer CD transport’s supreme tonal differentiation
prowess is a triumphant experiment in DAC engineering.

Dagogo readers with complimentary amplifications and
loudspeakers can now amass a level of digital audio replay
among the best today for around $11k, and readers with the
extra advantage of having top-caliber transports will smile each
time he/she plays music via the $5,700 DAC I-MK3.

With both Audio Note’s DAC 5 Special and Accustic Arts’ DAC I-
MK3, I’d be listening to the same music twice at any given time,
more often than my wife’s sanity would allow.  But that, my
readers, is but only one other good facet of audiophile fun.
compounded by the necessity to use an expensive DAC chip that would fit into the 32-bit accumulator’s design schematics.