We have seen other manufacturers quoting the 384kHz number but Light Harmonic points out that they are either non-asynchronous, requires proprietary drivers hence not true USB2.0 compliant, or in some cases resamples down to 192kHz before sending to the DAC chip.
(We at digital audio blog has been beta testing a 32/384kHz firmware for XMOS-based asynchronous USB equipments with great results. No need for custom drivers and the DAC chip is definitely 32bit/384kHz capable although XMOS does reduce resolution down to 24bits. The Davinci DAC is also 32bit capable over USB.).
There are some other engineering features, some of which are very interesting if proven:
- Patent pending jitter-free three layer buffer asynchronous USB protocol
- No drivers needed for Mac OSX
- Duet Engine: analog interpolation to effectively doubling 44.1kHz sample rate using sophisticated aligned timing algorithm. (Light Harmonics says that this is NOT over/up sampling nor noise shaping)
- 3 x Clocks: one each for USB, 44.1k family and 48k family
- 64-bit precision volume control
- No "Ring" Architecture: Minimizes pre and post ringing
- 8 discrete shunt regulators for digital, 2 nano volt regulators for clocks, 12 high precision regulators for USB module, 4 high current shunt regulators for analog
- Option to disable low pass filter so no filters all the way to 100kHz when playing a 192k or 384kHz file where one does not have to worry about aliases and noises
- 1 x USB 2.0 input
- 1 x SPDIF input
- 24-bit, up to 384kHz
- SNR 111dB unweighted
- Available Fall 2011
