Silicon Micro DAC/AMP

Silicon.  Unbelievably Small, Unimaginable Power.

Silicon is the ultimate portable DAC.  The challenge was simple – can we make a DAC that is no bigger than the connectors needed?  It had to have a USB C jack, and a 3.5mm jack.  Could we take those two components, place them back-to-back, and make DAC that size?

Turns out – we could.  The result is what you see here – Silicon.  The world’s smallest, high power, full-high-resolution DAC.  Measuring just 27.7mm long, 10.1mm thick, and 12.4mm wide Silicon is a marvel in miniaturization.

Just look at the photos.  A penny has a massively larger footprint than Silicon.  A 3.5mm to 1/4″ converter plug dwarfs Silicon.  It’s smaller than many 3.5mm plugs on headphones!

What’s In It?

Silicon starts with the aforementioned jacks.  Yeah, you need SOME way of getting bits in and audio power out.  That’s what the USB C and 3.5mm jacks do.  We used the smallest ones we could find, too – to keep the size down, of course.

The USB C jack feeds our own front end, a custom USB to I²S audio converter.  This chip handles all formats of PCM up to an astounding 32 bit/768 kHz.  Just a handful of products anywhere in the world can do that – and NONE that are anywhere near as small.

But it’s not just PCM.  Oh no.  We’re Periodic, we can’t rest on our laurels!  We added full DSD support, up to DSD256. Essentially, any high-resolution music you can buy now (or in the foreseeable future) will be handled easily by Silicon.  Natively.  No need to downsample or rate (or format) convert.

The output of that wonder chip goes to our D/A converter.  We chose an AKM AK4377ECB.  AKM makes most of the converters in the highest-end pro audio gear, so it was natural for us to gravitate to it.  And we didn’t use the lower-cost AECB variant, as it didn’t handle the full sampling rate range we wanted.  So we went with the rarely-seen-in-consumer-world 4377ECB (hey, it’s expensive)  and knew we were in good hands.

And again, we went full Periodic on its output.  Most would just use the built-in 35mW/channel amp.  Not us.  No way!  We built in a full 150+ mW RMS/channel stereo amp – over 300 mW RMS total output power into 32 Ohm cans (and with 100 mA of current capability, Silicon will handle low impedance headphones easily, too).  This amp stage runs off a TRUE split-rail power supply (much like we used in our critically acclaimed Nickel power amplifier) so that we can directly couple the output of our amp.  No fake ground, no bass-and-beat-robbing coupling caps.  Glorious straight wire from amp to ear.

All this is backed with a 7 stage power supply, regulating and filtering each and every power rail – analog AND digital – to less than 3 microvolts of noise.  As close to pure batteries as you can get.

Once all this awesomeness was done, we packed it into the form you see.  We wrapped it with a 0.7mm thick custom tooled, black anodized aluminum extrusion, then closed each end with custom tooled caps molded from Eastman Tritan™ for a seamless and insanely rugged enclosure.

The Results?

Silicon is simply pure.  As close to “straight wire with gain” as we could get, in the tiny package you see.  Designed to allow any native file – of any resolution – to play without limit.  Simplicity in operation – just plug in and go, no variety of switches, knobs, and LEDs to use and decode.  And with enough power to drive nearly any headphone – in-ear or over-ear – on Earth you can use it with whatever strikes your fancy.

Silicon.  If you want serious power, no-limit file conversion, and portability, well – you’re not going to find another option anywhere near us.  Combine with some of our great IEMs and a significant discount for the ultimate affordable portable reference rig!