Italian Gold Note is perhaps best known for some People as a manufacturer of vinyl rigs and PUs. But they are also a major manufacturer of Electronics and loudspeakers. And the latest creation from Florence is the compact DAC DS-10, inspired by the larger model DS-1000, but with a design taken from the phono pre-amp PH-10.

DS-10 was previewed at HighEnd in Muncen this year, but now there is an officiall launch.

DAC

The DAC in the DS-10 is compatible with PCM up to 32bit / 384kHz and DSD64 / 128. It has both coaxial and optical input as well as an asynchronous AES input. There are also USB-A and USB-B inputs. For many, it will be essential that the DS-10 is also MQA compliant.

Streamer

The perhaps most interesting feature of the DS-10 is that it is a thoroughbred streamer, and with very extensive expertise. In addition to the usual suspects of streaming services like Tidal, Qobuz, Airplay, Spotify, Deezer and V-Tuner, the DS-10 is alos Roon compatible.

In addition to WiFi and wired networks, Gold Note also debuts with Bluetooth 5.0 compatibility. UPnP and DLNA are of course also implemented.

Gold Note has developed their own app for operating the DS-10 and the larger model DS-1000.

Headphone amplifier and preamp

In addition to being a complete DAC and streamer, the DS-10 is also a preamplifier. It has a HighEnd analog preamplifier stage that can be disengaged, and the unit thus functions as a complete preamp, limited to digital sources.

There is also a high-end headphone amplifier, with 6.3mm jack input and selectable sensitivity for flexibility regarding the connected headphone.

Read more about DS-10 at Gold Note

Gold Note is imported to Norway by PM-Audio