Integrated Amplifier

The abacus is one of the most recognized calculating tools of humankind. It has been used for thousands of years, for its simplicity, and for its general acceptance that connects people of various cultures and beliefs.

Our Abacus digital to analogue converter is an exquisite tool for the task, connecting you to the world of the musician, doing the precise calculations needed for the mutual understanding. Being a gateway between the digital and analogue worlds, the Abacus is not only a computing machine, it is the very source of the analogue sound amplified through your system. This sound needs to be fascinating right from the beginning, isn't it?

The Abacus can interpret this seductive Heed sound from a great variety of digital sources, even if the music is coded in extremely highly detailed PCM or DSD signal.

PCM and DSD are the two main methods for digital recording. The Abacus can handle PCM signals up to 384 kHz and 32 bits, and natively processes the double speed DSD. Quartz based clocks and well-designed linear power supplies ensure that the resolution of digital processing is always perfect.

The analogue buffer stages of the Abacus are made of discrete components, to allow the best possible first steps for the analogue signal.

How It Works

It is far from us to lose you in technical terms. It is not our aim to teach you our profession or to provide you with numbers that are merely different from other devices. Electronic specifications and “correctness” are just one aspect and not enough to create perfect music reproduction alone.

Even so we ought to enlighten you about some of the specialties that make Heed products distinctive and stand out from the crowd. Naturally it is impossible to make a musical impression by words alone. Should you have the chance to listen to our creations then you can become acquainted with the relationships between the technical and sonic features of our products by studying the following chapters.

Features:

• 5 + 1 digital inputs
• Native DSD128 and 384kHz/32bit capable USB connection
• Isolated analogue and digital sections
• Upgradeable expansion card system

Specifications:

• Inputs: 1x RCA / 1x BNC / 2x Optical / 1x USB / 1x expansion card
• Outputs: 1x line level analogue
• Output level: 2.1 Vrms
• Freq. response: 3 Hz – (depends on sampling frequency)
• DSD filter freq.: 50 kHz standard Scarlet Book
• Sampling frequencies (BNC, RCA, opt.): 32 / 44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96 / 176.4 / 192 kHz max. 24 bit PCM
• Sampling frequencies (USB): 32 / 44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96 / 176.4 / 192 / 352.8 / 384 kHz max. 32 bit and 2.8224 / 5.6448 MHz 1 bit native DSD
• Max. consumption: 50 VA
• Weight: 4.5 kg
• Dimensions (WxHxD): 22 x 8.7 x 32.5 cm