iNova

iNova

Digital to Analog Converter

The heart of the iNova is the ESS ES9016, 32 bit, 24/192 Sabre32 Ultra DAC. It's specialized for computers or other sources that often deliver high levels of timing errors. Using the iNova with your current CD or DVD player will improve it, with higher resolution and added dynamic range.

Tough Environment

Most DACs on the market were developed to accept relatively low-jitter devices like a good CD player. When faced with the extremes of bad power supplies, grounding issues and high jitter, most fail to deliver maximum performance. The iNova, on the other hand, was developed with these unique problems in mind.

The ESS Sabre32 DAC's patented jitter-reduction circuit re-clocks the digital signal to less than three picoseconds before passing it through a high-resolution processor. This heavy re-clocking is required for computers and streaming or hard-drive based music servers. They have high levels of timing problems that must be addressed if sound quality matters.

Noise associated with ground problems and switching power supplies is eliminated by transformer-coupling each digital input. The USB connection is galvanically isolated, eliminating noise generated by your computer's switching power supply and greatly improving the sound quality. Our design uses a multi-layer DAC board with over 450 components, a linear power supply and 11 regulated sub-power supplies, preventing noise at every level.

Tube Preamplifier

The preamp section employs a class A tube buffer - maintaining a high level of detail while taming harsh compressed digital music and allowing exceptional reproduction when listening to high-resolution files. The low impedance class A preamp output stage can drive a high power separate amplifier via the iNova's pre out jacks, just in case your speakers need even more power than the iNova's 80 watts per channel.

Accommodations

The iNova has a USB input for your computer, plus 2 coaxial and 2 optical inputs for other digital sources like Apple TV or Airport Express, Sonos, and XM or Sirius tuners. It also has 2 analog inputs for a tape deck or phono preamp. We tried to think of everything you could possibly need. The iNova has you covered!

Digital Filter

Listeners have different musical tastes. HiFi systems vary in how they reproduce your favorite music. Some systems are forward and "in the room," emphasizing musical detail; others offer a more laid back perspective with a "warmer" tonal balance. The iNova's switchable digital filter lets you tailor your system and your recordings to your taste. The NOS/NAL button lets you choose between "no oversampling" (NOS) or "non-aliasing" (NAL).

Steep filter slopes often don't sound particularly good. But any DAC using a gentle filter slope - like the ESS Sabre32 in the iNova - is susceptible to aliasing distortion. The iNova uses sample rates of 96kHz or 192kHz to partially attenuate this aliasing. Additionally, Peachtree Audio has developed software to eliminate aliasing distortion in the sampling process. Many listeners will prefer the sound of the NOS setting, and we recommend it. However, the NAL setting measures better and will be preferred by some listeners. Let your ears guide you - there is no "wrong" setting!

Headphone Amp

For the headphone user the iNova has a class A tube headphone section that rivals some of the best headphone amps available today. Many hours were spent on the headphone section and no detail regarding quality was left to chance. The signal passes through the DAC, preamp and then the tube buffer giving you an extended yet addictive sound.

When headphones are plugged in, your speakers are muted so you can rock on when quiet is a necessity. Headphones have never sounded better than through the iNova!

Home Theater Bypass

The iNova's second analog input doubles as a "Home Theater Bypass" so you can have the best of home theater and two-channel in the same system! So now when you listen to a two-channel source with your HT receiver or processor, there's a straight line from the source to the iNova to the speakers - no processing, no running the signal through a forest of circuitry. If you're a two-channel fan, it's the only way to do theater right!

Made for:
iPod touch (1st and 2nd generation)
iPod classic (80GB,120GB,160GB only)
iPod nano (2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th generation)

“Made for iPod” means that an electronic accessory has been designed to connect specifically to iPod and has been certified by the developer to meet Apple performance standards. Apple is not responsible for the operation of this device or its compliance with safety and regulatory standards.
iPod, iPod classic, iPod nano, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.