Philosophy

A CD or SACD player brings both digital and analogue domains into an audio system. For the very highest quality sound every part of the player is critical. A high-quality D/A converter alone is no longer enough. The 746 unites a top quality optical drive, a super-precise master clock generator, an intelligent digital signal processor with over­sampling, and analogue output stages of the utmost quality. Together they ensure nothing in the music is lost on its way from disc to output connection.

Design

Look inside many CD/SACD players and you’ll find a lot of empty space and off the shelf electronics. soulution’s approach is somewhat different. As with our other components we’ve engineered our own circuitry and used a consistent dual mono layout throughout. Three separate power supplies - for drive, digital and analogue stages - are moved offboard into an external housing, removing a potential source of interference.

Transport

Drive quality is critical in a high-end player. For the 746 we chose the Esoteric synchromesh drive from Teac. It is mounted to massive copper chassis which are in turn affixed with damped mountings for complete mechanical isolation.

Upsampling

Audio data from the disc is buffered. A powerful SHARC DSP performs the 8x over­sampling to 24bit /352.8 kHz (24bit/384kHz depending on the digital input signal) with the utmost precision. We believe precision of inter­polation is more important than high clock rates. Our players use an algorithm from the highly regarded Anagram Technologies followed by Burr Brown D/A converters in a digital symmetric configuration. For SACD only, conversion to PCM is used prior to D/A conversion. The PCM format allows us to use innovative processes like the Zero Phase Technology.

zero φ phase technology

The 746 SACD-Player is equipped with soulution's innovative Zero-Phase-Technology. Smallest timing errors provoked by the analog low pass filter of the D/A converter get eliminated. Every D/A-converter requires an analog low pass filter in its output in order to suppress high frequency noise and aliasing signals. The 3rd order bessel filter , used for the 746 SACD-Player, with a cut-off frequency of 120kHz, does show a phase shift of up to 15° in the audio band. Due to the Zero-Phase-Technology the phase error of the analog music signal remains below 1°, 20Hz - 100kHz! The Zero-Phase-Technology brings you even closer to the beauty of the source material! The 746 SACD-Player is equipped with soulution's innovative Zero-Phase-Technology. Smallest timing errors provoked by the analog low pass filter of the D/A converter get eliminated. The music gets even more realistic and 3-dimensional with a lot of "air" around instruments and voices. As close to the source as possible! No detail gets lost.

D/A converter and output stage

Burr-Brown devices perform D/A conversion only. Their internal upsamling and filter functions are by-passed. They run in dual-mono mode. The four output currents are converted to voltage and then filtered. With an internal bandwidth of 80 MHz, this current/voltage conversion stage allows best signal-to-noise performance and maximum dynamics in the analogue domain.

Output stage

The 746‘s extremely wideband output stage is identical to that of the 720 reference preamplifier, including the power supply. A 40MHz/-3dB bandwidth ensures every musical detail is reproduced true to life producing a three-dimensional, spatial sound. Output signal levels are enough to keep interconnect influences to an absolute minimum.

Clock

No less impressive is the master clock generator which provides an ultra-precise clock signal. Residual jitter at below one picosecond is effectively undetectable with current test equipment.

External power supply

The external power supply consists of three separate and electrically isolated sections, all complemented by multi-state filter network which keeps mutual inter­ference across the three to a minimum. Supply voltages for the player’s analogue stages are precisely regulated using proven power amplifier techniques, achieving ripple levels below 0.01µV.
Power supplies for the digital and drive sections of the player are similarly highly specified and optimized for their respective functions, including accommodating any high current demands from the drive and its electronics.

Operation

The SACD player is operated from front-panel buttons and a rotary control. Further functions can be used to optimise and match an entire audio system around different components.

Analog outputs
- 1 x symmetrisch (XLR)
- 1 x unsymmetrisch (RCA)

Digital outputs
- 1 x SPDIF 1 (RCA)
- 1 x SPDIF 2 (BNC)
- 1 x AES/EBU (XLR)
- 1 x Optical (Toslink)
- 1 x Clock (BNC)

Digital inputs
- 1 x SPDIF 1 (RCA)
- 1 x SPDIF 2 (BNC)
- 1 x AES/EBU (XLR)
- 1 x Optical (Toslink)
- 1 x Clock (BNC)

LINK-System
- 2 x RJ45

Specifications

Nominal voltage

Model 220 – 240 V / 50 – 60 Hz: 220 – 240 V
Model 100 – 120 V / 50 - 60 Hz: 100 – 120 V

Power consumption
OFF (standby):  <0.5 W
ON: 60 W

Main-Out
Output voltage

balanced: 4 Vrms

unbalanced: 2 Vrms

Peak Output Current 1 A

Output impedance

balanced: 2 Ω

unbalanced: 2 Ω

Frequency response (depending on data format): DC-100 kHz
Distortion (THD): <0.002 %
Signal to noise ratio (SNR): 140 dB

Digital-Out
Output voltage

SPDIF: 500 mV p-p
AES/EBU X: 5 V p-p

Output impedance

SPDIF: 75 Ω
AES/EBU: 110 Ω

Frequency: 32 -192 kHz
Resolution: 16 - 24 Bit

Digital-In
Sensitivity: 0.3 - 5 V p-p

Input impedance

SPDIF: 75 Ω

AES/EBU: 110 Ω
Frequency: 32 -192 kHz
Resolution: 16 - 24 Bit
PLL – range: +/- 100 ppm

Clock-Output
Output voltage: 5 V p-p
Output impedance: 75 Ω
Clock-frequency (adjustable): 44.1 or 48 kHz

Clock-Input
Input voltage: 0.3 - 5 V p-p
Input impedance: 75 oder 300 Ω

LINK-System: +12 V