Radius RK-DA50C: Portable high-res USB DAC

Radius has announced the release of the portable USB DAC RK-DA50C with high-resolution audio support. A distinctive feature that distinguishes the gadget from a number of competitors was the form factor – the DAC is actually located in the housing of the USB-C connector. The device is also powered via USB. The short cable coming out of this case ends with a mini-jack jack for connecting headphones.

Such a compact size was achieved thanks to the use of the Qualcomm Aqstic DAC chipset, which combined almost all the necessary circuit blocks in one chip. The Radius RK-DA 50 C supports decoding of PCM material with parameters up to 24 bits / 192 kHz, transmitted over the Android 2.0 open access protocol. The chipset provides a wide dynamic and frequency range, low distortion and low power consumption.

The Qualcomm Aqstic DAC features a Class H headphone amplifier with intelligent control of the supply voltage depending on the level of the useful signal, which allows you to achieve even greater energy savings. To connect the USB-C connector to the minijack connector, a high-purity monocrystalline copper cable is twisted into a braid. The Radius RK-DA 50 C provides playback in the range from 20 Hz to 90 kHz at a signal-to-noise ratio of 123 dB. The maximum output voltage when working on a load with a resistance of 16 ohms is 0.9 V.

Since December 2020, the novelty can be bought in Japan for 6300 yen, which at the current exchange rate is about 60$.