Audiolab D9

As a hi-fi reviewer I have encountered products I admire, and products I admire and hold a particular personal fondness for. Audiolab’s M-DAC falls firmly into the latter category - the original and its descendants have been doing the crucial digital-to-analogue conversion and headphone amplification business on my desktop since the early 2010s. So news that a new generation of this seminal DAC is launching a full nine years after the last one gives me an opportunity to both enrich my head-fi system and satisfy a nostalgic yearning.

The new D9 is the culmination of Audiolab’s 30 years of experience in digital audio design. The brand may not have produced a standalone DAC in years,but  it has never stopped developing its digital dexterity in its range of amplifiers and music streamers.

In fact, the D9 bears a striking resemblance, both inside and out, to the company’s 9000N streamer. You get the same ESS Technology ES9038PRO, all eight channels of which the D9 uses to deliver a balanced stereo signal, in combination with Audiolab’s master clock, Class A post-DAC filter and other proprietary circuitry. You get the same PCM 32-bit/768kHz, DSD512 and MQA file compatibility, and a similarly clean chassis fascia that’s almost exclusively taken up by two wonderfully tactile rotary controls along with a 2.8in LCD colour screen. 

In fact, remove the 9000N’s network streaming functionality, a chunk of aluminium casework here and there, chuck in Bluetooth (in aptX HD/LDAC flavours) and SPDIF outputs, and you more-or-less have the D9 – and for less than half the price.

Speaking of price, it’s worth noting that some Audiolab DAC heritage is available for just £449 in the shape of the smaller, less well-specified D7 that launched at the same time as the D9. But this review is all about the Big Cheese in the lineup - and ‘big’ is an appropriate descriptor of its performance chops as well as of its physical size – the D9 is 88 x 277 x 315mm (HxWxD), which is somewhere between standard full-width and half-width hi-fi dimensions.

At the rear of this desktop-friendly chassis is a generous suite of connections that include asynchronous USB-B, USB-A, AES3/EBU, two optical and two coaxial inputs, as well as a range of outputs that allow the D9 to be used in a system as a DAC, a headphone amplifier, a preamplifier, or all three. There are fixed or variable XLR and RCA outputs, optical and coaxial, plus (of course) the all-important 6.3mm socket - which, thanks to Audiolab’s dedicated headphone amp circuitry and a load impedance of between 20 and 600 ohms, can happily handle all manner of headphones. Time to get them plugged in, I think…

SOUND QUALITY

It seems appropriate to dig out some of my favourite headphones for this review, including the Sennheiser IE600 earbuds (£500) and Grado GS1000X over-ears (£1200). The D9 thrives in such company. 

Right from the get-go, I detect the sonic attributes that have made Audiolab’s previous digital components so compelling. The sheer amount of information that fills every corner of the wide-open soundstage, and how it is presented cleanly and crisply, with the authority of a court judge and the organisation of an event planner, really draws you into whatever music it’s playing. And, importantly, keeps you there.

Texture is in lavish supply all the way up the frequency spectrum – it calls a cello a cello, a flute a flute, and has no issue distinguishing between the different guitar and key sounds in play during instrument-dense tracks like The Allman Brothers Band’s Jessica. Indeed, the D9’s knack for all-round insight is truly commendable for a DAC at this price level.

That goes for the DAC’s even-handed nature, too - low frequencies, the midrange and the top end all have satisfying substance, with none sticking out or sitting back more than any other. Bass has just the right amount of muscle, the midrange is direct and lucid, and the treble is as sharp as you could possibly want it.

Audiolab has once again prioritised outright articulation and refinement – critical listening is the order of the day here – but, crucially, not at the expense of rhythmic aptitude. The D9 confidently ties musical strands together to carry a track’s momentum, and has both the dynamic punch and elasticity to keep you interested in everything from piano-led compositions to beat-infused hip-hop, even if it doesn’t always offer the very last word in bite with the most attacking music. All in all, the balance between ‘informing’ and ‘entertaining’ is one this DAC strikes beautifully, its faithfulness to recordings is never short of convincing. Consider me won over, all over again.

LIVING WITH THE AUDIOLAB D9

As I’ve alluded to already, the D9’s front panel is a tidy affair. The rotary controls tick the ‘tactility’ box I believe is important for a product that may well sit within reach in a desktop system, and they respond with a satisfyingly smooth, soft click whether you turn (to change volume or cycle through menu settings) or press (to mute volume or make a selection/return to the menu). 

Menu layout and navigation is pretty straightforward and intuitive too, and allows you to do things like switch between five digital filters (‘Linear Fast’ (my preference), ‘Linear Slow’, ‘Minimum Fast’, ‘Minimum Slow’ and ‘Hybrid’), set your preferred method of MQA handling (essentially decoding with or without PCM upsampling, or not decoding at all), and choose what you want the screen to display. Digital or analogue VU graphics, the Audiolab logo and soundwave, or the incoming audio signal’s sampling frequency are all available - or it can be turned off altogether.

The black plastic remote is less lovely to use and has a few too many buttons for my liking, though it can’t be faulted for thoroughness. And naturally it comes in handy if you position the D9 out of reach of your listening position.

CONCLUSION

There’s no question about it: the D9 does its forebears proud. Audiolab has drawn on everything it has learned in digital audio over the decades to fill a gap in its catalogue and produce a dedicated headphone amplifier that’s very satisfying indeed and that will appeal to the most ardent head-fi fan. The D9 is a complete performer, and on top of that has the connectivity that allows it to slip into almost any system, plus an aesthetic that demands it be seen as well as heard.

LISTENING NOTES

L.A. Salami Desperate Times Mediocre Measures
The standout track from the genre-blending London singer-songwriter’s latest album is a lavishly produced, densely instrumental affair, and the Audiolab has the organisation, precision and spic-and-span cleanliness to take it all in its stride. No musical strand gets lost in the mix, and the vocal comes in over the top with purpose.

‍East Forest, Peter Broderick Reunited
The D9’s open, airy soundstage is the perfect canvas upon which this raw, hypnotising piece from the two multi-instrumentalists can unfold and metamorphose, while the DAC’s perceptive nature does wonders to track the evolving piano and strings sequences that rise from the recording’s ambient environment.

‍Macklemore, Skylar Grey Glorious
While Macklemore’s rap could do with a touch more attack, the D9 has the midrange transparency to get under his characterful vocal inflections and generally does well to capture the fun and energy behind this track.

You buy the Audiolab D9 primarily because you adore listening to music through headphones, own a sophisticated pair or two, and naturally want to justify those not-insignificant purchases by allowing them to perform to their highest potential. And considering the D9 is one of the most versatile (and substantially built) machines at this level, it will also suit someone looking to take advantage of its DAC /preamp sections in a speaker-fronted setup.

The versatility of the D9 means it can integrate nicely into most mid-range speaker-fronted systems to play the role of a DAC and/or preamplifier - but all you really need to enjoy it as a desktop DAC/headphone amplifier is a music source (such as a music streamer, like the very capable Cambridge CXN100) and a decent pair of headphones, which thankfully aren’t hard to come by.

Presuming you get on with open-back designs and crave entertainment and insight in equally large measures, like I do, I would point you to the Austrian Audio The Composer if you’re fortunate enough to have £2,249 to splash, or the Audeze LCD-X or Sennheiser HD800S if your budget is around half that.

Just be sure to feed the D9 what it deserves – CD-quality or, better yet, 24bit digital audio files.