S2 Chrome Set
DAC & Streaming Set S2 - Chrome Limited Edition
Digital micro preamplifier & Audio optimized network bridge
Pre Box S2 Digital and Stream Box S2 Ultra mark a new era for our S-series components. The Special Chrome Editions of the Pre Box S2 Digital and Stream Box S2 Ultra are beautiful eyecatchers which will fit into any listening environment. The improved aluminium case and board layout result in better shielding of electromagnetical interference. The S2 Chrome Set comes in a high quality wooden box.
For the very first time we are using a dual mono configuration with the highest class D/A converters of ESS Sabre. Their flagship DAC-chip ensures highest class audio in a small and affordable package. This DAC is capable of high resolution audio up to 32bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512! Pre Box S2 Digital Chrome is also the very first of our devices to support hardware MQA unfolding. With organic polymer capacitors and thin film miniMELF resistors we were able to create a tiny device that will blow away even much bigger components for a much higher price. With a total of eight digital filters the sound can be shaped precisely to the listeners liking. Pre Box S2 Digital Chrome is fully remoteable, it can also control the playback software of a computer. You can use Play, Pause, Forward and Rewind straight with your Pre Box S2 Digital Chrome!
Stream Box S2 Ultra Chrome closes the gap, it offers modern connectivity with its network inputs and USB A output. This USB output is perfectionized for audio signals, it uses a dedicated internal power supply and only top audiophile grade components. You won‘t run into file-support issues, as Stream Box S2 Ultra Chrome acts as a network bridge, bypassing the files directly to your digital to analogue converter. Since most DACs only have one USB input, we have designed Stream Box S2 Ultra also to be a USB detox device. Simply connect your PC to the micro USB input of the unit and connect our DAC to the audio output. This way you can clean the noisy signal of your PC, while enjoying your music with it. Our new remote control iOS and Android App is based on an opensource project and has a large community behind it. This guarantees full support and future improvements.
Features
- Selected components
- Chrome surface on aluminium body
- Comes in a high quality wooden box
- Dual mono construction
- MQA hardware decoding
- DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 & DSD512 (DoP, DSD512 native)
- Up to 24bit/192kHz for optical & coax inputs
- 7 selectable digital filter characteristics
- 1 proprietary optimum transient digital filter
- Synchronization of all internal oscillators
- Jitter as low as 100 Femtoseconds!
- Audio optimized USB A output
- TIDAL, Spotify, Quobuz, Roon, Internet Radio (TuneIn)
- Controllable via App and PC/Laptop
- Multi-room enabled
- Bluetooth + Sharepoint
- Cleans up the audio signal from a PC
- HDMI video output
- Ethernet and WiFi connectivity
Recommended Products
FAQs
The device is fully compatible with Windows 10. It may be necessary to reinstall latest drivers after updating from Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10.
You do not need a driver. The driver is already integrated in the operating system.
Turn off your Computer and press at start alt+cmd+p+r until another starting sound appears. With this command the USB bus will be reset and the USB Box will be recognized new.
There are many forum reports about that issue. It is a widely spread error affecting a wide array of USB DACs, unfortunately there is no current fix for this problem, since it lies in the Core Audio of Apple's OSX. We advice not to use our USB DACs with OSX El Capitan.
Pre Box S2 Digital Chrome will show the MQA logo and a blue dot on the display's top right corner once an MQA file has been successfully passed on to it.
No, in order to enable MQA playback via S/PDIF a hardware change would be necessary, this would cause the price to go much higher. MQA hardware decoding is only possible via the asynchronuous USB input of Pre Box S2 Digital Chrome.
The DFU for MacOS requires the Pre Box S2 Digital Chrome to run software version 2.10. (July 2018)
When cycling through the inputs it can occur that the sound gets distorted using Optimum Transient. After about three minutes the filter "locks" in properly and the sound should be normal again. Unfortunately that's a bug in the ESS silicone chip and we can't do anything about it.