Well OK this one may be tamed, but it is indeed beautiful to behold. Naaman's casework (and all around attention to detail) sets him apart, along with a handful of amazing builders we have in our group. But this one in particular really hit a chord with me. Simple but eye catching at the same time. I've had my sights set on this DAC for some time now, as it seemed a natural progression from the Epic Opus ( Opus DAC w/Zapfilter output stage) I had from the Twisted Pear line. And this DAC had a surprise for me. Naaman built in a Mini³ amp into the case, so that it could be used as a stand alone system if wanted. That would be nice for desktop use, meets and for me a reason to pick up those new Philips Fidelio L1s.
Not much to say about the sound yet, as I've only just begun to listen, but first impressions do not disappoint. I really like my Adcom GDA-700, but this is a superior DAC from first initial listen. Detail and soundstage jump out as noticeable improvements immediately. I absolutely love the background Blue LED lighting, with the laser etched plexi. Nice touch Naaman! I also love the volumite handling volume control at chip level. This and the fact that all outputs can be used simultainiously (RCA, XLR and Headphone) make it easy to do a head to head β22 vs. PASS F5 shootout. More impressions to follow at some point, but now I'm going to immerse myself in the beautiful, beautiful music.
Note that the blotches of the Blue in the 3rd pic is an anomaly of the camera. And it's hard to tell from the pics, but the faceplate is about 3/8" thick, with about 1/4" of faceplate depth around the cutouts.