[Rick82]

New product?
I recently bought a Dac9 and STA-9 for my Kudos X2 speakers, very satisfied with the 9 combo but want to know how the Alita sounds in comparison to the Dac9.
Is the Alita warmer or brighter (new AK4993 chip instead of 4490)? The preamp section is the same (great volume control)?
Thanks to all.

[rustydoglim]

The Alita (shipping in early June) with a difference name and color, is designed for headphone enthusiasts.
We think this is a "must have" if you have a high-end headphone and plan to upgrade your rig.
Therefore the price is almost 50% higher than DAC-9.

In terms of sound quality, it is better than DAC-9 due to the overall redesign of the main board and power circuit. It is hard to say how much is due to the new chip because from our experience, DAC-10 with ESS9018 sounded than most ESS9038 implementations.

[Rick82]

Thanks for the reply Rusty,
I'm not primarily interested in the headphone amp (I have Fostex Massdrop and a Grado, both easy to drive and my phone with the Chord Mojo is enough) but in the Dac/Pre part in comparison to the DAC-9.
DAC-9 is a very nice piece with an amazing Pre section, I'm trying to understand the differences and improvements between the DAC-9 and Alita sound wise (more detail, less warm etc...)

[in1unison]

I have owned both DAC-9 and DAC-10 and consider former to be more pleasing to my ear. Truly great product. If Alita is improvement of the same sonic imprint than DAC-9, than I'll definitely give it a try.

[rustydoglim]

Alita has similar warmt as DAC-9 but with DAC-10's details.

[Relayer_CR]

I have been thinking in renewing my old DAC (Cambridge Audio 851D) with Nuprime DAC-10H.  However, should I decide for Alita?  Is it a better DAC than 10H? I am interested in all features it has: pre, dac and headphone amp. 

The only drawback is that I am using two optical (Alita only has one).

So how to compare 10H vs Alita?  Price difference is huge!

Regards!

[Relayer_CR]

The Cambridge has two Analog Devices AD1955 24-bit DACs, it does upsampling to 24bit/384khz, has manuel filters, ...., atually I think it is a great dac.  However it is a digital pre (and I have 2 analog sources), and the headphone amp works well only with low impdance and efficent headphones (so ...)

[Relayer_CR]

I have an streamer Nuprime WR100 (see https://nuprimeaudio.com/product/wr-100/?v=b0c4bc877c29), I'm wondering if I can connect this device with a usb cable to the "Extension Port" Nuprime ALITA?, that port seems to be an usb port.

Regards!

[rustydoglim]

Any NuPrime devices that has the Extension Port (it is SPDIF and 5V power on micro USB port, a format we created) will work with any NuPrime devices that support it.

We have published an article to explain that the performance of a DAC is now mainly determined by the design around the chip:
https://nuprimeaudio.com/guides/what-is-high-end-dac/
But the choice of the DAC chip does influence the sound characteristic.

So if you prefer a slightly warmer sound, go with Alita. It is just as detailed as DAC-10H, and the Alita's headphone amp design followed DAC-10H and it is very powerful too.  The only time that you would pick DAC-10H over Alita is when you want a very neutral DAC and has a very hard to drive headphone that requires extreme power.  Or you want to use the dual gain settings of DAC-10H to match several different amps in your system. 

Let's put it this way - if you are a headphone/earphones enthusiast and there is only one DAC & headphone amp to get, we dare to say that you should consider Alitra as it should compete with other products costing much more.

[Relayer_CR]

OK, sounds very good, very intersting, sounds like something I'd like to buy!  When is going to be available Alita to order at on-line stores, I assume that Covit is delaying everything.

By the way, I hope you all are safe!

Regards!

[rustydoglim]

It started two weeks ago. Some of us need to get our act together and update the online store 

[Relayer_CR]

Thank you "rustydoglim", I understand and I can wait!
This is my summary understanding, please advise me if I'm wrong:

• Alita sounds "as good as" DAC-10H, both devices are at "the same level of high end" quality
• Different DAC chips with similar quality.  Alita sound is warmer than DAC-10H (I don't know what does this mean!)
• Alita is a more powerfull amp than DAC-10H, so I would be able to use more complex heaphones

For the price point of view I preffer Alita, but I like DAC-10H because it has 2 optical, 2 coaxial and 2 analog (RCA) sources, so it is more versatil (Alita has one, one and one).  I like the idea of conecting my Nuprime WR100 to the usb at Alita (DAC-10H does not has this port).

For me headphone amp is important, however are much more important Pre/DAC sections.  So if Alita provide similar DAC/Pre sound quality like DAC-10H I'll go for Alita, or should I go for DAC-10H?

Two more:
DAC-10H has been in the market for 5 years or more, it is getting older?
Alita has remote control?

Regards!
 

[Relayer_CR]

.

[rustydoglim]

No, you got it all wrong.

I said Alita is very powerful, but DAC-10H has EXTREME power. Please refer to the spec. 
This is what I wrote:
"The only time that you would pick DAC-10H over Alita is when you want a very neutral DAC and has a very hard to drive headphone that requires extreme power.  Or you want to use the dual gain settings of DAC-10H to match several different amps in your system. "

DAC at this level of performance, there is no way to quantify whether one is better than the other. You have to choose the model based on 1) sonic characteristic preference; 2) features.