Balanced Audio Technology REX 3 DAC

A proprietary DAC module runs at an ultra-high clock rate with custom digital filters optimized to complement the 6C19 tube output stage

When everything is optimized, the sound of a high-end DAC is decided by how well the digital stage handles “ringing” and how well it matches the analog output stage. Ringing artifacts are extremely difficult to eliminate and are detectable by our brains even at vanishingly low levels because they occur fractions of a second before the sound they belong to, something never encountered in nature.

DACs at the pricepoint of the BAT REX 3 are able to fine-tune every aspect of software, digital hardware, and analog hardware design to eliminate ringing, allowing music to be presented in a breathtakingly natural way. BAT uses a proprietary DAC module that runs at an ultra-high clock rate. This means it has the internal bandwidth to move digital filtration high up away from the audio band, and employ custom filters with gentle slopes to create as few perturbations in the music signal as possible.

Since every part of this DAC is proprietary, the custom filters are able to reconstruct the analog signal to specifically complement the REX 3 DAC’s unique high-current vacuum-tube output stage.

This output stage has zero negative feedback for supreme purity and six 6C19 vacuum tubes, with no buffers or followers anywhere in the signal path. One pair of 6C19 tubes serves as a current source for the unistage-design power supply. Just as in BAT’s REX 3 preamplifier, REX 3 DAC uses amorphous-core second-generation transformers for output coupling. There are no capacitors in the signal path.

The BAT third-generation SuperPak is now standard. This incorporates two capacitors, potted into a new low-resonance shell, using the finest capacitor design offered at any price: silver-in-oil. The REX 3 DAC SuperPak assembly features the largest SuperPak ever offered by BAT in a preamp or source component. This dramatically adds to the open and transparent sound from this world-class DAC.

Specifications

Inputs: 1 x AES, 2 x Coaxial, 2 x Toslink, 1 x USB

Outputs: 2 x XLR

Resolution: 24-bit/384 kHz PCM, 4x DSD (11.2896 MHz)

Output Impedance: 1 Kohm

Tube Complement: 6 x 6C19

Dimensions: 19″ x 5.75″ x 15.5″

Weight: 32 lb