That’s where Onkyo steps in. The company has recently announced its DAC-HA300 device which is a DAC and a headphone amplifier combined into one. The idea is to help users better enjoy higher quality audio, and at the same time it will help to drive headphones that might benefit from having a headphone amplifier. Of course not all headphones will need a dedicated amplifier, but if you’re an audiophile who owns such a pair, then perhaps this will come in handy.
It will support both iOS and Android devices but if you’d rather not have the bulk, the Onkyo DAC-HA300 will be able to act as a standalone media player, thanks to its support for as much as 128GB microSD cards. The device will come with a MUSES8920 op-amp and a 32-bit/192kHz TI Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC, which according to Onkyo was chosen for its “low out-of-band noise performance and excellent resistance to jitter.”
Made out of aluminum, the Onkyo DAC-HA300 will be made available towards the end of April in black where it will be priced at a somewhat steep £499.