Balanced line preampliļ¬er/USB DAC Made by: Gato Audio, Denmark Supplied by: Audio Emotion Ltd, Scotland Telephone: 01333 425999 Web: www.gato-audio.com; www.audioemotion.co.uk Price: Ā£2190
PREAMPLIFIER/DAC
Gato Audio PRD-3 Scandinavian design ļ¬air and deliciously seductive sound combine in Gato Audioās ultra-stylish preampliļ¬er, which looks divine and has a built-in 192kHz/24-bit USB DAC Review: John Bamford Lab: Paul Miller
W
ith digital entertainment sources ubiquitous in todayās living rooms, many modern DACs include a variable output, obviating the necessity for a preampliļ¬er if you donāt own a turntable, FM tuner or legacy tape deck. But Gato Audioās strikingly handsome-looking PRD-3 is a proper system preampliļ¬er, not simply a DAC with a volume control. It includes three line-level analogue inputs alongside its three digital inputs. If it sounds anything like as good as it looks, then it promises to be ļ¬ne value at Ā£2190!
FABULOUS FIT AND FINISH Hailing from Denmark, Gato Audio is a relatively young brand [see boxout], the companyās product portfolio only recently becoming available in the UK. We tested Gatoās CDD-1 top-loading CD player/DAC together with the MOSFET powered AMP-150 integrated ampliļ¬er last autumn [HFN Oct ā13]. Priced Ā£5290 each, they looked a million dollars and Steve Harris described them as delivering a harmonious listening experience, thanks to their relaxed and rather beautiful sound quality. Gato Audio makes a couple of less expensive Class D integrated ampliļ¬ers which weāve yet to audition, the DIA-400 (Ā£3890) and DIA-250 (Ā£2990) that similarly look fabulous in their distinctive casework. Unlike the AMP-150 they feature built-in 192kHz/24-bit USB DACs as well. The company hasnāt yet announced a power ampliļ¬er dressed in its luxurious livery but I suspect itās only a matter of time, as this PRD-3 preampliļ¬er really does deserve a matching sibling on a shelf in a system rack. As well as being distinctively formed, Gatoās components really are fabulously well put together. The ļ¬t and ļ¬nish is ļ¬rstclass; their 10mm-thick aluminium fronts
exude high quality; and the feel of their controls is equal to some of the ļ¬nest high-end gear money can buy. This PRD-3 is also blessed with a lovely white-legend LED matrix display thatās large enough to be read from a distance of several metres. Output level setting is displayed from 0-99 to the left of the rotary electronic volume control knob ā the numbers rotating vertically in the fashion of a tumbler in a slot machine ā while the selected input is indicated on the right. When using a digital input, incoming sampling frequency can be shown (for four seconds) by pressing that inputās direct selector button on the supplied IR handset. Alternatively the display can be switched via a small push button on the preampās rear panel to continuously show sampling frequency ā and only indicate input selection when actually changing inputs.
RIGHT: With a Xilinx FPGA handling all digital input processing and housekeeping, Gato Audio also speciļ¬es a legacy 24-bit/192kHz DAC and sample rate converter from Burr-Brown. Note the local input/output relay switching (orange)
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The display can also be turned on/off via the remote handset. At the rear thereās a balanced (XLR) and two single-ended (RCA) line inputs all on gold-plated sockets, two S/PDIF inputs (one RCA, one Toslink) and an asynchronous USB connection for computer audio playback. Of course, the latter can also be used to feed digital data from an iPad, if you hook it up using one of Appleās Ā£25 Camera Connection Kit adapters.
DEDICATED POWER Using the PRD-3 in a bi-amped system would present no difļ¬culties: there are two sets of output XLRs as well as a pair of single-ended RCA outputs. The built-in D-to-A converter, which is driven by a dedicated power supply separated from the preampās analogue circuitry, uses a balanced dual-differential