Mass Fidelity of Toronto, Canada has introduced what it calls a Relay DAC. This is a digital to analogue converter with a built in Bluetooth receiver that’s designed to give you great sound from your smartphone or tablet. Unlike similar products the Mass Fidelity’s outputs can be configured to deliver analogue or digital signal, so if you have a decent DAC already you can send the signal to it for conversion.
As well as inhabiting machined case the Relay DAC does have a decent converter onboard in the form of a Burr-Brown chipset combined with a Cirrus microprocessor for decoding Bluetooth aptX. We first spotted Mass Fidelity at the Munich High End show in 2012 where they showed a prototype of a very stylish integrated amp based around an op-amp output stage. At the time we were told that it would incorporate a Bluetooth receiver but a check on the website suggests that the Relay DAC is the first product to go into production. Price is £179 and distribution is by anthemavs.co.uk.
