- YBA unveils Design One, a new SACD player
- Claims to be the first “transportable” such model ever made
- However, it is not exactly an easily portable model
Despite the format dividing audiophiles, Super Audio CDs seem to be making a comeback, and the clearest sign of a retro resurgence is when hi-fi brands start making technology to play old formats. Well, it happens with SACDs, for sure.
French hi-fi brand YBA has just unveiled its Design One, which is apparently the world’s first ever “portable” SACD player that runs on its own batteries, and the company claims you can take it into cafes and offices to use.
Put out of your mind the sort of retro-inspired compact or feature-packed portable players we’ve covered quite often over the past few months – they’re pockets, but this one isn’t so much.
It weighs 1.34 kg, measures 18.8 x 16.6 x 4 cm and has a rather angular body with sharp corners and buttons that are easy to press accidentally. I can’t see myself slipping this into my backpack when I’m off to work at the cafe, but then I feel less strongly about SACD compared to some in the TechRadar office.
Perhaps that’s why it’s billed as a “transportable” model rather than a “portable” model; an elephant is technically portable if you have enough tranquilizer and a crane, but you wouldn’t call one portable. But beyond the eyebrow-raising description, it looks like it has a few specs that will impress certain audiophiles.
A SACD player with many functions
The Design One has quite a few outputs for a portable model: you can output through 3.5mm or 4.4mm to headphones, RCA, SPDIF coax and USB-C (although it doesn’t support SACD on the latter).
It has an AKM DAC, frequency response of 20Hz-40kHz, output impedance of 0.4 ohms (that’s with 3.5mm; it’s 0.8 ohms for 4.4mm) and a signal-to-noise ratio of 125 decibels.
The device will apparently last up to 5.5 hours on a single charge and can be connected via USB-C for power (via a separate port than the USB-C audio output, so you can do both at the same time). There is a 2.79-inch screen and beautiful retro mechanical switches that can be customized in use.
Given the shape and size of the Design One, it’s hard to see it as a portable CD player similar to many of the other new models being released. But it still clearly has value as a smaller player of SACDs and plain old CDs. It could fit quite nicely into a desktop setup or into a compact hi-fi setup to save you buying a bigger option…
…if you can stand the price. It’s set to cost $1,699 (about £1,250, AU$2,500) when it goes on sale later in May. So it’s definitely not a budget model.
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