Pure Audio Labs

"A Complete Palette of Controls and Functions in a Package That’s Equal Parts Affordable and Accessible With an Amazing Price and Performance Levels that will Shake Some Industry Roots!"

The Kicker – yes, of course, there MUST BE a Kicker
The Price – $1995 which is so completely fair and might be called even a bit unfair to its competitors. A true System Control Center clothed beautifully and completely useable. I don’t say that lightly as I’ve just recently had the Mytek Brooklyn through the listening studio here and for my money, I like The PureAudio Lotus DAC 5 even more as sonically it’s The Goods. Not soft, nor round – just musically pleasing and honestly a steal of a deal at the price.

Bravo Pure Audio – Bravo Underwood Wally

Enthusiastically Recommended

"With that being said, I am more than happy to award this DAC one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019.

Read it all at: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/pure-audios-latest-dac/

In the Positive Feedback review they said:
"a warmer sounding characteristic devoid of leading edges and transients. Instead, it is a well-tuned configuration that allows a natural tone to take precedence, with an invitingly smooth and relaxed sound."  The Lotus presents a fairly wide soundstage with good projections of sonic cues in both depth and width. An area where the Lotus DAC5 does massively excel is its ability to resolve detailing, with fast decay without ever sounding clinical or cold. Instead, instrumental pieces such as piano and guitar strums really shine, without ever sounding lackluster or too sharp. For this reason, the Lotus DAC5 is a great contender for advocates of a natural listening experience, with excellent clarity and nuances. That is not to say that vocals are out of the picture, as the Lotus DAC5 delivers spades of realism and depth as demonstrated in "Jealous Guy" by Gavin DeGraw. Here, DeGraw's voice is both soulful while also preserving the grittiness that other DACs may convert into stridency. On that note, it is nice to see that the Lotus is forgiving of older sounding tracks, as well as those of poorer quality, with its element of smoothness and lack of glare.

Conclusion

"The Pure Audio Lotus DAC5 has seemingly appeared from nowhere and looks to stay for a while with its multifaceted approach to the audiophile market. It is not often that a DAC of this caliber retails for less than $2000, and should definitely be taken seriously when considering a top of the line system for both headphones and speakers alike. With various output and preamp functionality, the Lotus does well in being a pure system control center. Not to mention that it can handle MQA and DSD files, which not all DACs can boast within the tools of their arsenals. Along with the well-designed remote and informative glass panel display, the Lotus DAC5 represents great value for money "

Read the entire review at:  https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/pure-audio-lotus-dac5/

Hi Walter,

I've had the DAC5 playing for about 45 minutes now. Wow. I am in awe of how it delivers a combination of naturalness/smoothness with punch, detail, and 'you are there' imaging.  I'm reminded of my $50k Spectral/Avalon system from 20 years ago, quite a compliment.  The DAC5 is that good!

Thanks again!

Tim

The Lotus DAC 5 uses the critically acclaimed ESS’ Sabre patented HyperStream II architecture and time domain jitter eliminator, the ES9038PRO 32-bit audio dac delivers an unprecedented dynamic range of up to 140dB and THD+N of –122dB. The Sabre DAC 9038 Pro is considered by many to be the finest DAC chip made today.

 

Asynchronous USB for low jitter

The XMOS USB input receiver chip offers USB asynchronous transfer mode. It uses the high precision clock and precision power supply of the Lotus DAC 5 bypassing the computer's clock for dramatically lower jitter.
 

Ultralow Noise, Ultrahigh PSRR RF Linear Regulator

LT3042 is a ultralow RMS noise, ultralow spot noise and ultrahigh PSRR linear regulator, It offers high quality voltage supplies that greatly enhance the performance of the ES9038PRO.
 

Precision Thin Film MELF Resistors

Precision thin film MELF resistors are the perfect choice for most fields of modern professional electronics, which reliability and stability are the 
main reasons why we use it.
 

High Quality, High Performance Capacitors

 
Electrolytic capacitors manufactured by Panasonic Japan. The caps help clean the power of  high ripple current and along wiht their low ESR make the power more stable for upgraded sonics.








 

Large Readable Front Panel Display

The display shows the current status of the input, contains the channel name, volume and sample rate. and can adjust the display brightness according to the environment or directly switch off the display to get the best listening performance. It will also show if MQA is being unfolded
 

Metal Remote Control

A high-quality aluminum remote control allows the user to operate all adjustments in the SETUP menu.


Available in black or silver