AUDIO-TECHNICA DSR7BT

Technical Audio Group (TAG), which distributes Audio-Technica in Australia, has released the DSR7BT digital Bluetooth headphones. This model’s partner pair, the DSR9BT, won an ‘Editor’s Choice’ award at CES earlier this year. What’s unique about both models is that the audio path within the headphones remains completely in the digital domain, with the headphone diaphragms doing the digital-to-analogue conversion.

The DSR7BT headphones use the Dnote technology developed by Japanese company Trigence, which was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from Hosei University. According to Steve Savanyu of Audio-Technica, Trigence’s Dnote technology enables full-resolution, 24-bit digital audio signals to be delivered direct to the headphones’ drivers, which he says are made of diamond-like carbon. ‘ In a typical pair of Bluetooth headphones, the signal comes in digitally and wirelessly, via AptX HD, then is converted to analogue audio, then amplified before being sent to the drivers,’ he told Australian Hi-Fi Magazine. ‘ In the DSR9 [and DSR7], the signal stays in the digital domain from source to diaphragm.’ You can also hard-wire the headphones, but there is no conventional audio jack 3.5mm or 5.35mm, just a USB input that acts as both a conduit for the high-res digital signal from your compatible devices and for power to recharge the headphones’ internal 3.7V rechargeable lithium polymer battery which gives a claimed 15 hours of continuous operation. Audio Technica specifies the frequency response of the DSR7 BT at 5Hz to 45kHz, the sensitivity at 100dB/mW and the nominal impedance as 35 Available now, the Audio-Technica DSR7 BT headphones retail for $599 (RRP). For further information, please contact Technical Audio Group (TAG) on (02) 9519 0900 or visit the website at www.tag.com.au