Small 24/48 ADC (DCT-4 by CYP)

[sunjan]

Has anyone spotted this before?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330309697687

Not mine, but I'm curious about the specs.
I'd expect the quality to be junk, but perhaps it's better than the built in AD in the JB3?
It could serve as a cheap/stealthable front end box in certain situations...

[rsimms3]

5v power requirement, just like the JB3.  Looks interesting.

[Sunday Driver]

Strange how there are no signs of a bit depth listed anywhere. Also, it looks like it expects a line level signal.

[sunjan]

I found the manufacturer and PDF manual:
http://www.cypress.com.tw/product.php?PId=59374&CId=009&CName=Audio%20and%20PIP%20Processors&SR=0
http://www.cypeurope.com/cyp_techpage.php?product=356&&parent=0

Apparently it's called DCT-4 by Cypress Technology (aka CYP). From the date stamp, it was launched in early 2008.

Still no mention about bit depth, but I've shot them a question...

Also found another retailer selling them for $48:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350098373687

[sunjan]

Just got a reply from CYP:

From: Air Chou [mailto:air.chou@cypress.com.tw]
Dear Jan:
DCT-4 outputs 48KHz 24bit LPCM 2CH digital audio.
The power supply of DCT-4 is 5V 0.36A DC.

THX!!!

[AIR]


Perhaps DCT-4 is a half-decent front end for H1x0 and MTII as well?
I guess that many tapers don't care too much and just feed an analog signal to these recorders and rely on the internal ADC. I don't know how good/bad it is?

[rsimms3]

To me it wouldn't be very useful in situations where I was using the iRiver.  When I use my iRiver I want to be as minimal as possible so it would add another two boxes to the list of things to bring, the ADC and the Battery for it, not to mention the adapter or cable to go 1/8 mini to RCAs.  This would be very good though as a cheap solution to transfer old MDs or cassettes if you didn't want to buy something bigger and more elaborate.

[sunjan]

To me it wouldn't be very useful in situations where I was using the iRiver. 

This would be very good though as a cheap solution to transfer old MDs or cassettes if you didn't want to buy something bigger and more elaborate.

You've got a point that the internal iriver ADC is good enough to skip this extra box. But maybe JB3 and Microtrack owners will find it worthwhile?

Regarding MD transfers, if I had 50 bucks, I'd rather put them on a $40 shelf MD deck and a $10 soundcard with toslink.
Maybe for cassette transfers, but then there are plenty of soundcards out there offering decent ADC.

The selling point of this box is tiny form factor and standalone ability.