Silent Angel introduces H1 streaming DAC and music hub

Silent Angel has introduced an integrated digital source combining network streaming, digital-to-analogue conversion and local music serving. The Silent Angel H1 Pure Music Hub uses two ESS ES9039Q2M DAC chips and accepts an internal SSD with capacity up to 8TB.

Balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA analogue outputs provide connections to amplification, while USB audio and Toslink optical digital outputs support an external DAC. A USB-B input allows an external computer or other digital source to use the H1's internal converter. Playback over USB extends to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and native DSD512, with DSD256 also supported in DSD-over-PCM mode.

The H1 runs the VitOS operating system and supports TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, Spotify Connect Lossless and TuneIn. AirPlay and DLNA are also supported, with Gigabit Ethernet providing the network connection. Control is available through the VitOS Orbiter app. For local music collections, the H1 supports libraries held on USB 3.0 storage and NAS devices, alongside its internal storage option.

The internal drive slot accepts an M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD, while library functions include automatic scanning and CUE-based track splitting. A quad-core RK3568 processor is paired with 4GB of DDR4 RAM. The front panel carries a 5.5-inch colour display with a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels. It shows album artwork, lyrics and track metadata.

The digital audio circuitry includes a third-generation XMOS XU316 USB processor and dual-stage jitter rejection through asynchronous sample rate conversion. Four independent power rails supply separate parts of the circuitry. The analogue stage uses six K-Muse operational amplifiers alongside two Texas Instruments OPA1612 devices.