The Heléne is the smallest digital to analogue converter Aries Cerat offers.

Regardless, by DAC standards it is still quite a large device weighing in at 40 kilos.

In designing the Heléne, Aries Cerat stood by its philosophy of maximum performance first, other considerations second. Borrowing technology from the Kassandra Series, and with the addition of some tricks of it’s own, the Heléne is a remarkable machine in it’s own right, setting a new previously unreachable level of performance vs price ratio.

The Heléne is a bit-perfect ladder DAC and uses NO data processing, upsampling or oversampling – all data is converted at their native sample rate and bit rate.

Taking technology pioneered in the Kassandra Series, the converter banks are implemented around a matrix of eight R2R converters per channel, running in parallel. The two independent banks use eight R2R matrixes from the Analog Devices AD1865N-K in current mode.

These are driven by custom logic that handles the synchronisation, data and work buses. Aries Cerats own Super Clock technology used in the bigger models is also standard in the Heléne DAC, negating the use and need of an external aftermarket Word Clock.

The USB input is double Reclocked, as are the digital S/PDIF and AES inputs using the internal Super Clocks of the converter. The digital input Reclocker is also bypassable on the fly.

Forget that this is the entry level DAC from Aries Cerat. This is a endgame dac and true reference source in its own right.

DIGITAL SECTION

IC Chip Array: 8 R2R converters per channel, complimentary current output using the top grade Analogue Devices AD1865N-K  with 4 converters per bank, 8 per channel

Regulators: Four discrete ultra-low-noise regulators for the 4 converter banks

PSU: Over engineered power supply, power input filters.

Current to Voltage Conversion: Transformer I/V conversion with custom wideband transformers, balanced current to single ended voltage conversion.

Additional Clock: Internal Super-Clock by-passable on the fly,  triple regulated supply

INPUT & OUTPUT SECTION

PSU: Over engineered power supplies, power input filters, large toroid transformer & capacitor banks

Gain Stage: Transformer loaded super tube output stage using the E280F tube.    5:1 step down transformer & double choke filtered supply

Output: 30Vpp output @ 0db 10Vrms

Output: 2 x RCA, 2 x Balanced. True Balanced output standard.

Floating RCA output switchable (ground loop resolver)

Output Impedance: 50 ohms (balanced and SE output)

USB input: Data rates up to 24/384KHz

Jitter attenuation: Down to femtosec level

Dimensions: 500mm W x 430mm D x 165mm H

Weight: 40kg