DAC & Hovedtelefon forstærker

Does it all, from phono to planar

The Alpha Pro by D&A is a fully balanced DAC and headphone amp that straddles two worlds: modern digital precision and old-school analog soul. Featuring the ES9039MSPRO DAC chip, 4-channel discrete amplification, and a real analog preamp stage, it’s built for listeners who care about detail, dynamics, and driving just about any headphone. Whether you’re feeding vinyl into planar magnetics or decoding DSD512 over USB, Alpha Pro’s architecture keeps your signal clean, your volume steady, and your background silent.

Engineered around ESS’s flagship DAC chip

The ES9039MSPRO is ESS’s most advanced DAC chip to date, and the Alpha Pro takes full advantage. By summing eight differential signals per channel, the SIGMA DAC topology lowers output impedance and noise, giving you deeper dynamics and cleaner transients. With MQA hardware decoding, HyperStream architecture, and a 32-bit noise-shaping engine, your digital audio gets processed at maximum clarity.

4C-FBDA: Discrete power with grip

The Alpha Pro uses four fully-balanced channels of discrete transistor amplification—8 transistors per channel, 32 total. The result is 6000mW per channel into 32Ω, <0.1Ω output impedance, and near-total absence of distortion (0.0001% THD). 

True preamp functionality

A lot of DAC/amps slap on a volume knob and call it a day. The Alpha Pro uses the NJU72315, one of the highest-performance analog volume chips available. It retains detail at whisper levels, cuts noise, and offers a real analog volume taper—no stepping, no smearing.

Turntables and cassette decks welcome

Connect a phono preamp-enabled turntable or tape deck and route your analog signal to powered monitors or straight into headphones. No conversion, no digital artifacts, no latency.

Designed for digital, ready for everything

A 16-core XMOS XU-316 chip handles USB duties, decoding PCM up to 768kHz/32bit, DSD512, and full MQA. Bluetooth 5.1 (QCC5125) supports LDAC 24bit/96kHz along with aptX HD, AAC, and SBC. There’s also coaxial and optical with a 2nd PLL that matches USB jitter specs (15ps typical), keeping the entire digital path in lockstep.

Isolation built into every layer

The analog and digital sections live on different zones of a multi-layer PCB, with dedicated grounds, guarded traces, and star-quad routing. Even the power rails are isolated. This means no crosstalk, no digital bleed, and no interference sneaking in from the USB controller to the output stage. In a word: clean. 

It’s got timing down to a science

With three femtosecond-grade oscillators and a VCXO-driven second PLL clock, the Alpha Pro holds jitter below 15ps. That’s about ten times tighter than the average DAC and a huge boost for microdetail, spatial placement, and realism.

Performance that won’t break a sweat

Thermal zoning distributes heat to avoid performance drift. Adaptive compensation circuitry keeps internal temps within 2°C even when outputting at full throttle. No fans, no drama—just steady performance when your listening session runs long.

Protected at every stage

Four independent DC monitoring circuits protect your headphones against rogue voltage. The power stage features silent relay switching, zero-pop startup, and overload detection. Even if something goes sideways, your ears (and gear) stay safe.

Premium components throughout

Precision capacitors, MELF resistors with ±1% tolerance and ±25ppm/°C TCR, and dual-stage Mean Well linear power modules keep the Alpha Pro running clean and quiet. These are lab-grade components chosen for consistency, stability, and sonic transparency.

Subtle design, serious hardware

Translucent front panels, anodized aluminum bodies, and hidden antennas give the Alpha Pro a minimal aesthetic. But under the surface, you’ll find a 4-layer PCB, gold-plated ports, and a multi-mode output matrix that can drive headphones, act as a preamp, or just decode and hand off a digital signal.