Redefining What's Possible

Purposeful Selection of Connections

A guiding principle directs us in the conception of our products: "Sound comes before equipment." Our music servers and network players have only the connections you truly need. You can stream music from iOS and macOS devices using AirPlay®, and you also have the option to connect a WLAN dongle to a USB port.

We exclusively use silver-plated WBT® nextgen™ coaxial connectors and rhodium-plated AES/EBU connectors from Furutech® as well as etherCON network connectors from Neutrik®. All interfaces are galvanically isolated from the circuitry. For the supply voltage of the USB output circuits, we employ multi-stage filtering and smoothing.

A further, self-developed circuit filters and smoothes the supply voltage for the oscillators of the AES/EBU or S/PDIF output. In this way, we fully exploit the remarkable sonic potential of these interfaces.

Resonance Optimization

A vital aspect in the design of a high-end component is the optimization of resonance behavior—this should by now be common knowledge. However, after years of research and countless listening tests, we have come to realize that even minimal resonances can play a decisive role in sound quality and sometimes optimization measures at unexpected locations can lead to audible results.

The chassis and assemblies of our music servers and streamers are designed to absorb and generate as few vibrations as possible. For it is more effective to prevent problems from the outset than to solve them later. This is why we use exclusively SSDs, which have no moving parts.

Another important insight during our development was that different components and assemblies require specially tailored resonance optimization measures. The ripping drives of the xo|one and xo|oneplus are therefore suspended in simply constructed springs and coupled to the chassis with felt elements.

The further development of SSC technology equips our products with magnetically decoupled feet. Energy is dissipated more effectively, and the sonic result is evident in greater airiness and dynamics. The housing consists of anodized aluminum with two magnets of opposite polarity integrated into it.

Passive Cooling

For thermal regulation of our components, we exclusively use passive cooling systems that require no fan. Because even small, damped heat sinks are highly susceptible to microphonics, we dissipate waste heat by means of sophisticated housing design. In this process, individually placed aluminum plates contact the thermal hot spots at the correct locations and conduct the heat to the aluminum housing.

At the same time, they provide electromagnetic shielding between analog and digital sections as well as certain digital assemblies and serve for resonance control. Thanks to passive cooling, our devices also operate completely silently.

Powerful Components and Proprietary Software

We exclusively use computer components from renowned manufacturers to create a reliable and high-performance platform for the flawless operation of our devices. Our self-developed operating system is based on a Linux kernel and runs on a separate SSD, so the full capacity of the large SSD is available for music storage. The small SSD is also used as a data buffer during ripping in the case of the xo|one and xo|one plus.

Our operating system is kept as lean as possible and includes an optimized database structure that enables lightning-fast updates. Despite the minimal system requirements of our software, we use industrial boards with powerful Intel Core processors from the desktop segment, backed by oversized RAM. The interplay of our efficient software and powerful hardware ensures breathtakingly fast system response—regardless of how extensive your music collection is.

And believe it or not, the minimal utilization of the computer section also has a positive effect on sound quality. Of course, we have electromagnetically optimized its periphery extensively to exclude interference with audio circuits and power supplies.

The in-house development of software is a prerequisite for us to guarantee our strict quality standards—both in function and sound. For example, we use proprietary software to control the ripping drives, which allows us to limit their speed, adjustable via app, to a maximum value and thus ensure perfect reading.

iOS App xo|touch

Although the development of our own app for music control requires significant resources in the long term, independence from third parties is our top priority. We view the app as an integral part of an overall concept that contributes significantly to the experience of using a component.

xo|touch meets the highest demands for visualizing a music collection and seamlessly integrates the streaming services TIDAL®, qobuz®, and HIGHRESAUDIO®.