Custom-made Khadas Tone Enclosure

Based on the ESS Sabre 9038QM + XMOS XU208 chipset, the Tone 1 DAC made by Khadas is a brilliant high performance DAC and possibly one of the best in it’s class that we’ve used so far. We’re probably not the best folks to have a deep technical discussion on this. Audio Science Review wrote an in depth review.

The Khadas Tone Board is a high performance DAC. It is exceptionally well engineered and easily earns our highest recommendation!
– Audio Science Review

The Minimalist

One of our clients wanted a custom-made Tone 1 enclosure to replace the stock version. The idea is to have something very minimalistic looking and Tone 1 was the perfect candidate for that. While Tone 1 is a high performance DAC board, it was also something that was meant to play musically well the very moment the device is plugged-in. No extra configurations necessary which meant we could go for a button-free ultra-minimalist look.

The Pebble-Stone Look

The idea was not to have something “too hifi” looking and perhaps something that blends seamlessly into any living space. We went with something more organic looking – pebble-stone finish. The pebble-stone look features a dual layer coat – the base coat in matte cream which forms the primary tone and a thin layer of pebble-stone finish as the top coat.