Sony chooses xCORE MCU for headphone amplifier

9th October 2013

Nat Bowers

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Datasheet

XMOS today announces that its xCORE-USB multicore microcontrollers have been selected by Sony for its new PHA-2 portable headphone amplifier. Launched at IFA last month, the Sony PHA-2 combines multiple audiophile USB interfaces with a high resolution DAC and a high-quality headphone amp, all in a tiny portable product.

It is compatible with USB Audio Class 2 and Direct Stream Digital technology, providing a higher quality audio experience for listeners using the Sony Walkman line of portable music players, Windows and Mac PCs, as well as iPads, iPods, and iPhones.

Nigel Toon, XMOS CEO, comments: “The XMOS solution is proven to deliver the highest quality USB audio. As a programmable platform, xCORE has allowed Sony to equip the PHA-2 with unique features such as Direct Stream Digital. xCORE was also the only platform that could fully meet Sony’s exacting product requirements: We believe users of the PHA-2 will be able to hear the results for themselves.”

The Sony PHA-2 is based on XMOS’ industry-leading USB audio solution, using the xCORE XS1-U8-64 8-core multicore microcontroller. It is capable of supporting music files with sample rates of up to 192kHz and full 24-bit resolution, delivering studio quality digital audio.

People are demanding higher quality music from their portable devices and xCORE multicore microcontrollers deliver this. They can be programmed to support a wide variety of streaming formats, including asynchronous data transfer that ensures jitter is removed. XMOS solutions support a range of source devices including PCs, portable music players, current and legacy Apple products, and common Android smartphones.