Audiolab D7

Neat, capable and packed with features

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Audiolab isn't short of experience when it comes to making DACs. The company’s first outboard digital-to-analogue converter was the 800ODAC of the 1990s, but it was 2011's M-DAC that really cemented its expertise in the sector. Now discontinued, that model remains a favourite at What Hi-Fi? Towers, and was something of a mid-priced benchmark for the best part of a decade.

What has all of this got to do with the new Audio D7? Despite its smaller size and more modest price point, there are undeniable echoes of the M-DAC's design template and well-judged feature set, and that's a good thing.

The Audio D7 is a pleasingly versatile unit that makes as much sense at the heart of a proper separates hi-fi system as it does on a desktop system fed by a computer. Audiolab certainly hasn't skimped on the connectivity, with the D7 including a generous spread of digital connections: there are two coaxial and two optical inputs, USB Type B and USB Type A inputs, alongside single-ended RCA line-level and balanced XLR analogue outputs. The USB-A port allows connection to external storage devices and is also used for software upgrades.

There is a front panel-mounted 6.3mm headphone socket as well as digital outputs (optical and coaxial), should you want to do extra processing on the digital signal. Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX HD codec compatibility completes the picture.