Lone Mountain Audio, the importer of ATC Loudspeaker Technology, has announced the arrival of the CDA2 Mk2 CD/DAC Preamp. Developed as the partner for ATC’s latest P2 power amplifier and active speaker designs, the Mk2 combines convenient USB access to music streaming with an upgraded CD transport and DAC board, dedicated headphone amplification, expanded input choices and analogue circuits redesigned to deliver an extremely wide and flat frequency response with very low distortion.

Joining rear panel coaxial and optical 192kHz inputs, the Mk2’s new USB input is capable of handling PCM data up to 384kHz and also DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 natively. Jitter rejection ensures that signal integrity is maintained even with poorer quality sources and over long cable runs. Completing the Mk2’s wider digital interface a new TEAC-supplied CD transport delivers faster play and seek times, much lower mechanical noise and improved error correction.

Both input and output gain stages have been improved by an arrangement of discrete op amps comprising six common gain blocks: two for left and right input buffering, and four to provide a “true” differential output for the left and right channels. The positive and negative drivers are arranged in parallel to ensure that the signal delays and phase shifts are identical on both sides. The output stages are configured as unity gain complementary compound (Sziklai) pairs, biased in class A.

Also benefiting are twin rear-mounted analogue phono/RCA inputs and an additional aux analogue input via 3.5mm mini jack, which is equipped with high input sensitivity for improved compatibility with phones, tablets and other low output portable devices. Additionally, the Mk2 has revised the headphone amplifier to make it capable of driving headphones from 30 – 600 ohms via a rear panel mounted 6.35mm jack.

The CDA2’s chassis is constructed from a combination of steel and aluminum and uses constrained layer damping to control panel resonances. The front panel is machined from an extruded section of 13mm/0.5” aluminum alloy with a brushed and anodized silver finish. It will list for $4,299.

Here are more detailed specs.