Impacto essential, a USB headphone cable with built-in DAC by beyerdynamic

Beyerdynamic has announced a headphone cable with built-in DAC (digital to analog converter) that will be releasing this summer in June. Known as Impacto essential, the cable will compliment beyerdynamic’s high-end line of headphones and seek to bring your music to life.

When it comes to sound, you are limited by the weakest link in your setup (from source to delivery). Typically, when you have your hands on a really nice pair of cans (headphones), like high-end models from beyerdynamic, Sennheiser and so forth, you are limited by your listening source–typically a laptop or other mobile device. Using a DAC in between the device and your headphones helps to liven the music you are listening to, by helping with the conversion process and providing amplification.

There is an in-line remote that also has the electronics built-in that makes everything possible. They boast about it being not much larger than a normal in-line remote, but as you can see from the images, It seems like it is a little larger than what they claim since modern day in-line remotes have gotten so slim in their profile. However, the size seems just right. Not really small but not so large it is going to get in the way. It features buttons commonly found in a remote, including controls for volume, presious/next track and a play/pause button.

The DAC inside is the Sabre32 Mobile Reference DAC, providing a familiar name, which promises quality and expected results. It supports delivery of up to 32 bits and 384kHz.

It connects to your device with one of three cables provided that are interchangeable between the DAC and the device. It supports regular USB type A, microUSB and USB type-C. This allows it to be compatible with most laptops, phones and tablets. A Lightning adapter isn’t included, but they plan to support it in the near future.

As for your headphones, the DAC requires a pair of headphones that have a cable going to each earcup. No interchangeable options there as it is designed to work with beydynamics own headphones first before anything (their main goal, as with any company, is increasing profit after all).

As mentioned, it will be launching sometime this June, so there will be some waiting involved until you can try it out or get one for your own. I can promise that we will be looking forward to listening to one ourselves. There is nothing like throwing a DAC into the mix of things.

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