posted March 02 2023 by Jord

The sound of the 2.16 ultra

What makes Pink Faun unique as a music server manufacturer is that we have been in the business for almost three decades. That marks almost thirty years of designing all kinds of audio equipment, including tube amps, CD-players, DAC's and high efficiency loudspeakers. Almost thirty years of learning about vibration, the impact of the power supply and the importance of circuitry design and choice of components. Almost thirty years of experience, growth and quality, which comes together in the Pink Faun 2.16 ultra.

The basis

All this knowledge that we've gained over the last three decades forms a solid basis under the development of our digital products nowadays. Our music servers are designed like an analogue component, and sound like one, too. What we strive for is a highly organic, real sound signature, rather than going for extreme technical perfection and measurements. We believe that true musicality cannot be captured in measurements. Of course we measure, our products are safe and certified, but listening sessions is our most important developing tool.

The form

Form follows function. That is how all Pink Faun products are designed and that's why inside our products is a no hold barred design philosophy. Our only goal is musicality. Our analogue products are all simple, fast, short circuitries and zero feedback design, with great care and attention to the choice of components. This design philosophy has not changed with the design of our music servers. We continue to look at our digital sources as analogue devices.

The OCXO

Digital circuits rely on clock signals to know when and how to execute the functions that are programmed. If the clock in a design is like the heart of an animal, then clock signals are the heartbeats that keep the system in motion. To make sure we have the best of the best we decided that we must develop the heart of our music server, the clock in house: the Pink Faun ultra OCXO was born. What sets our ultra OCXO apart from the is the ultra low-phase-noise on a relative high clock frequency of 25MHz. Instead of developing the ultra OCXO with an extreme long-term stability specification, which is unnecessary in digital audio, we developed our ultra OCXO towards an extreme low short-term stability specification. This approach is unique in the music server business and is not yet available off the shelf, hence why we needed to develop our own.
Luckily, we're not afraid of a challenge.

The best

With its discreet and timeless design, the Pink Faun 2.16 ultra music server is a source that blends seamlessly into any high-end audio system. It is no longer common to see vinyl, R2R or CD-player as the only source in high-end systems. With the introduction of the 2.16 ultra, there’s a new area to discover in the digital domain. As we like to say: the Pink Faun 2.16 ultra is the symbiosis between the technical advantages of the digital and the musicality of the analogue domain exploring new territories of hi-fidelity.