Macbook Air 11" 2014 DAC Chip ???

[macbedhead]

Anyone know the model of DAC Chip in current 11" Air ?
Also the mWatts output to 16 ohms etc...

Previous ones were 'Cirrus xxxxx' chips.

My 2011 one has pretty excellent sound using Audirvana + with FLAC source files and so I guess more quality boosts have come with the latest generation DAC....😀

 

[SmOgER]

"We find a Cirrus chip marked 4208-CRZ next to the headphone jack. This appears to be a two-channel version of the CS4207 low power HD audio codec with headphone amp."

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+Teardown/15042


The 2011 model has Cirrus 4206BCNZ. So I would expect for them to have very slightly better SQ in 2013/2014 machines.

 

[macbedhead]

"We find a Cirrus chip marked 4208-CRZ next to the headphone jack. This appears to be a two-channel version of the CS4207 low power HD audio codec with headphone amp."

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+Teardown/15042


The 2011 model has Cirrus 4206BCNZ. So I would expect for them to have very slightly better SQ in 2013/2014 machines.

Thanks for that but I wonder if they improved on it again on 2014 11" ? I saw that chip spec. the other day on same site...after that could not dig any later spec. info up !

 

[SmOgER]

From my understanding the DACs on 2013 and 2014 Airs are exactly the same.

Btw, both 4206BCNZ (2011) and 4208-CRZ (2013) are based on 4207(the specs of which are easily available).

And interestingly, late-2013 15" rMBP uses the same DAC as Air, so it must be as good as Apple is willing to make it.

But anyway, if you are looking to buy a 2014 machine, I would wait at least for the broadwell powered 11" MBA teardown.

 

[SmOgER]

Here it is, the teardown of MBA early 2015.

It's still using the 4208-CRZ, therefore so is the MBA 2014. So no DAC change since 2013 and only minor changes since 2010-2011.