Over the Moon

SIMAUDIO, an audio manufacturer located in Boucherville, Quebec, is well-known for both the build quality of its products and the whopping ten-year warranty it offers. Many of the company’s wares are decidedly high-end—the 230-pound Moon 888 monoblock amplifier ($118,888 per pair), which is rated to output a massive 888 watts at 8 ohms and double that down to 1,776 watts at 4 ohms, for example.

- Howard Kneller

In this review, however, we’re sizing up Simaudio’s Moon 280D DAC, which features its MiND 2 (Moon intelligent Network Device) wireless-capable music streaming module. With a $3,000 price tag, the 280D falls squarely within the mid-level price tier for the streaming DAC category. Given the intense competition in that space, I was curious to see what, if anything, would cause the 280D to stand out from the pack.

FEATURES

The Moon 280D is not a completely new product for the company. It was first introduced in 2015 and has been continually updated, with the MiND 2 module added in 2018. The most recent updates bring Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay 2 support.

A fully asynchronous DAC, the Moon 280D’s ESS Technology Sabre ES9018K2M chipset is capable of processing PCM signals up to 32-bit/384kHz (including DXD) and native DSD64, double DSD (DSD128), and quad DSD (DSD256) signals, which are supported only through the USB and network (LAN/Ethernet or Wi-Fi) inputs. The 280D also fully unfolds Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) files arriving via its network inputs.

Signals streamed over a wired or wireless connection from local UPnP servers and internet-based music services are handled by the MiND 2 module, which is controlled via the Moon MiND 2 iOS or Android controller app. A separate module in the Moon 280D handles aptX Bluetooth wireless streaming.

The MiND 2 module is Roon Ready and supports Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, and internet radio streaming, while Spotify is supported via its native app and the Spotify Connect function. Apple AirPlay 2 allows other music services to be streamed via their native apps. Lastly, the MiND 2 module permits synchronized multiroom playback on multiple MiND 2-equipped devices, with zones grouped together or run separately.

The 280D in my estimation easily rubs shoulders with the very best network music players at its price level.