Ferrum Audio ERCO 2 Review

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Design, Build quality

The Ferrum ERCO 2 is designed and built in Poland. It comes in the typical Ferrum box in which it fits perfectly. With the cut-out foam the unit is perfectly protected for transport. Together with the ERCO 2 you receive a Quick Setup Guide, a standard PSU and a USB cable to hook the DAC up to your source. A complete package, presented in a nice way.

For ERCO 2, Ferrum uses Corten steel in combination with an anodized aluminium front. Design-wise the ERCO 2 complements the Ferrum OOR, Hypsos and Wandla and it’s a pretty / classy looking DAC/AMP unit if you ask me. It’s a nice double or even triple stack to look at, as you can see in the pictures. The left side with the brownish metal and Ferrum logo (adjustable LED included) already is iconic.

The build quality of the ERCO 2 is top notch. We also saw that on the OOR/Hypsos and ERCO and it’s the kind of quality you expect from a high-end device at this price level.

Lay-out

Even with all its in- and outputs, the Ferrum ERCO is a simple unit to use.

On the front you from left to right have:

• the Ferrum logo which lights up when the unit is powered on
• the 6.35mm single ended output
• the 4.4mm balanced headphone output
• LED indicator
• the power switch and source selector (Analog, USB, Power on/off, Optical, Coax)
• the gain selector
• the volume dial

The LED indicator (Fig.1D) on the front panel will change its color depending on the selected input or the incoming data stream.

• Green, Blue & Magenta – MQA The LED glows green to indicate that the unit is decoding and playing an MQA stream or file, and denotes provenance to ensure that the sound is identical to that of the source material. It glows blue to indicate it is playing an MQA Studio file, which has either been approved in the studio by the artist/producer or has been verified by the copyright owner. It glows magenta when ERCO is receiving MQA signal which is unfolded by some upstream decoder or software where the media source is initially handled. Note: For proper MQA decoding make sure your source can provide bit perfect signal to the ERCO. All digital inputs will accept MQA signal.
• Orange – PCM The LED will glow orange when any PCM data stream is detected.
• White – DSD The LED will glow white when DSD or DoP data stream is detected.
• Yellow – Analogue input The LED will glow yellow when analogue input is selected. There is no analogue signal detection so LED will glow as long as analogue input is selected.
• Flashing white – Firmware loader mode The LED will blink white when ERCO is in firmware loader mode.
• Red – Error / Fault The LED will glow red when there is some kind of firmware/software error.

The back of the unit is busier and you here from left to right will find:

• the XLR analog outputs
• the RCA outputs
• the RCA inputs
• the optical input
• the coaxial input
• the USB-C input
• the Bypass rotary switch – allows you to bypass ERCO’s internal volume potentiometer. This option is useful when you control volume at the source.
• the front LED brightness selector
• trigger (the trigger output wakes up the external device. You can use this option to wake up an external device, such as an amplifier, by turning on the ERCO. To use trigger output you have to use a 3.5 mm, 2-pole jack cable)
• both power inputs (regular/FPL)

Full Specifications

• Headphone output gain: balanced -5.8 dB, +6 dB, +17.8 dB; single ended -11.8 dB, 0 dB, +11.8 dB
• Operation: fully balanced, proprietary IC power amp
• Power inputs: 5.5/2.5 mm DC connector center positive; proprietary FPL 4-pin DC connector (FPL)
• Analog inputs: RCA (Red Book level 2V RMS recommended, PRO level supported)
• Digital inputs: USB-C (MQA, up to PCM 32-bit/768kHz, DSD512, DoP256); S/PDIF coaxial (MQA, up to PCM 24-bit/192 kHz, DoP64); S/PDIF optical (MQA, up to PCM 24-bit/96 kHz guaranteed, should work up to PCM 24-bit/192 kHz and DoP64 – depends of user’s optical cable and transmitter)
• DAC chip: ESS Sabre ES9028PRO
• PCM sample rates: 44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96 / 176.4 / 192 / 352.8 / 384 / 705.6 / 768 kHz
• DSD sample rates: 2.8224 / 3.072 / 5.6448 / 6.144 / 11.2896 / 12.288 / 22.5792 / 24.576 MHz
• DAC resolution: PCM up to 768k@32bit; DSD up to 512 (22.6 MHz / 24.6 MHz)
• MQA: decoder and renderer (USB, OPTO and COAX inputs)
• Headphone jack outputs: balanced 4.4 mm (TRRRS); unbalanced 6.35 mm (TRS)
• Line outputs: balanced XLR; unbalanced RCA (both Red book level: 4V RMS bal./2V RMS unbal.)
• Volume control: analogue with bypass option (bypass for line outputs only)
• Frequency response: 10 Hz – 30 kHz (+/- 0.05 dB); 10 Hz –  200 kHz (+/- 1 dB)
• Output power unbalanced: 300 mW into 300 Ω; 1.7 W into 50 Ω
• Output power balanced: 1.2 W into 300 Ω; 6.1 W into 50 Ω
• THD on balanced output: < 0.00018% / -115 dB, 1 mW into 16 Ω; < 0.00018% / -115 dB, 100 mW into 16 Ω
• THD on unbalanced output: < 0.00032% / -110 dB, 1 mW into 16 Ω; < 0.00057% / -105 dB, 100 mW into 16 Ω
• Dynamic range analog: 129 dB (A-weighted)
• Dynamic range digital: 117 dB (A-weighted)
• Input impedance: 47 kΩ
• Output impedance unbalanced: 22 Ω on pre-amp
• Output impedance balanced: 44 Ω on pre-amp
• Output impedance Headphones: < 0.3 Ω
• Power consumption: idle <15 W
• Power adapter: 100-240 VAC to 22-30 VDC
• Dimensions (W x D x H): 21.7 cm x 20.6 cm x 5 cm / 8.6” x 8.1” x 2.0”
• Weight: 1.8 kg / 3.97 lbs

The article continues on the third page. Click here or use the links or jumps below.

Page 1: Ferrum/HEM, ERCO 2, Novelties

Page 2: Design, Build quality, Lay-Out, Specifications

Page 3: Sound intro, Sound General, Sound output, Sound input

Page 4: Headphone Synergy, Comparison, Conclusion, Summary