BorderPatrol
Amplifiers
DACs
Speakers
Best Known For
DACs
/
Used Products
2
 Available
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Brand Popularity
242
 of 900+
Products Listed
16
Review Count
33
Founding Year
1993
Headquarters
United States
BorderPatrol
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What's unique about the brand

BorderPatrol is a small American maker of DACs and tube amplifiers, designed and built by Gary Dews in Bristow, Virginia. The DACs use a vintage Philips TDA1543 ladder chip with no oversampling, upsampling or digital filter, and both the DACs and the amplifiers use choke-input power supplies with tube rectification, which the company considers central to its sound. The S20 amplifier couples its stages with interstage transformers. Each DAC is built and tested by Dews himself, and the SE DAC comes in a copper chassis.

Brand overview

Roy Gregory of The Audio Beat compared what BorderPatrol does to the 300B tube to a diet-food ad in which a decathlete steps out of a fat suit. The 300B has a reputation for a rosy sound with soft bass, and Gary Dews blames the usual circuit around the tube more than the tube itself. His focus is the power supply, the part that feeds the amplifier its current. Dews told Part-Time Audiophile that the usual kind of supply sags when a big peak or heavy bass note calls for current, which you hear as early compression and loose bass. BorderPatrol puts a large choke, a heavy coil, at the front of the supply to hold it steady, and builds the supplies in separate boxes. Mark Blackmore heard the little SE300B drive vintage Altec Valencias with bass "clear and forceful," and Michael Lavorgna of Twittering Machines found that the S20EXD "does power, control, scale, and dynamics." BorderPatrol suits listeners who love triode tone and want bass with grip.

The DAC is the usual way in. It uses an old Philips resistor-ladder chip with no oversampling and no digital filter, and it shares the amps' choke-input power supply. A lit button on the front switches its rectifier tube in or out. Dave McNair, a mastering engineer, bought one for himself and liked its midrange a little more than that of his Prism Sound converter, and The Audio Beatnik did all its listening with the tube in. Among the amplifiers, Gregory points lovers of tonal color to the S20 and owners of very efficient speakers to the S10. These are low-power tube amps, so the speakers matter most. Gregory says anything above 90dB sensitivity will work, and for the S20, BorderPatrol recommends speakers that stay above 4 ohms. Each amp comes in a standard or EXD version, and each level upgrades to the next, so you can start simple and add to it later.

Dews was a pharmaceutical research chemist in England when he ran into Guy Sergeant, who managed the retail side of Audio Innovations, a Brighton tube amp maker, and he soon left the lab to sell hifi. Sergeant came back from a trip to Denmark convinced that the power supply mattered most. Dews and his friend Kevin Scott, later of Living Voice, then bought an old tube-regulated Solartron supply and heard what it did for an Audio Innovations amp. In 1993 Scott asked him for something better to drive his new Living Voice speakers at a London hifi show, and the result was the first BorderPatrol amp, a single-ended 300B with a choke-input supply. The name was something of a joke, with the main requirement that it leave out the word audio. Dews moved to the United States in 2005 and builds everything in Bristow, Virginia. Gregory chose the P21 for his speaker setup seminars at RMAF, and Scot Hull of Part-Time Audiophile calls BorderPatrol "a keystone in my personal reference system."

Sources

https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/borderpatrol_p20_exd_exs.htm, https://pt.audio/2012/11/23/on-the-road-a-visit-to-borderpatrol, https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/borderpatrol_se300b.htm, https://twitteringmachines.com/review-borderpatrol-s20exd-parallel-single-ended-amplifier/#:~:text=The%20S20EXD%20proved%20to%20be,effortless%20control%2C%20and%20the%20ability, https://pt.audio/2020/08/08/borderpatrol-se-i-dac-review, https://theaudiobeatnik.com/borderpatrol-dac-se-usb-spdif-review-something-special-for-digital-audio-playback, https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2019/04/13/30-years-with-border-patrol-axpona-2019/, https://www.borderpatrol.net/about/

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

Not sure about technological innovations, as my products unashamedly use old-school tech (valves and R-2R DAC chips), but strong opinions would be:

  1. I prefer electronics that have minimal signal processing, i.e., DACs without oversampling and digital reconstruction filters, and amplifiers that do not use negative feedback.
  2. I believe that power supply quality is very, very important and can often define the product’s sound.

What's your approach to customer support?

Direct contact with me. Fast reply, advice on how to get the best from my products or solve technical issues. Quick turnaround with updates on progress of any repair or service issues. I have been in the audio industry for over 35 years as a dealer, manufacturer, designer, service engineer, and just about everything else. Clients get the benefit of that experience when they buy from me.

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

This one is hard, as it changes a lot and I listen to lots of different things:

  • Wagon Wheels – Sonny Rollins, Way Out West
  • Five Feet Tall – Lady Blackbird, Black Acid Soul
  • Symphonic Dances – Rachmaninov, Eiji Oue, Minnesota Orchestra

What other products pair best with yours?

Living Voice Loudspeakers

From Julian's interview with
Gary
.

Products overview

Every BorderPatrol amplifier uses interstage transformers and no negative feedback, and the maker's DACs and amplifiers share choke-input supplies with tube rectification. The SE300B is the entry with one 300B per channel. The S20EXD uses two 300B tubes per channel for 18W, so it drives speakers above 90dB/watt. The P20 is the top, with push-pull 20W for speakers down to 87dB/watt. The DAC SE-i models differ by input, and Living Voice speakers rise from the Auditorium R25A to the R80 series, reaching down to 25Hz.

  • Start here. If you want a first tube-rectified DAC for a computer source in a small system, the DAC SE-i USB covers that.
  • Sweet spot. The S20EXD gives owners of efficient speakers 18 watts of Class A power, a copper chassis and twin external supplies, which the SE300B does not offer at its price.
  • All in. The P20 is priced well above the S20EXD, and it is for owners who want the most power in the range, so demanding speakers down to 87dB/watt get more headroom and control.
Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi Writer

Product list

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What reviewers are saying

We read all the reviews, and here's what stands out:

  • Border Patrol amplifiers utilize tube rectification and choke input filtering in their power supplies, a design choice they consider critical to their sound and not commonly found in other amplifiers.
  • Border Patrol's DACs use vintage R2R DAC chips like the Philips TDA1543, intentionally avoiding oversampling, upsampling, and digital filtering to achieve a more natural sound.
  • Border Patrol products emphasize their hybrid tube/solid-state design to blend strengths of both technologies.

Quotes we liked:

  • "And the BorderPatrol S20EXD lit up the O/96 with a very special magic, the kind of music reproduction that transcends sounds and notions of sound quality and goes right to the heart of the music. I've been listening to LEYA a lot of late for its escapist sonic dream-state and this system, Grimm>totaldac>BorderPatrol>DeVore created a billowing energy-rich cloud of living sound in Barn that offered some of the most convincing reproduction of people making music in my space as I've had the pleasure of soaking in in Barn." (https://twitteringmachines.com/review-borderpatrol-s20exd-parallel-single-ended-amplifier/#:~:text=The%20S20EXD%20proved%20to%20be,effortless%20control%2C%20and%20the%20ability)
  • "The S20 has the uncanny, and uncommon in my experience, ability to sound at once completely natural, effortless, and graceful while creating life-like physical forms in space that are richly textured, fully voiced, and beguiling in their immediacy without even a whisper of force. It's kind of like falling into a cloud that turns out to be the ground." (https://twitteringmachines.com/review-borderpatrol-s20exd-parallel-single-ended-amplifier/#:~:text=The%20S20EXD%20proved%20to%20be,effortless%20control%2C%20and%20the%20ability)
  • "This little BorderPatrol DAC is a stunning success when it comes to achieving the design goals of sounding natural, sweet, open and organic. If you quit listening critically and just enjoy the performance, I think like me, you will discover that this DAC allows for a degree of emotional involvement that you just don't get from even some of the most expensive digital devices." (https://theaudiobeatnik.com/borderpatrol-dac-se-usb-spdif-review-something-special-for-digital-audio-playback)
  • "With an exuberant, opulant midrange response and silky high end, this DAC will give the music lover some of the finest reproduction qualities that you may ever experienc in a Digital to Analog converter. There is no doubt that after living with the SE-1 for a few months, it is hard to switch back to some other DACs that one may have sitting in the dugout." (https://www.thesoundadvocate.com/2022/07/borderpatrol-se-i-dac-fully-assessed)
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Used

BorderPatrol

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$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
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Brand Popularity
231
 of 900+
Headquarters
United States

About the brand

Playback Designs is an American maker of high-end digital playback equipment, founded by engineer Andreas Koch. Koch worked on the Sonoma workstation and on SACD standardization. Every current converter in the catalog plays DSD up to 11.2MHz. The DACs run the company's own algorithms on FPGA chips, and owners can install firmware updates themselves. Components connect through PLink, a proprietary optical link that keeps them galvanically isolated. The Dream DAC/PreAmp MPD-8AI also takes analog sources without converting them to digital, so it can serve as the preamplifier for a whole system.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

We do not use any standard DAC chip solution from the open market, but rather developed our own proprietary conversion algorithms and programmed them into general FPGA processors that are field upgradeable. In other words, every improvement or change in algorithms can be downloaded from our website and loaded into our products, all by the end user. More details are here.

For one of the most critical components in any DAC we, again, are not using any standard technology, but rather developed a very unique and proprietary algorithm that takes into account the very sensitive properties of our human hearing system and they way it perceives clock jitter. More details here.

When we were part of the DSD creation team at Sony we were tasked with a very challenging project: the definition of a high speed digital communication protocol that would support any PCM and DSD format (i.e. sample rate). This link should be able to transmit any audio data from any source to a DAC. The solution I came up with is based on a high speed fiber optic data link as it is used in super high speed data links where secure data recovery at the receiver is crucial. While the speed of transmitting audio data is well and way below the capability of such fiber optic links I still chose this physical link because of its superb data and clock integrity / stability. In addition the fiber optic media provides a galvanic separation between digital source and core DAC circuitry. This alone already results in an audible improvement. All our products support this link and we call it PLINK. We use it to connect external transports, servers or USB interfaces to our DACs.

What's your approach to customer support?

We see customer support as an opportunity to show to the customer who we are and how much we care. Usually, I answer all inquiries and customer support requests personally, within 24 hours and with as much technical info as possible. While some of our dealers possess good technical know-how and are able to interact with customers on that level directly, other distributors do not provide any technical support. Either way we encourage customers to contact us directly for any help.

I often get feedback from customers that this kind of direct and expert support ultimately convinced them to buy our products. So obviously the way we do it is not standard in our industry.

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

There are many excellent recordings that can demonstrate the behavior of our of DACs, but it is mostly a function of the listener's taste in music. For instance, people who do not like classical music do not hear its finesses when played on our equipment etc. For my own personal taste I often use any DSD re-mastered track of Pink Floyd or Roger Waters. This is also because most of these tracks were mastered using my designs and with that they show off specifically the "analog-like" behavior during transients of our DACs and the resulting 3-dimensionality of the sound stage.

What other products pair best with yours?

As a digital "pure-bread" listener I do not use analog sources myself and only our own electronic designs (including amplification) for playback paired with a variety of different loudspeakers from mid-size to professional near-field monitors. The latter are usually more revealing and neutral than most consumer or audiophile speakers, but are only suitable in small studio environments. Over the years I have been working closely with brands such as Hafler (professional speakers), Evolution Acoustics, Stenheim and many speaker manufacturers.

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
DACs
/
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
3
 Available
Brand Popularity
385
 of 900+
Headquarters
United States

About the brand

Berkeley Audio Design is an American maker of DACs and USB interfaces, founded by alumni of Pacific Microsonics, developer of the HDCD process and the Model One and Model Two professional converters. The founders set out to bring the fidelity of Model Two master recordings into the home, and every product is designed and made in California. The Alpha DAC Series 3 can connect directly to a power amplifier, and the Alpha DAC Reference Series 3 is the flagship. The Alpha USB interfaces are designed to isolate noise and reclock computer audio.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
DACs
/
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
9
 Available
Brand Popularity
311
 of 900+
Headquarters
Greece

About the brand

Ideon Audio is a Greek maker of DACs and streamers, with Vassilis Tounas as chief designer. Every product is an in-house design built without off-the-shelf modules, and its electronics use fully linear internal supplies, with dedicated lines feeding the critical parts of the circuit. The company's 3R technology re-clocks, re-energizes and re-drives the USB signal aimed at reducing jitter, and Ideon also sells it in standalone USB accessories. The Ayazi mk2 is the entry DAC, and the Absolute DAC ε meta and Absolute Stream meta belong to the flagship Absolute Suite.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

We love and pursue purity. That’s why our analog output doesn’t choke dynamics with multiple stages, it lets them breathe, preserving the extraordinary SNR of our DAC engine without introducing artifacts or limitations. We’ve developed our own proprietary parallelized DAC conversion engine, complete with over 4,000 lines of custom firmware. Why? To meet our standards for emotional realism. We wrote our own rules—and our own code—to bridge the gap between technical performance and musical truth.

That’s what sets us apart: every circuit, every line of code, every concept is ours.

From our advanced re-clocking systems to our zero-noise rectification bridges—everything is conceived, designed, and executed in-house.

Even our power supply architecture is proprietary: parallelized, ultra-low-noise designs, paired with custom active bridges that eliminate diode-generated noise at rectification.

This isn’t tweaking - this is redefining what’s possible in digital playback. Timing correction is applied at both ends - input and output - with our sequential re-clocking and re-driving architecture. Each device is equipped with multiple femto-level clocks, operating in cascading stages, ensuring absolute signal phase integrity and vanishingly low jitter.

This is a fully upgradeable platform - because we’re always thinking ahead. All of this adds up to something more than specs, more than numbers. It results in sound with unimaginable resolution, breathtaking dynamics, and a texture that’s almost tactile. Whether through USB or SPDIF, our re-clocking and re-driving platforms deliver a musical experience that isn’t just accurate, it’s alive. Music deserves nothing less.

USB Input​

More than 90% of DACs today use the same two generic USB chipsets. We don’t. Instead, we created our own proprietary USB input architecture, hardware and firmware designed together, paired with top-class femto-level clocks. It’s called the Ideon Triple Distillation USB input - a three-stage circuit that eradicates digital noise before the signal even reaches the DAC chip. What reaches the conversion stage is unflavored, untainted, and utterly transparent. A clean slate - ready to be reborn as music. This is our declaration of war on both linear and non-linear distortion. We simply eliminate noise.

Analog Stage​

We take a similarly radical approach: one single stage. No coupling capacitors in the signal path. No power FETs or multiple output stages to artificially inflate current or “enhance” dynamics, because we found a better way. Our ultra-low-noise, symmetrical power supplies feed a uniquely designed topology that maintains signal integrity at an unmatched level. The result? Explosive dynamics, natural textures, intense detail—yet nothing is forced, nothing hyped. It just sounds real.

What's your approach to customer support?

Our approach to customer support is structured, customer centric, yet highly responsive. The first level of support is handled by our distributors in each country where we are represented. For territories without a local distributor, customers can contact our technical team directly. In fact, many customers reach out to us even when a distributor is present, especially for specific technical questions. We maintain a dedicated support email and pride ourselves on responding quickly and effectively to every inquiry. Customer satisfaction is at the core of everything we do. We’ve consistently been praised by both customers and partners for our fast, reliable, after-sales support. Whatever the issue, our goal is to resolve it swiftly and professionally. Additionally, all Ideon Audio products are designed with a modular architecture. This means servicing is straightforward and quick, as individual modules can be easily replaced when needed. This way we minimize downtime, ensuring continued performance. We are committed to making sure every customer is satisfied. In fact, we aim for, and maintain a zero unhappy customer record.

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

  • Sway, Diana Krall
  • Jacques Loussier Erik Satie Gnossienne No. 4
  • Daft Punk, the Game of Love
  • And many others

What other products pair best with yours?

This list is big, as we try to listen to synergies with many different products from a lot of brands. To name a few: Wilson, Estellon, JMF, Elac, Gamut, VTL, Aesthetix, etc.

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
DACs
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Class: Tube
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
11
 Available
Brand Popularity
356
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Headquarters
Poland

About the brand

Lampizator is a Polish DAC maker, founded in 2010 by Lukasz Fikus, whose nickname gave the company its name, a mix of lampa, the Polish word for a vacuum tube, and the Terminator. Every DAC is tube-based and built by hand to order, and most are designed for tube rolling, so owners change the sound by swapping tube types. The higher models use directly heated triodes, which are notoriously hard to implement. The sound is described as organic and three-dimensional, and owners of older Golden series models can trade them in at full original price.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
DACs
/
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
10
 Available
Brand Popularity
143
 of 900+
Headquarters
Netherlands

About the brand

Mola Mola is a Dutch maker of amplifiers, DACs and phono stages that analyzes every sub-circuit mathematically and looks for ways to eliminate every error term before listening for coloration. The Tambaqui DAC uses no off-the-shelf DAC chip. It upsamples to 3.125MHz at 32 bits and converts to noise-shaped PWM using discrete components. The Perca and Kaluga power amplifiers are Class D designs, and the products share a wave-shaped aluminum chassis. The Kula suits owners who want one box, with the Makua's line stage and the Tambaqui DAC built in.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
Known For
DACs
/
Average Price
$10,001-$20,000
Used Products
0
 Available
Brand Popularity
432
 of 900+
Headquarters
Italy

About the brand

CanEVER Audio is an Italian maker of DACs, preamplifiers and amplifiers, founded in 2013. Founder Mario Canever trained as a digital electronics engineer. The ZeroUno family comes in several DAC and preamplifier versions built on three output stages: solid state, pure triode, or a hybrid of triodes and FETs. Many designs keep capacitors out of the signal path. The ZeroUno DAC SE has a tube output stage, and the ZeroUno HPA adds balanced and unbalanced headphone outputs to a Class A solid-state stage, so it drives headphones directly. The LaScala is a dual-mono hybrid amplifier.

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page

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