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ULTRASONE's NAOS MICRO is a €199 dual-DAC dongle with a balanced output

The only source component in ULTRASONE's five-product July premiere: two CS43131 converters, 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm outputs, PCM to 384 kHz and native DSD256, at €199.

ULTRASONE premiered the NAOS MICRO on 2 July 2026 at €199, the one source component among four headphones in its largest launch to date. It is a compact USB DAC and headphone amplifier built on two Cirrus Logic CS43131 converters, with 3.5 mm single-ended and 4.4 mm balanced outputs, PCM support to 32-bit/384 kHz and native DSD256. Shipping is stated for September 2026.

Dual CS43131 with a balanced output is a well-travelled dongle recipe, which makes €199 a notably high asking price for it: several competitors run the same converters for a third of that. Output power into a stated impedance is the figure that would justify the gap, and it was not published with the announcement.

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This is an announcement, not a verdict. Specifications come from the manufacturer and nothing here is measured until a unit reaches the rig. For tested portable amps, see Portable AMPs reviews. Back to all new releases.