When I connect my Mac Mini to my Abrahamsen V6 DAC Audirvana displays “Atoll Electronique DAC100” as the device. I can’t find my DAC in the device list. Also, in the “output Device” panel it says “Burr-Brown from TI”. I have no idea what that means.
Is there a generic selection I could use, or some device that is comparable to the Abrahamsen?
Happy for any input or advice!
Burr-Brown at the time was a DAC chip… so maybe it is your DAC you have to select… does your DAC have a Burr-Brown chip in it?
TI means Texas Instruments…
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Atoll is also a brand that makes dacs and amplifiers, but does not seem to be related to Abrahamsen. Just try both outputs (Atoll and Burr Brown). If one of them works on your dac it is the right one. Audirvana simply displays the information it gets from the connected dac(s) and MacOS. What kind of info does MacOS give in the sound settings about your Abrahamsen? If the Abrahamsen has a Burr Brown dac chip from Texas instruments in it @RunHomeSlow could be right. I could not find any info about the chip used in the Abrahamsen on the internet only that the Abrahamsen V6 seems from the year 2009 and build in small quantities by Per Abrahamsen himself. Maybe it does not follow modern USB Audio 2.0 protocol (assuming you use USB) and therefore you only see Burr Brown displayed instead of ‘Abrahamsen’. I could be wrong of course. Just (educated) guessing from my part…
Edit:
The web site of Per Abrahamsen (the former designer Electrocompaniet designer/founder) http://www.abrahamsenaudio.no seems not active anymore. Hard to find any info about this dac.
Edit 2:
Also found this (from 2022):
Electrocompaniet co-founder Per Arild Abrahamsen passed away - Alpha Audio (alpha-audio.net)
That explains the lack of information and that Abrahamsen audio does not exist anymore.
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Thanks to you both!
SOMETHING works because I get music from my speakers. My impression so far is that the sound is less brittle than when I was using the spdif from the mac.
I suspect that the Abrahamsen uses that chip and Audirvana is able to detect that. How and why Atoll comes into the picture is beyond me. Both of these are showing. On the output device panel it says Burr-Brown from IT, and if I click on the round icon I get a panel called “plays with” with a dropdown list of DACs. Atoll DAC100 is pre-selected.
As for Per Abrahamsen, yes he was one of the main guys in Electrocompaniet. That company went bankrupt years ago, so he started his own company. (Electrocompaniet was somehow brought back to life and I think they still produce high end things)
The Abrahamsen company also went bankrupt a while ago, Per went into retirement, and sadly passed away. He left quite a legacy.
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Perhaps try both possible selections, does one show different settings available?
Very interesting backstory on the brand, where did you purchase/obtain such a maybe rare item? I’m hoping that it will give you some great results 
Nice looking piece of gear
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Hi @Earfull,
This comes down to the USB PID/VID of your device. Since it has the same one as some devices from Atoll, you end up having the certification popup from Atoll. I knew this might come up at some point and we need to discuss what we can do about it on our end.
OffRode, I’m currently based in Scandinavia. Used Abrahamsen gear turns up from time to time. I almost bought a V2 integrated amp, yet backed off when I heard that the company had ‘died’. That amp gained very good reviews in the time it existed.
Abrahamsen had an interesting service: for a fee they would upgrade their own gear with improved components and in one case even an improved display, AND also upgrade older Electrocompaniet gear. On their own gear they would attach a brass sign with UP as proof of the change. Great pity that the company is gone.
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Antoine, now I understand. The Atoll is simply based on what Audirvana ‘reads’ from the DAC, not a setting that adjusts anything. So I am content, I don’t need to do anything.