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MDAC First Listen (part 00110000)

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JohnW said:
Ian,

Can you report you findings with the Calex's WRT L/R sound stage + Treble?
Click to expand...

John
If anything I would say that the soundstage is even more 3D, and no curtailment of the treble. I think the main improvement is in the reproduction of timbre. It is definitely a significant step closer towards analog.
Puzzling why you are not getting the improvement in sq.
ian
 
Yes soldering was what I did too, then bent the wings with long nose pliers. My tip is to use as little solder as possible otherwise you might not be able to push it home into the plastic connector.
 
did you try the Calexes before upgrading the smoothing capacitors?
Click to expand...

Sorry I only ever had the larger smoothing Caps in, so cannot comment.

Though Ian has only the stock Caps, I think the change is possibly not that significant.
 
I too find it puzzling why John has not noticed a vast improvement.

Immediately on connecting the 5 rail Calex I had a significant opening of the sound and sound stage across the spectrum. (I am using 5 Calexes though ??)

The most significant improvement was in the Bass though, to the extent that I don't know if I really need to add a Sub. The increase being in clarity and texture as well as quantity.

So possibilities.

John how are you providing the signal to your Subs ?
I am going to connect mine via. the digital Coax out (I have a DSP plate amp with digital input).



Can you see any problem outputting digital/analogue (XLR) simultaneously, I suspect this may be a better solution than using an XLR splitter cable or RCA and XLR together.

Have you tried disconnecting Your Subs ?
With the woofers in your ML's I suspect you would have significantly more Bass on tap than my Quads.

Amplification, both my self and Ian use Hypex N-Cores, though we have also tried the Calex PSU on Simons system with Class A amps, with only positive results.
Maybe if you are powering your Subs with the same amps as your ML's they are being pushed into overload with the added bass signal ?

Maybe try with headphones, to see if the problem is down the chain.
 
I changed the caps when I had 1 Calex and was still using the stock MDAC input, I upgraded the caps in the 2 x new Calex before running all 3. I'm not sure how much difference it made when I had the one Calex, maybe with the stock AC/DC board and loss of smoothing caps this upgrade helps more?

I'm also running ncores and my sound stage is now huge, incredible separation and all round brilliant sounding.

John have you tried measuring the Calex to see how nice the supply is coming from them? I have a scope but I haven't tried measuring them.
 
Having just fired up my new Sub, I realise that feeding it a digital signal is not the answer for two reasons.

Firstly as you change volume on the main speakers the Sub volume remains where it was. (though I can alter it from the comfort of my laptop :cool: )

Secondly you are assuming that the onboard DAC resolves the signal as well as the Mdac.

So it's back to the lab to knock up an XLR splitter cable.

During my research REL did suggest the optimal system was to supply a high level signal from the main speaker binding posts.
Might try that.
 
BigDog said:
Have been thinking about this for a while after reading literally hundreds of posts regarding the FDAC since signing on to the DETOX project...

John, having never heard the your MDAC or amp designs being a resident of the Colonies, I can only rely on the enthusiastic comments on this forum and reviews regarding the older designs and the excitement over the FDAC, etc., with regard to these new designs. Your creds are highly recognized in the UK/EU much like how I and others feel about Nelson Pass here in the States whose designs I have been using for over 30 years, for the past 25 with estats.

Running a digital-only system with a dedicated PC-based music server, an outstanding, IMHO, DAC, and a high end universal player for formats such as SACD which cannot be handled otherwise, I am wondering what would be gained by my getting on the FDAC train.

Without divulging understandably proprietary design information, can you expound a bit on what is making the FDAC such an anticipated design relative to the 100's of DACs currently on the market?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

JohnW,

Do not want to distract you from projects but a few of us would be interested in your thoughts as time permits.
 
The problem is that you are asking a question which cannot be answered.

After all will the FDAC be better/worse/ the same, as this.

http://www.iglooaudio.co.uk/weiss-m...MYbAgX_00K9qPd74NoI9Clvz83M9MsCV6caAtyI8P8HAQ

The feature set is superior on the FDAC level 3.

Yet the Weiss is 10 times the price..

A freind who owned a Weiss DAC202 said that with the recent PSU implementations and a Fusion upgrade from John the Mdac was nigh on as good.

£ 6K or £ 1.1K Your choice.
 
misterdog said:
During my research REL did suggest the optimal system was to supply a high level signal from the main speaker binding posts.
Might try that.
Click to expand...

With three wires from the Speakon plug, how do they suggest you do that?

On the built-in dac issue, JW did say in a previous post that a secondary dac for sub use only doesn't need to be on a par with the primary one: an optional plug-in for the FDAC would be 'basic'.
 
John, my angle is that I don't believe the quads super resolving of soundstage, they already lack the precision of a good pair of coned speakers in that respect.

So you may well of hit upon something lacking in the he sound. That said you need to do the cap replacement. One can't expect the small caps on the Calex to match the 4700 per rail on the mdac psu board.
 
Hi John,

Just a thought:

This MDAC Calexes PSU upgrade appears not to be as simple as anticipated and although it maybe a welcome distraction from the FDAC digital board works...perhaps it might be worth trying the FDAC HQ-PSU when you design that on the MDAC in the long run?
 
Extra rails fir the fpga, extra rails for the extra dac chip. You'd be looking at 8 rails at least. Look at the Buffalo as an example.
 
I don't think Andy has that many Calexees left..

Note I have no affiliation with the vendor, I'm just a good customer :p
 
There's more to Bass and Subs than meets the eye.

Only 2 more to go (is there a merit badge for hitting 2K posts?)
 
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