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MDAC first listen (part IV)

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adamlau

Um...What Is Going On?
Up until today, I had purposefully reserved judgement regarding the overall sound quality of the M-DAC. First impressions were admittedly poor: S/PDIF out sounded noticeably darker and somewhat veiled vs. the analog out of a Xonar ST (cryo treated w/ a single LME49720HA in the buffer). AB testing was particularly straightforward as not only do my monitors support concurrent RCA/XLR inputs, but a single ossmix command line option is able to swap between analog and S/PDIF out. Minimum Phase and Optimal Spectrum could only alleviate a definite sense of murkiness by so much. Might all the glowing M-DAC reviews here and elsewhere be wrong? Was I destined to become an M-DAC dissenter? Decided to take another look at my playback chain and discovered that I had installed the Oyaide DR-510 digital coax cable backwards, against the directional markings imprinted along the polyurethane jacket. Reoriented the cable accordingly and the sound absolutely opened up. Six days later and I am essentially hearing the M-DAC as it should sound within my confines of my system for the first time. So check those cable orientations everyone :) ...
 
Adam with all due respect the orientation of the cable wil not make any difference, you have simply got used to the sound of the new piece of equipment.
Keith.
 
That is what I had initially suspected (and still suspect to some degree) as well. Going to contact Oyaide and inquire about the purpose of directional markings along the outer jacket (else why imprint them at all)...Perhaps an issue with shield grounding?
 
So, does this mean that even though the Sonos is given a variable frequency output of plus or minus 5Hz, the MDAC is compenstating and therefore there's nothing to worry about?

That said, the Sonos sounds better than the CD Player (which only varies by 1Hz) on identical tracks when they are both going throught the MDAC, so I guess the answer's "yes".

Will you be needing any beta testers for the firmware update? ;-)

Ben

Hi Ben,

The Clock error you see with the Sonos will not effect the sound quality - its already been reported that the Sonos does "Drift" about quite alot. However the "Drifting" is at a slow rate (LF) and not in large Discrete steps - so MDAC is able to track the clock error without loosing lock.

Sonically, from past experience, slowly drifting clocks tend to narrow the sound stage (L to R).

We will release the "Beta" versions on the forum - for constructive feedback :)

John
 
John and Dominik,
I was a lucky owner of your CDQ but today I won the lottery! I managed to pick up the m-dac. This machine is absolutely amazing! Right out of the box and cold it blew my mind and the CDQ out of the water. Just to confirm everything I called my brother over who also owns the CDQ, his feelings are the same. So far I have only listened to cd’s (using the CDQ as a transport).
For those of you waiting for shipment, be patient, it will be worth every agonizing day.
John and Dominik, thank you for your hard work, commitment and dedication, but most of all thank you for sharing.
Cheers
Steve

Hi Steve,

Thank you - let the MDAC run-in it, its sound quality will open up over the next few days :)

At least the CDQ makes a decent transport :)
 
...Going to contact Oyaide and inquire about the purpose of directional markings along the outer jacket..
I really wouldn't bother!

Just content yourself with understanding that when any AC (alternating current) is transmitted down a wire, electrons spend equal amounts of time moving in one direction as the other.

Armed with this vital knowledge, it's not hard to deduce that reversing the orientation of the cable cannot, in and of itself, make any significant difference.

The markings are more to do with psychology than technology.
 
I believe the directionality of the cable is not so much directed towards a preferred signal path, but more along the lines that the shield of the DR-510 may only be earthed at one end...
 
Hi Steven,

The MDAC will drive 80ohm headphones.

I'm no expert on headphones - but making an educated guess I'd say lower impedance headphone will have a lighter coil within the motor assembly - and lower impedance results in better control of the diaphragm.

However lower impedance places greater stress upon the headphone amp.

MDAC with its CROSS class A output stage is OK driving low impedance loads - I test with 50 Ohm load - and at 50Ohms full level (2Vrms) the MDAC current limit starts to kick in - but you would never drive a 50 Ohm load to 2Vrms unless you where trying to kill your hearing....

I'd wish I could be more helpful, I'm not a headphone user...

JTC and others have comment in the past - they are your best bet :) Enjoy Singapore :)

Hi John, thanks' for your reply. I'm not really a city person but, i really enjoyed Singapore. Everything just works so well there and super clean.People are really courteous and friendly. Got my first pair of headphones after exhaustive auditioning, can't wait to test them out on the Mdac.

KR Steven.


p.s once your lab arrives and you have a minute could you see what is involved with hooking DC up to Mdac?
 
Pretty sure the answer is no, but will ask anyway.

Can you play SACD through the MDAC ?

Thanks

Hi Neil,

As Plutox has already replied the MDAC does not support native DSD (SACD), very very few DAC's can - I believe DCS Dac's can...

We do have a flagship ADC / DAC that supports both DSD and DSDx2 over USB in the works - but no timeline for its release... when its ready...

John
 
No, nor through any other DAC that only supports PCM.

The whole story is a bit complicated but, in essence, SACD transports are not permitted, by license, to offer a digital output above 48kHz.

Probably too complicated for me but

If you can use 5:1 analogue out to receiver can you use two channel analogue out to stereo preamp to listen to the stereo section?

If considered a quality source why is it designed to work with generally lower quality pre amps found in receivers and processors?

How do you hear it at its best?
 
But won't the DSD encryption prove a stumbling block as far as commercial SACD is concerned?

We are really designing it to archive Turntables and Studio Master Tapes - the "DSD" can operate at over 12MHz - plenty fast enough to decimate to future audio standards.

I've a good friend whose a well known recording artist, and needs to import his analogue Tapes while he still can (the tapes are degrading) - and needs the very highest quality ADC to capture the full resolution of the analogue tape...

I know many would claim Digital to be perfect, but listening to master tape through a highend Studio ADC/DAC cycle shows it to be anything but..

There's also a Sony PS3 crack that allows extraction of the DSD stream from SACD...
 
Hi Neil,

As Plutox has already replied the MDAC does not support native DSD (SACD), very very few DAC's can - I believe DCS Dac's can...

We do have a flagship ADC / DAC that supports both DSD and DSDx2 over USB in the works - but no timeline for its release... when its ready...

John

Lo John;

Another dac!!! I've already got two :). Don't want to have to sell the CDQ before the cross stage is out.

I assume (don't know why) that the adc/dac will be a 2013 job?

After the M-Pax and M-amp?
 
Probably too complicated for me but

If you can use 5:1 analogue out to receiver can you use two channel analogue out to stereo preamp to listen to the stereo section?

If considered a quality source why is it designed to work with generally lower quality pre amps found in receivers and processors?

How do you hear it at its best?

If I understand you would want to intergate your Hifi system into an AV system...

We have an external PSU for the MDAC that also functions as an "AV" bypass - so you can hookup the MDAC to your AV system.

You could also use a cheaper A/B switch box to achieve the same (I guess a switch box is going to cost around GBP20)...
 
...a Sony PS3 crack that allows extraction of the DSD stream from SACD...
Sadly, it seems near enough unavailable in Europe - it requires a maximum firmware version that's quite old (Sony closed off the exploit in later versions) and as most PS3s seem to have been connected to the 'net and therefore had their firmware updated more or less automatically, we're largely up the creek.

Shame, because it appears to be a really good approach to SACD ripping. If you (or anyone else) knows of the right kind of PS3 for sale, I'm interested.
 
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