Akasha
pfm Member
Warner Music
MDAC first listen (part XXII)
- Thread starter JTC
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Warner Music
Akasha
pfm Member
Far mic recordings lose detail.
I'm in for detail. Soundstage takes a far second place to me.
Michael
Far mic recordings have optimum details on a good system, natural timbre, micro details and true concert hall reverb
Far or close, It's just got to be dynamic, undistorted ( when not appropriate ) and believable, I hate when the producer ****s up with several different reverb characters
Richard Kimber
pfm Member
Yes, I agree. I have expressed regret before that most hi-fi equipment seems to be designed, tested, and evaluated using pop/folk/jazz music. If people tested with the kind of classical recording you refer to, that would be a much better test of the capabilities of whatever equipment they are evaluating.
- Richard.
jamjar784
Heavy Up
Stockfisch have Allan Taylor and Sara K in CD/SACD and Blu-ray http://www.stockfisch-records.de/pages_art/sf12_sarak_e.html "Play On Words" sounds promising on the Amazon samples, but that's on Chesky.
Oh NOOOOO - I can share mine!... Like the fact the best reasonable priced Polypropylene capacitors had been discontinued when BH components was bought out by Vishay of all people! (The Blue Polypropylene's in the earlier picture).
The Wima's used now are really a distant second best - but what to do
I have noticed some Wimas now have steel leads wonder how many other brands have been cost cutting I have tried all sorts of resisters and like the Dales my Pre's/ active filter and power amps are full of them Caddocks are also nice in critical spots.
As you wrote, beware! I own Imbal's version of Mahler's 3rd Symphony, which is part of the recordings you mention... These CDs are do have pre-emphasis, which prevents using the original MDAC firmware, unless one is careful to rip on a computer and then have fun with Sox or similar tools
JohnW
pfm member
Hi John, did you manage to get them shipped...?
WAD, Simonmo & JohanH,
Sorry really battling to get your units out - just keep hitting troubles with Simon & JohanH units (WAD, I've still not had a chance to performed final tests on your unit yet).
Still working on them - hopefully I'll be able to ship tomorrow - I'm becoming a little uneasy about these Dales - Please just bare with me a little longer
...
JohnW
pfm member
WAD, Simonmo & JohanH,
Still working on them - hopefully I'll be able to ship tomorrow - I'm becoming a little uneasy about these Dales - Please just bare with a little long
Hi John,
Speaking for myself only, you're the Doctor, and if you need more time, so be it, absolutely.
Thanks for letting me/us know.
(Can you say anything more about the issue? I'm curious, nothing more.)
Simon
Steven Toy
Accuphase newbie
They arrived at 17:55, too late to get them out today. I'll get them out tomorrow on a next day. There are various options.
JohnW
pfm member
That would be brilliant!
I've been using Jems Silver MDAC during the recent fine tuning with the resistors - and yet black MDAC's just don't sound as good - its totally crazy.. I'm pulling my haircut trying to understand what's going on.
I noticed this earlier - but thought I was imagining it!
The only difference I can see between the PCB is Jem's unit used a different brand of MELF SMT resistors in the analogue stage (His MDAC's 220R resistors are a light Brown in colour)- while the 2 black units I'm currently working on use Light Blue coloured resistors).
If its not these resistors that are effecting the SQ between the Silver & Black units - then I'm lost..
Once I can start to play with the Bulk Film resistors - this will give me an idea what if ANY effect these resistor positions have on Sound quality.
WAD, Simonmo & JohanH,
Sorry really battling to get your units out - just keep hitting troubles with Simon & JohanH units (WAD, I've still not had a chance to performed final tests on your unit yet).
Still working on them - hopefully I'll be able to ship tomorrow - I'm becoming a little uneasy about these Dales - Please just bare with me a little longer
Take your time John, my enthusiasm is down to anticipation...hope the tests work out
fusion5
on the dark side of hifi...
Oh noes, I own a black unit
On the other hand all the resistors in the audio path will be upgraded.
Steven Toy
Accuphase newbie
Hmmm..... Mine is a black unit.
JohnW
pfm member
Basically yours and JohanH MDAC's (which incidentally are both black MDAC's) don't sound as good as the unit I modified for Jem (a Silver unit).
There is some obvious component variation between the builds of the Black and Silver units (I'm guessing that silver MDAC's where built together a a batch).
I can only conclude that its these differences in components that is effecting the SQ - otherwise I'm lost. Its just a very slow and tedious process to go through each component trying to narrow down the cause - Hopefully the Bulk film resistors arrive tomorrow and I can upgrade these component position of Fusions MDAC to see the effect on SQ.. this would give me clues as to how critical the component location is...
The biggest headache is that no 2 MDAC's are 100% the same - some units have there own issues - while there are component variations between units. I was not expect such a variance...
Once I get a better handle of what's going on by working on a section of units I'll be able to develop a better picture what needs to be changed asides from the main upgrade components.
For example, will I have to upgrade the blue resistors in units that have them fitted? I just feel the pressure of everyone's units that we have sitting here - but without be able to work on a wide selection of units I'd not be able to gain the experience of what else needs to be upgraded besides the main "upgrade package" for a particular MDAC "build variant".
Sometime back, over 20K MDAC's had been manufactured - over a lifetime of a product its inevitable there will be some slight variance - an odd resistor here - an odd component there. As the designer I was able to give "Critical" components a "Q" prefix on the bill of materials (BOM) which meant they could not be substituted - however as I'm now learning even the humble resistor seems to impact the sound quality in a far bigger way then I'd could have imagined...
Its all rather frustrating...
Asphaltradler
pfm Member
If you compare the Stockfish and Chesky records, the Chesky have got the double amount of dynamics, Stockfish sounds comparatively unnatural and compressed to me. I would prefer the well-miked recording in CD-quality over not-so-good in high-bit any time. Although Stockfish is really not bad.
Very easy with a small script in foobar2000, select the folder and convert to de-emphasized in about 10sec for an album: %s --multi-threaded --add-comment "deemphasized" %d deemphAs you wrote, beware! I own Imbal's version of Mahler's 3rd Symphony, which is part of the recordings you mention... These CDs are do have pre-emphasis, which prevents using the original MDAC firmware, unless one is careful to rip on a computer and then have fun with Sox or similar tools
Very right!
Most pop listeners don't find anything wrong, though, with recordings where the drums play in a tight drum room (plate reverb with lot of early reflections), the guitar with large room acoustics and the vocals sing in a church with 20s of reverb.
Might all be ok for a special effect (I like the old Pink Floyd albums very much with much revolutionary effects gained by hard studio work with analog tapes and machines), but without any sense of "rightness" or naturalness.
This extend of manipulation is fewer with classical recordings, but lots of near cardiod-type microphones and compression destroy the feeling of a whole, united stage also.
So if you hear no depth and believable room on your system, it's more likely because of the engineer of the album, not of your hifi equipment...
I think this is especially true if listening with headphones. The Denon one-point records come really to astonishing life there, but some recordings which sound ok over loudspeakers sound much too direct then, because the listening room is missing and there's no real breath around the instruments on the recording.
Asphaltradler
pfm Member
Really top recording of a Pop group with gifted instrumentalists around singer/songwriter Lori Lieberman:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lorilieberman4
The session was recorded live by Mark Levinson with the same pair of omni mics Denon used for its recordings, AFAIK (Brüel&Kjaer). Valve mic preamp built be Levinson directly onto a 2-track Nagra recorder without any mixing. Nice album also Lot of ambiance around the musicians, piano and percussion mostly a bit farther away as one is used to, guitar, acoustic bass and vocalists right before you in your listening room. In "Women like me" Lieberman is backed by 2 more female vocalists, 1 of them Amanda McBroom, and the three are separated in space wonderful. (Only to be beaten by the "Rosenkavalier"-Finale with its 3 soprano heaven )
I've heard no better recording in "popular" genres.
I am really anxious to hear this with the L2 MDac some time, but I fear I'm far off on the list. Maybe still 40 entries before me?
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lorilieberman4
The session was recorded live by Mark Levinson with the same pair of omni mics Denon used for its recordings, AFAIK (Brüel&Kjaer). Valve mic preamp built be Levinson directly onto a 2-track Nagra recorder without any mixing. Nice album also
Lot of ambiance around the musicians, piano and percussion mostly a bit farther away as one is used to, guitar, acoustic bass and vocalists right before you in your listening room. In "Women like me" Lieberman is backed by 2 more female vocalists, 1 of them Amanda McBroom, and the three are separated in space wonderful. (Only to be beaten by the "Rosenkavalier"-Finale with its 3 soprano heaven )I've heard no better recording in "popular" genres.
I am really anxious to hear this with the L2 MDac some time, but I fear I'm far off on the list. Maybe still 40 entries before me?
JohnW
pfm member
Yes the parts are KP1832 47nF/63V... although 22nF or 33nF would be OK... the although the higher the better.
The KP1832 series was very good sounding affordable series of Polypropylene Film Foil Capacitor - oddly it seems to be becoming more popular now its been discontinued...
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Doesn't your reference L2 unit have black front panel?
Have you tried grounding the black chassis by removing some paint in a single screw hole? (just as an attempt to eliminate the difference between black and silver)
It might as well be the resistors, I'm just throwing ideas.
PS: As for me, please take your time if you wish to.
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