advertisement


MDAC First Listen (part 00111001)

Status
Not open for further replies.
There is some good news in all of this - the top of the line design just became a lot cheaper.

Currently have a discrete DSD DAC myself (T+A DAC 8 DSD). I home demo'd the Chord DAVE against my current DAC with all audio up sampled to DSD 512 via HQPlayer. The DAVE was edged out unbelievably by the discrete DSD DAC, in depth plane, dynamic response and presence. Neck and neck in all other respects.

The catch? Need a beefy PC to upsample to DSD512 (at one of the faster i7 quads), HQPlayer on certain filters can add delays to startup times (i.e. cold start is 20s, switching rate families another 5-6s), and upgrade the USB output to something much better suited to audio tasks.

For the record I was willing to switch to the DAVE to get rid of the "hassle" of running HQPlayer and a PC... so wanted it to win.

It should be stated that the DAVE would win no problem against the T+A if HQPlayer upsampling to DSD 512 wasn't active.

Conclusion? Discrete DSD implementations can be a significant step up, especially with the right modulator.

JohnW tested HQPlayer and said he didn't like what it did to the SQ. He didn't go into much detail about which setups he tried or the DAC, but I think he tried DSD512. I agree the T+A DAC 8 DSD is excellent and there are other upsampling software options than HQPlayer which IMHO is a PIA to use although some say technically the best.
 
I've yet to come across anything quite as good as HQPlayer; Roon's own upsampling got pretty close. I have it integrated with Roon which takes some of the PITA away. You do need a very good USB connection when running DSD 512 rates though, I was astounded by the difference a dedicated USB card made. Jitter becomes much more of a problem at 22mhz+ rates.
 
Was it only better when upsampling to DSD512 or would upsample to something much more sensible like DSD64 or DSD128 also sound better?

I would expect it to also be better just playing native resolution.

Better as the rate went up. Basically the T+A is optimised for its max rates. As mentioned Roon will get pretty close to HQPlayer with its built in DSD upsampler, at a far lower system/CPU load.

It's night and day compared to playing just plain PCM (T+A uses a different circuit path + off the shelf ICs for PCM).
 
Looking forward to this...so bored with my OPPO BDP-105 Sabre DAC, clinical and bright presentation ...I’ve hardly listened to music in years now (been watching lots of movies instead)
You should try the UDP-205 or PJ S2Digital, both based on 9038 chip. They are not clinical, certainly not with the filter options offered.
 
2. There is NO active analogue output stage - essentially the DD2A discrete DAC array directly drives the output transformer for the simplest and most direct signal path (Direct Digital 2 Analog conversion)

John,

Does this mean that MDAC2 will not have an analogue volume control?
 
Tim, John mentioned provision to trim the gain with a resistor array, transformer taps and voltage steering. I'm not sure what db range that will amount to.

hey John, what sort of attenuation range will the DAC offer to those of us who don't want a pre-amp in the way?
 
I've just had a long conversation with the Detox chassie vendor, and the milled Detox chassis is still on the cards... the production engineer is just wrapping up a project and will then start work on Detox.

That is great news, John, given how the DETOX was designed out of the chute. Given that I just read a review touting an aluminum vs plastic box, I can only assume that partitioned would be even better.
 
Will the new mdac2 be Roon ready? Might be able to live without MQA, but not having Roon would be a great shame.

We already support Spotify, Tidal & Roon with our streamer solution (for both MDAC2 streamer PCB and our Ministreamer).

Rune here has been testing Roon (Have I got this right :) )
 
Tim, John mentioned provision to trim the gain with a resistor array, transformer taps and voltage steering. I'm not sure what db range that will amount to.

hey John, what sort of attenuation range will the DAC offer to those of us who don't want a pre-amp in the way?

+6dB to past -60dB with sub 1dB steps....
 
We already support Spotify, Tidal & Roon with our streamer solution (for both MDAC2 streamer PCB and our Ministreamer).

Rune here has been testing Roon (Have I got this right :) )
Yes you finally got it right :)

Yes I can confirm that the streamer supports Roon (it is the real RoonReady) and if you connect a screen to hdmi port. it will show the cover art from Roon in the UI.

Personally I will mainly use Roon, but it is convenient that you can add put in USB stick/drive when someone comes over and it will scan it for music which can be played in the Volumio UI in a browser.
 
At Munich Bruno Putzey was there with the new Mola Mola DAC (which BTW has also been several years in gestation despite them having a whole team of people and other resources). It also uses a discrete DAC. To give you some further perspective Bruno told me it will sell for 6k euros - although somebody else from Mola Mola told me 10K. I've no doubt the DD2A would cost that kind of money if it was sold commercially.
 
John
will the DD2A have an AV bypass? If so will it link to both the RCA and XLR outputs ? Given the volume control architecture you described I assume it will not control any signal coming in on the AV bypass input ?
 
John
will the DD2A have an AV bypass? If so will it link to both the RCA and XLR outputs ? Given the volume control architecture you described I assume it will not control any signal coming in on the AV bypass input ?

Ian,

AV bypass is offered as an option - RCA AV input to XLR / RCA output.

AV Bypass has no Level control, its simply passes the AV signal to the RCA / XLR outputs.
 
At Munich Bruno Putzey was there with the new Mola Mola DAC (which BTW has also been several years in gestation despite them having a whole team of people and other resources). It also uses a discrete DAC. To give you some further perspective Bruno told me it will sell for 6k euros - although somebody else from Mola Mola told me 10K. I've no doubt the DD2A would cost that kind of money if it was sold commercially.
Wow! ... I was musing whether to go for the MDAC2 or FDAC ....now I'm going to get both...:D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


advertisement


Back
Top