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MDAC First Listen (part 00111011)

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I'm only in for 50 quid for Detox so I can live with the pain. Had I put money in for DAC and VFETs I'd be royally pissed. The generous person in me hopes that John had all the best intentions at the outset but when so much money rolled in and timing went awry there was no way back.

Paying back tens of thousands of pounds would be tough. Putting something out as diy would help but maybe it's only viable for Detox, though there's less interest or importance attached to Detox.
 
killie99 said:
John's utter contempt for the people who put money in to this is staggering. He won't come on here and give updates and his promises of keeping me informed by email after he banned me from the facebook group have been almost non existent.
I have received 1 email update with some vague comments in almost a year and that was only because I emailed him asking for an update.

The man is shameless and seems to have no respect for his backers who have put 10's of thousands of £££ into his pocket.

6 years on and not one single person has received what they signed up for, it's just not acceptable and anyone who thinks it is, is living in an alternate reality.
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I’ve been periodically watching this 6 year (!) saga from the sidelines, and just find the whole thing astonishing. Has John ever offered up so much as an apology for all the delays incurred etc?
 
In the end it's turned out to be a way to subsidise his development of commercial projects. Whether it started out that way is largely irrelevant now.

Here's an idea...maybe he could get his commercial projects offered to his PFM funders at trade price.
 
sam_cat said:
I suggested to JohnW some time back that offering the products in a DIY fashion would suit quite a few of us, assembled and tested boards but no casework done.. Much like a lot of the DIY MiniDSP products etc.
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That’s what the MDAC 2 is meant to be, a replacement board and/or front panel.
 
I'm not interested in asking for any money back nor trying to sell anything on, but I would like for updates and responses to reasonable questions to take place, especially given the awkward position it puts Tony in for trying to help John operate on his forum. Taking any emotions out of the whole thing, knowing what is true would be my preference even if that means these, or some of these projects are dead. If there really is meaningful progress then, well that would be a pleasant but unexpected surprise from my perspective.
 
To pay trade prices for products while John is sitting on my 3000£ would certainly add insult to injury.

Again, I would settle for a DIY project with the boards tested and assembled by John and a refund that would cover the cost of having a professional build the VFETS.

But how on earth are we going to get John to build working prototypes of the MDAC2/FDAC/VFETs when he hasn't come up with much in way of concrete builds in the past 6 years?
 
We've had 6 years of countless changes all of which has led to broken promise after broken promise after broken promise .... ad nauseam. I don't have the time or inclination to sift through 6 years worth of posts to find out how many times we've been told it'll ship in 'x months', must be in double figures.

Rosewind, I don't know how you are so calm. I'm in for £450, if I was in for £3k I'd be on a flight to the Czech republic and banging on his door.
 
JemHayward said:
I sold my power amp to finance my VFETs and I am now on my third 'temporary' power amp! As casework seems to be the major delay factor in these projects I'd be happy to get my VFETs in an off the shelf box, with just a mains socket, XLR in and speaker out. Don't need any displays or gizmos as it will just sit on the floor behind my speakers - not even bothered by the colour! I think John has the VFET 'designed' at least in his head, so hopefully he can turn it around quickly once MDAC is completed (also starting to panic that my original MDAC wont survive until my MDAC2 appears in its salvaged case).
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Jem,

An off the shelf chassis would really easy the VFET situation, however we need to design the boards so could be translated to the full fat chassis.

The working plan is :-

MDAC1.5

MDAC2.0

VFET's

We are currently testing various PCB sections for MDAC1.5/MDAC2 (such as modulator boards etc). MDAC1.5 will be ready with 4 months, First MDAC2 boards end of the year.

To convince the metal work vendor to manufacture the front and rear panels for MDAC2 we had to design a small DAC, so there will be a affordable "commercial" discrete DAC / MQA etc (think around GBP400 pricing point) - however I expect MDAC1.5 will be shipping before as we can move faster with in house SMD etc and we 100% reuse the MDAC chassis (no new metalwork).

I suspect I'll be able to arrange a discount pricing for this commercial design for those who have sponsored the MDAC2 / FDAC etc. But really, the MDAC1.5 will be shipping before then and is a higher quality design.

PCB should arrive tomorrow for DevDAC II which will morph into the MDAC1.5 after testing / on the next PCB spin.

MDAC1.5 / MDAC2 use the same modulator options, so modulator boards for MDAC1.5 will work with MDAC2.0

Once MDAC1.5 / 2.0 are completed then we work on VFET's, once VFET's are out of the way then we look at FDAC.
 
Rosewind said:
evand: do you have money invested in this?
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No, I've just followed this thread with morbid fascination since signing up on pfm a few years back. I cannot fathom how this situation has been tolerated and allowed to run this long by those who have thrown money to the wind. To refer to it as an investment is frankly laughable, it's a donation at best.
 
I paid £500 for FDAC which I no longer require.
Does that mean that I will now lose that if it does mean that then I am paying towards someone else's equipment.
 
Coll said:
I paid £500 for FDAC which I no longer require.
Does that mean that I will now lose that if it does mean that then I am paying towards someone else's equipment.
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You can either wait for the FDAC or put the money towards the MDAC 2 - which is what I'm planning to do.
 
Coll said:
I paid £500 for FDAC which I no longer require.
Does that mean that I will now lose that if it does mean that then I am paying towards someone else's equipment.
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The number of MDAC2's (FDAC) built is limited to the number of sponsors. When the design is ready for production then you will be able to sell you sponsor ship position to a 3rd party if there is interest (I suspect there will be).
 
First of all - apologies for 'hijacking' this thread; but it seemed the most relevant - i will keep it brief:
I have a ~7 year old (from new) M-DAC (not been used that often) which has now failed with the 'no comms' message. I checked inside and the mainboard to front panel connector is ok. However, i noticed several bulging capacitors. I will borrow a scope and check the Xtal clock frequency tomorrow, but i did notice the 3v3 line seems to be around 2v5 ?!
I am a digital (comms) engineer but no expert on analogue. However, i wondered if someone on here could perhaps give me a steer please like: 'fix the caps and that would account for the problem' or for example, I have seen comments around a faulty crystal causing this problem elsewhere on google; so could it be that ?
Any help (very) gratefully received.

Many Thanks
- Charlie
 
Replace all the bulging caps, including any on the AC board which are bulging and then see how it is. This is a well documented problem.
 
chass said:
First of all - apologies for 'hijacking' this thread; but it seemed the most relevant - i will keep it brief:
I have a ~7 year old (from new) M-DAC (not been used that often) which has now failed with the 'no comms' message. I checked inside and the mainboard to front panel connector is ok. However, i noticed several bulging capacitors. I will borrow a scope and check the Xtal clock frequency tomorrow, but i did notice the 3v3 line seems to be around 2v5 ?!
I am a digital (comms) engineer but no expert on analogue. However, i wondered if someone on here could perhaps give me a steer please like: 'fix the caps and that would account for the problem' or for example, I have seen comments around a faulty crystal causing this problem elsewhere on google; so could it be that ?
Any help (very) gratefully received.

Many Thanks
- Charlie
Click to expand...

The Clock VDD should be 3.3V, so I'd first start by replacing the caps.... (the standard electrolytics) - not the silver bodied Lelon Organic caps (Todate I've never seen a bad Organic cap).
 
killie99 said:
Replace all the bulging caps, including any on the AC board which are bulging and then see how it is. This is a well documented problem.
Click to expand...
A few people have managed it but it's not an easy solder job. You need good eyesight and powerful iron. Maybe they'll chip in here .. sam_cat et al??? Or you can search this humungous thread :(
 
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