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At last... (Audiolab) - part VII

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Sergiox,

I don’t really compare my designs to other DAC's - rather to Live Music. With my "other hat" I work with musicians and we have recently design a range of Bass Guitar amps - Picture a musician sitting on a Bass Cabinet playing a guitar while we tune the circuits...

I spend as much time with musicians, turntables!!! - not other DAC's...

I get to hear "other DAC's" at dealers, customers and reviewers....

John
 
finesensations said:
The DacMagic is also connect to my amp (aux) via the balanced XLR outputs so can IMO also provide a convenient way of comparing the two DACs if required.
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Ok - that's the bit of information I was missing

finesensations said:
When I saw the 'digital outputs' on the diagram of the back of the MDAC I thought this might provide a similar facility.

JohnW pointed out that 'The MDAC will De-jitter the SPDIF feed to the DAC1' via this output so I was trying to clarify if this makes it unsuitable for my intended use.
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Theoretically the opposite - in theory it assists your intended use because it should provide a predictably low jitter input to the Benchmark... but you'd only find out in practice by trying

finesensations said:
Things have now moved on as one of my reasons for considering the MDAC was the remote control but, if I have read the User Manual correctly, it would be of limited use to me.
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It will remote control the the routing of input to spdif output if that's what you mean

finesensations said:
Other than the information display (I do have a weakness for OLED displays and find them hard to resist) I would need to be confident that the MDAC sounds noticeably different, in a good way, to the Benchmark, before even considering it as a worthwhile upgrade.

I look forward to hearing the comments and views of owners/users as the MDAC becomes more widely available over the next few weeks.
Click to expand...
I forgot to say in my previous post that I spent some time listening to an 8200CD at the Hifi Wigwam show this year - definitely one of my preferred systems of the day. So on the basis that comments so far about the MDAC being a noticeable/further improvement are right....

My desire is still for a 'QDAC-equivalent' but I can see the MDAC worming its way into my system - other purchases first though.
 
Gefilus said:
Hi Chris,

My objective in sound reproduction is the same as yours and have to say I've made very similar discoveries. Have been listening the Buffalo, was about to obtain the W4S but then found out about a very ambitious product, the MDAC.

I actually purchased another Sabre based product recently, OPPO BDP-95EU (helps a bit while waiting for the MDAC :). Very nice player for my surround environment, feeding active speakers in 4.0 configuration from it.
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Not aware of that one. Looks interesting
 
ChrisPa said:
Ok - that's the bit of information I was missing

Theoretically the opposite - in theory it assists your intended use because it should provide a predictably low jitter input to the Benchmark... but you'd only find out in practice by trying

It will remote control the the routing of input to spdif output if that's what you mean

I forgot to say in my previous post that I spent some time listening to an 8200CD at the Hifi Wigwam show this year - definitely one of my preferred systems of the day. So on the basis that comments so far about the MDAC being a noticeable/further improvement are right....

My desire is still for a 'QDAC-equivalent' but I can see the MDAC worming its way into my system - other purchases first though.
Click to expand...

Hi Chris

Thanks for your reply.

I believe we now understand a bit more about what we were both trying to say.

When I said 'I would need to be confident that the MDAC sounds noticeably different, in a good way, to the Benchmark, before even considering it as a worthwhile upgrade.' I was thinking of when the upgraded PSU unit is made available, estimated to be January.

That would bring the total cost of the MDAC (plus upgraded PSU) to approx. £900 and therefore, IMO, it would not be unreasonable to compare it to the DAC1 USB, and other DACs, available at a similar cost.

Time will tell.
 
Having followed this tread for about 9 months and never posted. I recently bought an OLED CDQ. It has transformed my system and all I would like to say is "Thanks JW."
 
10Rick said:
Having followed this tread for about 9 months and never posted. I recently bought an OLED CDQ. It has transformed my system and all I would like to say is "Thanks JW."
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Welcome :) and Thank you :)

Let your unit run-in, it will improve rapidly within the first 24 hours - and do try the different filters...

John
 
Apologies if this has been asked already, but are all the 8200CDQ in the (UK) shops all of the latest spec with the OLED display and new transformer?

Thanks
 
On the MDAC can you cross connect one of the SPDIF inputs in the same way as the USB input to one of the SPDIF outputs?

Had a read of the manual - couldn't tell for sure.
 
Just wondering if anyone is using one of these directly into a power amp and using analogue sources through it.

If so, what are your thoughts?
 
rtrt said:
On the MDAC can you cross connect one of the SPDIF inputs in the same way as the USB input to one of the SPDIF outputs?

Had a read of the manual - couldn't tell for sure.
Click to expand...

rtrt,

Yes, the MDAC will De-Jitter the inputs - so the Digital outputs are a "De-Jittered" pass-thou of the selected Digital input.

Note - if the D3E (Digital Domain Decorrelation Engine) is enabled (Full or partial suppression) then this will also process the SPDIF outputs.

John
 
pcavelle said:
Apologies if this has been asked already, but are all the 8200CDQ in the (UK) shops all of the latest spec with the OLED display and new transformer?

Thanks
Click to expand...

OLED stock is in the UK - but expect dealers to sell though the ealier units first.
 
John,
My brother has one of the very early 8200CD's (you updated it at the Bristol show earlier this year) and unfortunately one of his optical ports has fallen apart (the clip/door/spring bit failed when unplugging an optical cable at the weekend).. Cable doesnt stay in nicely anymore.
He has been quoted 3-4 weeks for it to be repaired (has to be sent away by Audio-T in Bristol) so I was wondering if its worth him waiting for the OLED/Cross stage upgrades to be available and get the whole job done at the same time.

So my question is, what is the ETA for these upgrade kits to be available? Will they apply to the 8200CQ? And do you have a rough idea of the cost (not a quote, just a guesstimate)?

Many thanks,
Sam
 
sam_cat said:
John,
My brother has one of the very early 8200CD's (you updated it at the Bristol show earlier this year) and unfortunately one of his optical ports has fallen apart (the clip/door/spring bit failed when unplugging an optical cable at the weekend).. Cable doesnt stay in nicely anymore.
He has been quoted 3-4 weeks for it to be repaired (has to be sent away by Audio-T in Bristol) so I was wondering if its worth him waiting for the OLED/Cross stage upgrades to be available and get the whole job done at the same time.

So my question is, what is the ETA for these upgrade kits to be available? Will they apply to the 8200CQ? And do you have a rough idea of the cost (not a quote, just a guesstimate)?

Many thanks,
Sam
Click to expand...

Hi Sam,

The current "OLED" update only updates the display, Transformer and latest software.

The "CROSS" update will add all the extra features of MDAC + 192 KHz USB.

This may be an "unofficial" update offered by us.

We are not sure as how far this update will go, we would like to offer the larger MDAC OLED display - which would require a new front panel.... If we do tool up for a new front panel, then we will rearrange the unit to have a "proper" volume knob. (This would apply to both CD & CDQ)

Anyway, target price is GBP350

We will start work on this project, once we have completed the HQ PSU for MDAC, and a matching Amp.

John
 
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