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Audiolab M-DAC, or other w/remote?

M

mcdj

Member
Greetings,

First post from NYC.

Can any of you M-DAC owning lads confirm that switching to the correct input on the DAC with a programmed universal remote (in a macro) would be possible/impossible? Am I correct in thinking the M-DAC does not have discrete codes? And if it does, are they learnable by infrared somehow?

Barring that, is there another similar quality, similarly priced DAC (not more expensive, and not so much less so as to make me feel it would be a step down from my current Benchmark DAC1) that I may have overlooked? Must have features are balanced outputs, 2 TOSLINK inputs, and a remote with (direct) input selection.

Cheers,

mcdj
 
Emotiva XDA1. At £349 it ticks all your boxes and gives you a wedge of change from an Audiolab.

Try to see past the MDAC hype that exists, especially on this forum. There are other solutions out there.

Incidentally, you may well find that you prefer the sound of a Benchmark DAC1 to the MDAC. I certainly did when I took mine in to compare (OK, only a short comparison and not in my system).
 
simon g said:
Emotiva XDA1. At £349 it ticks all your boxes and gives you a wedge of change from an Audiolab.

Try to see past the MDAC hype that exists, especially on this forum. There are other solutions out there.

Incidentally, you may well find that you prefer the sound of a Benchmark DAC1 to the MDAC. I certainly did when I took mine in to compare (OK, only a short comparison and not in my system).
Click to expand...

is that this one: linky? seems to be on clearance?
 
Thanks for the tip. It does tick all the boxes, at least the ones I mentioned. But the one big one I didn't mention is design. There are some ungodly looking DACs out there. The Emotiva is certainly not the worst, but definitely not the best. I'm a less is more kind of fellow. Plus it's way too big. And cursive writing on audio gear always puts me off. Reminds me of a tacky 80s disco sound system...dunno why.

Those are clearly bad reasons not to buy a DAC, but I own that. I also get a weird vibe from a small company who has a closeout sale on their only version of a given component. It says to me, "we tried making a DAC...it didn't go over so well...we're going back to what we know best."
 
simon g said:
Try to see past the MDAC hype that exists, especially on this forum. There are other solutions out there
Click to expand...

While the hype is unfortunate, it doesn't change the fact that the MDAC is exceedingly good at what it does; I have heard DACs at more or less twice the price that sound inferior.
 
mcdj said:
There are some ungodly looking DACs out there.
Click to expand...

thank goodness. someone else who evinces some sense of aesthetics! after reading this forum for a few months, i thought i was the only one who felt this. the only one that i'd really consider buying, purely on the grounds that it is something i'd be happy to have in my living room without running the risk of turning it into something resembling an early star trek bridge, is the calyx....very sexy piece of kit, shame it's so eyewateringly expensive.
 
simon g said:
Emotiva XDA1. At £349 it ticks all your boxes and gives you a wedge of change from an Audiolab.
Click to expand...

It's interesting that, on Emotiva's own forum, amongst the first postings on the wish list for Emo's new DAC product are...

  • good headphone amp
  • the ESS 9018 32 bit Sabre DAC chip
  • asynchronous USB
  • Bit/Sample Rate display
The other man's grass...

When assessing VFM, if you value async USB (and if you want to play back from a computer, you should - it really is the only way to fly) don't forget to factor in the cost of a suitable converter if considering a product that does not include this feature.

That said, there are a number of solid reasons why async USB, done right, offers vastly better use of the product budget than any other input method.
 
In response to the OP's question, I'm not aware of IR commands for discrete input selection on the MDAC (This could likely be added via a firmware update), but some remotes such as any of the ones sold under the Logitech Harmony brand will emulate this feature.

With a dumb remote (i.e. a remote which doesn't track which input is *supposed* to be active), I don't think there is a way to create a macro to emulate discrete inputs as the 'Next Input' commands cycles through the 5 inputs.
 
mcdj said:
Greetings,

First post from NYC.

Can any of you M-DAC owning lads confirm that switching to the correct input on the DAC with a programmed universal remote (in a macro) would be possible/impossible? Am I correct in thinking the M-DAC does not have discrete codes? And if it does, are they learnable by infrared somehow?

Barring that, is there another similar quality, similarly priced DAC (not more expensive, and not so much less so as to make me feel it would be a step down from my current Benchmark DAC1) that I may have overlooked? Must have features are balanced outputs, 2 TOSLINK inputs, and a remote with (direct) input selection.

Cheers,

mcdj
Click to expand...

Hi mcdj and welcome.

Not quite what you want but I have added 'MDAC Input' and 'MDAC Filters' to my Amp (Devices) on my Harmony Remote.

Then added the same to each Activity.

This allows me to manually switch Inputs (and Filters) which I prefer as I often want to watch TV/PVR but listen to USB/CD at the same time, so 'auto switching' not required.
 
Building on what finesensations has written,

With a Harmony remote, you can emulate discrete buttons for both Inputs and Filters (these can work along autoswitching if one so desires)

As with any learning remote, it is also possible to have buttons to switch to the next Input or Filter (although using emulated discrete buttons and next type buttons at the same time will create some issues).

I think it would be great if discrete IR commands were added as this would increase reliability and allow concurrent use of the buttons on the remote and on the MDAC itself, but it's not a deal breaker for me.
 
finesensations said:
Hi mcdj and welcome.

Not quite what you want but I have added 'MDAC Input' and 'MDAC Filters' to my Amp (Devices) on my Harmony Remote.

Then added the same to each Activity.

This allows me to manually switch Inputs (and Filters) which I prefer as I often want to watch TV/PVR but listen to USB/CD at the same time, so 'auto switching' not required.
Click to expand...

What I'm after is a way to seamlessly switch from one toslink input to the other when changing activities from TV to Apple TV.

I'm not sure what "emulating" discrete codes means. If there are no actual "toslink 1" and "toslink 2" codes, what is there to emulate? You can't tell the Harmony software what input to be on if the only inputs are "next" or "previous". This means cycling through them all if they ever get out of alignment, which my wife will find a way to do, resulting in a "this thing sucks" episode.
 
mcdj,
Harmony remotes can do what you want with the MDAC. i.e., they will automatically adjust the input on the MDAC to each Activity (say Toslink 1 for "Watching TV", Coax 2 for "Listening to streamed music", and possibly Toslink 1 again for "Angry Birds")

Harmony remotes keep track of the input in use (usually based on the last activity selected), and know how to get from there to the input needed for the next activity (They know how many times to send the "input next" command to get from Toslink 1 to Coax 2, for instance). Provided these IR signals are received correctly by the MDAC, and provided one doesn't change the input via other means (such as with another remote or by pressing keys on the MDAC itself), this 'emulates' discrete commands (i.e. provides the same functionality).

It worked reliably in my testing, and getting Harmony remotes to work as described is very easy, but, as you identified, there is always the risk of the remote and the MDAC getting out of alignment
 
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