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MDAC First Listen (part 00100100)

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strummer said:
I've got an MDAC in original as-bought condition.

It's a decent DAC for the money, but TBH, I've never been that impressed with it.

I recently tried a Benchmark DAC2 in my system (thanks Frank ;) ), OK I know it's 3x the price, but there was no comparison.


3 questions :

How would I go about go about having my MDAC modified & what's the cost?

Can my original MDAC be brought up to MDAC2 or is that a complete new model?

Has anyone tried a fully modified MDAC or MDAC2 against a Benchmark DAC2?



ta
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Could you be more specific in the comparison between the standard MDAC and where and how the Benchmark bettered it?
 
John, your lab is looking great! Awesome man cave!

Btw, thought I'd update you on a recent little project. Has anyone else done this? I'd be interested to hear people's experiences.

I live in a fairly small house in London so no space for separate music and TV/movie areas. So to save on speakers but keep 5.1 surround I used a speaker switch so that my front pair could be powered by my MDAC & nice power amp for music, but also my horrid little Sony AVR for TV/movie duties. Needless to say music is my main passion and money spent on either system reflects this.

Over the last year or two I've come to realise that I either dislike 5.1 setups or simply just dislike my 5.1 setup. The dialogue is just not audible to my (very ruined through years of drumming) ears. Well not without constantly changing volume between car chases and talking anyway. I bought a new centre speaker to match my L&R speakers to try and solve this, but no better. And very few TV channels on my box seem to output in true 5.1 anyway so it was seeming like a waste of effort and space bothering with it.

So some chat with the wife over xmas about living room layout and over-sized AV and HiFi cabinets prompted me to look into cutting out some boxes from the chain.

I've slimmed right down and now have the Sky and PlayStation going into the MDAC via the TVs toslink output. TV volume is quite a bit quieter than CD/Sonos/PC, perhaps 20dp, need to look into that. But once I changed the jitter settings to High Bandwidth (who designed the sky box audio out btw? It's awful!!) the sound quality was so much better. Even just watching regular TV was so much better. I can listen to progs at normal levels and hear what people are actually saying. Should have done it years ago.

Think I might looking into getting an Oppo BD player and get rid of the PlayStation and CD player too. Do they output via toslink does anyone know? Think I've only got one input left on my MDAC and its coax. Could change the Sonos over though, that'll do either.
 
shaolin said:
Pity glass is quite bad for acoustics, if I'm not mistaken.
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I suspect you are using 'loudspeakers in a box'.

Since going the ESL route as JW.
I have noticed that room reflections are much less an issue/hardly noticable.

Possibly as Dipoles, the sound evens out more. (science ?)

I have a 2,4M glass bay window behind mine with little effect.
 
Space is the Place said:
Could you be more specific in the comparison between the standard MDAC and where and how the Benchmark bettered it?
Click to expand...


I'm rubbish at describing sound. Maybe Cooky will come along & give his version.

The DAC2 was just better in every way. A lot better! When we switched back to the MDAC, it sounded dull, thin, limp, cheap..... To be fair, the DAC2 is 3x the price.
 
I'we newer had the DAC2, so on that I can not comment


BUT.. I switched the benchmark dac1 to the M-audio, and for me the same description would do it, just with the m-dac as the winner ;).
 
PhilCTTE said:
No worries ... I'm really interested in the outcome . I might pursue this
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Phil,

I've got a practically brand new Benchmark we used it for a couple of days as a reference when we where designing the Peachtree DAC's, Our US Client wanted a popular reference unit, the Benchmark was all the rave at the time... I can send it to you so that you can compare for yourself :)

Its just sitting SOMEWHERE in the Basement, I've not seen it since we shipped my items back from China.
 
Thanks John I was more curious on whether the fusion MDac was on par or better than the Benchmark2 ..been searching for comparisons which there are a few on the BM1 but can't find one on the BM2. Especially as the BM2 is £1750.
When I do decide to pay a visit I'd be interested on what you think of my Auralic Aries streamer bridge , I,ll see if I can bring it over if that's ok. Whenever that will be


Cheers and thanks for the offer
 
I had a BM1 USB and it wasn't as good as the MDAC, interestingly the first MDAC (it was one of the first units in black) didn't sound very good (in fact it was a disappointment after waiting so long) The two later units i had (both silver) were much better sounding for some reason, it was only then i could hear what everyone else was hearing!
 
Hello everyone & JohnW,

I am new here and new owner of m-dac :))) . I have been following some threads for a while but this is my first post.

I primarily send signals (Spotify or flac on my NAS) from a WIN8 laptop or iPad via wifi to a streamer called TuneBox http://www.nexum-design.com/#!product/cgsz (similar to Apple Airport Express); then via optical cable to m-dac, then to my Crimson pre-amp power-amps (610C/630C), then to my EB acoustic EB2 speakers.

I can confirm that firmware vA.10 by WestLake fixed the dropout issue. Big thank you to WestLake !!

However, in the dac only mode, I couldn’t adjust the volume from any of my playback software that means I have to adjust the volume from my pre amp.
The thing is I am not sure if m-dac locked the volume too high or my amps have too much power (175w per channel) so it's hard to adjust the volume in the very limited range (from 7 o’clock to 8 o’clock only) otherwise it's gonna be too loud.
Also I found that m-dac locked the volume but doesn’t do volume adjustment for each tracks, so there are volume variation from one track to the other.
Anyone experience these?
Is there any way to fix these issues on next firmware update?

Because of above, I can’t use dac only mode. Somehow I feel the SQ of dac only is better than the pre-amp mode. Anyone agree with me or am I thinking too much?


Another question is about Audiolab M-NET:
Anyone here using M-NET?
Is M-NET Airplay ready? Or can M-NET do the same function as TuneBox:
http://www.nexum-design.com/#!product/cgsz
basically you install a driver (or Airfoil) to your PC and the M-NET will act as a wifi sound card.

Many thanks!
TK
 
JohanH said:
A few pages back there's links to how to upgrade your existing MDAC

Cheers
Johan

PS found links with google. Seems quicker and easier than PFM search...
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Thanks Johan. Well I'm fooked if I can find it...:confused:


BTW, mine is S/N AH00 1842BLB0281. Does this indicate if mine is one of the "bad black ones"?

How do I check which Firmware it's on & how do I update it if needed?

Ta
 
djmush said:
Hello everyone & JohnW,

I am new here and new owner of m-dac :))) . I have been following some threads for a while but this is my first post.

I primarily send signals (Spotify or flac on my NAS) from a WIN8 laptop or iPad via wifi to a streamer called TuneBox http://www.nexum-design.com/#!product/cgsz (similar to Apple Airport Express); then via optical cable to m-dac, then to my Crimson pre-amp power-amps (610C/630C), then to my EB acoustic EB2 speakers.

I can confirm that firmware vA.10 by WestLake fixed the dropout issue. Big thank you to WestLake !!

However, in the dac only mode, I couldn’t adjust the volume from any of my playback software that means I have to adjust the volume from my pre amp.
Click to expand...
Welcome to pfm! :)

First of all there is no difference between preamp mode and dac mode execpt for the volume setting being fixed to 0dB. AFAIK remote controlling the MDACs volume is only possible via USB (MDAC in preamp mode & USB volume control enabled).

djmush said:
The thing is I am not sure if m-dac locked the volume too high or my amps have too much power (175w per channel) so it's hard to adjust the volume in the very limited range (from 7 o’clock to 8 o’clock only) otherwise it's gonna be too loud.
Click to expand...

Well, the MDAC has a very strong output signal, but it's within specs. There are some amps / preamps which need a little attenuation on the MDAC to work flawlessly.

Generally, it's preferable to make all volume adjustments in one place. So either the preamp (if you have one) or the MDAC.

You should also refrain from using software volume control as it will be messing around with your data (not bitperfect). But this could be the case anyway with your wifi based streaming. I'd guess many of us prefer all cable based solutions for serious HiFi listening.

djmush said:
Also I found that m-dac locked the volume but doesn’t do volume adjustment for each tracks, so there are volume variation from one track to the other.
Anyone experience these?
Is there any way to fix these issues on next firmware update?
Click to expand...

Random tracks or within one album? With random tracks this behaviour is normal as the DAC is only converting the data to the analogue domain.

djmush said:
Because of above, I can’t use dac only mode. Somehow I feel the SQ of dac only is better than the pre-amp mode. Anyone agree with me or am I thinking too much?
Click to expand...

As I've said before, dac mode is only fixing the volume setting. In theory there should be no difference. But opinions on this one differ. Have you tried connecting the MDAC directly to your power amps? Many users prefer this setup.

djmush said:
Another question is about Audiolab M-NET:
Anyone here using M-NET?
Is M-NET Airplay ready? Or can M-NET do the same function as TuneBox:
http://www.nexum-design.com/#!product/cgsz
basically you install a driver (or Airfoil) to your PC and the M-NET will act as a wifi sound card.

Many thanks!
TK
Click to expand...

Michael
 
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