MDAC First Listen (part 00111000)

Well regarded ..I wonder what tops this currently, as times moved on .
Perhaps the PS Audio?
My question is how are we going to measure ?
Perhaps a retailer on PFM would be so kind for a loan. If the opportunity arises to compare a mdac2 prototype.
Haven’t seen Mark (Item Audio) on this forum for a long time.

 

Hi John,
that Pro-ject little dac (well, the three of them) look terrific
Just wondering...would the clock-lock feature of Detox also work with that one?
I may consider one of those for my office to use as a headphone amp.

 

So it now looks like the only remaining original parts are the sleeve and the remote therefore will there be an option to trade in our original units and receive a discount ?

 

I have no direct experience of such things, but given the cost and possible drawbacks of a metal case, I have wondered whether a 3-D printer could produce something suitable. Not that JohnW needs to house and fund yet another machine.....

 

You are already getting a big discount compared to what the MDAC2 would cost in retail.

So I find it a bit cheeky to ask for further discount.

And I doubt the old PCB has any value at all.

 

3d printing is still very limited in what materials it can use and speed..
I have multiple lasers and cnc machines at my factory and have investigated 3d printing as an alternative .. no go right now..maybe in 5 or 10 years...

 

Agreed.

 

Sadly the little Pro-Ject DAC's do not support Detox Clock-Lock, there roots are from our own internal MDAC2 "Xmos" Firmware development platform which was never intended to offer such "advanced" features.

 

Ok, no biggie, just wondering ;-)

 

Oh,and there's no rear panel space for an optical output

 

I notice in your "Foot header" I notice you have Roon / Tidal - what does Rune offer? I can find no "Rune" AP.

The Streamer solution will offer Roon, Tidal, Spotify connect, DLNA & Bluetooth as an option. Also "unofficial" airplay is available as a plug-in on Volmuio but I have no idea how well this works.

Jarek and I keep asking each other what Roon brings to the table (We genuinely don't know as we have never used it).

 

It's ROON .. and it is one of the best front ends there is .. the user interface is amazing ..
https://roonlabs.com/

 

John, have a look here. Roon are an off-shoot of Meridian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrRfhWcLoqA&t=26s

I don't have Roon as I can't justify the cost. Even Tidal admit it has features better than Tidal and are trying to emulate it's embedded links.

These embedded links are what really distinguish it over other music players/streamers...these go deep with Roon and don't seem to slow the program down on most computers (it's got some good/fast/efficient search code or database architecture). Apparently even engineers and session player on a piece of music are cross linked so you can find everything that they have worked on. Band members and related artists, labels, etc.etc. links goes without saying.

 

John, would the streamer also support the squeezebox protocol, which is quite common, powerful (support for a broad range of format and ability to add new ones, gapless playback, bit perfect ), and with support from an active community (useful, for instance, when the BBC changed its streaming technology)?

 

It is technically possible to support squeezebox. Squeezelight work on the CM3.

Not sure what the Volumio guys are planning, but they seem to be quite flexible and listening to their users.

But there is no reason to press the issue right now. That is a topic when we got the MDAC2 in our hands and the first release of the software.

Personally I want have RoonBridge install which is a streaming client just like Squeezelite. This should also not be a issue because this will also work on the CM3.
So I am sure we will get there when the time is right

 

Others have ported SBT to the RPi so it should be relatively simple to add to the CM3 (RPi3) based MDAC2 streamer.

The User controls of the MDAC2+ (MDAC2 with upgraded front panel) are on a separate touch panel and interfaced directly to the MDAC2 MCU so will operate independent of what software is installed on the CM3 - however we rely on the UI on the display panel to indicate volume level and input source etc. so there will need to be a simply UI addition to any SBT software port to indicate the MDAC2+ "front panel interface".

 

Unfortunately for those of us who listen to a lot of classical music, Roon's supposed ability to provide enriched and accurate metadata (and hence searching capacity) doesn't actually work.

 

Yes that is a good introduction to how UI works, but since this was recorded the Roon team has added more functionality and that makes the software even better value.

• Upsample to DSD512 / PCM 768Khz
• DSP functions Parametric EQ, Crossfeed
• Roon Optimized Core Kit (ROCK) which is a OS that makes it easy to turn a NUC into a Music Server which does all the heavy lifting like LMS

All processing is done on the Server the RoonBridge is only receiving DCP, DoP and Native DSD and are therefore very light weight on the CPU.

The great thing about Roon is that it lets the DIY people build the same things for free that the commercial brands build into their products.
RoonReady≍RoonBridge and ROCK≍expensive hifi branded server

 

When did you last check this? They have recently made improvements and will continue in the future. They really do listen and are very active on their forum.

Luckily I do not listen to a lot of classical.

Nothings perfect but Roon is close maybe not for classical but that not my thing anyway.

 

John,
There is actually a solution called RuneAudio it is very similar to Volumio and is also MPD based.

I know you meant Roon when you said Rune, but I simply could not get myself to correct you because I enjoyed the name dropping to much