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MDAC First Listen (part 00111001)

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As we hurtle our way through the year I felt like perhaps it’s worth asking what the ballpark estimates are feeling like for delivering MDAC2 and FDAC?
 
Sibbers said:
As we hurtle our way through the year I felt like perhaps it’s worth asking what the ballpark estimates are feeling like for delivering MDAC2 and FDAC?
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Absolutely no chance of the FDAC this year. I'm going to cut my losses and switch from the FDAC to the MDAC - better to have something (perhaps) than nothing.
 
Sibbers said:
As we hurtle our way through the year I felt like perhaps it’s worth asking what the ballpark estimates are feeling like for delivering MDAC2 and FDAC?
Click to expand...

On Friday I received the following Email WRT the custom components at the heart of the MDAC2 / FDAC design:-

"Unfortunately we had a problem with the components on test and are having to remake, we hope to send them by the end of next week. Sorry about that, we have a pretty complicated design to make and we appear to have misinterpreted it, so need to start again."

I was hoping to be able to show them at Munich, but its now looking less likely

The Universal chassis for the DevDAC / MDAC2 is moving forward... (the Universal chassis is to be offered to those without a salvaged MDAC).

The MDAC2 PCB will also be at the heart if the FDAC. The FDAC will feature an internal PSU and ADC* / some form of DSP board (this might be an optimized MiniDSP solution, where we buy an "off the shelf" MiniDSP box and transfer the DSP solution onto our PCB's). The DSP section would then work with the MiniDSP software - but optimized to our DAC hardware.

*The ADC PCB can also be installed in the MDAC2 Universal DAC chassis.

The currant path is DevDAC with Universal Chassis and MDAC2 Streamer board - the DevDAC can then be updated to the MDAC2 DAC section once its available.

The DevDAC will be available in Beta units in the next 45 days - dependent on the Chassis.
 
I like the idea of the Universal Chassis as this means I can keep my original MDAC and use it elsewhere. Now, I'm thinking whether this Universal Chassis will incorporate/feature a colour Oled display and front panel controls? Or, maybe this Chassis will have no front panel and be purely controlled externally by an android device via the streamer software?
John do you have any renderings and can you say more about this?
 
I forwarded the front panel rendering of the Universal chassis via PM FB, you can see a larger OLED display and front panel user controls.

The front panel interface has been added so the DevDAC / MDAC2 can be used in simple DAC mode without the streamer software.
 
JohnW said:
I forwarded the front panel rendering of the Universal chassis via PM FB, you can see a larger OLED display and front panel user controls.

The front panel interface has been added so the DevDAC / MDAC2 can be used in simple DAC mode without the streamer software.
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I still haven't been able to bring myself to understand how facebook (or twitter) works, but I did a quick search in our FB group and couldn't see the rendering. But your description is what I was hoping for. I guess you'll be getting samples of the universal chassis to coincide with the DevDac pcb build, it will certainly look the part I'm sure.:D
 
Tim,

Yes, I understand your sentiments WRT FB - I'm just glad for our little group - outside of the main FB traffic.

I uploaded the rendering to dropbox, you should have it in your PM.
 
I'm getting confused again.

Are you now saying that there will be the option of a new chassis for the MDAC2, and it will have a touch panel interface, and that with this new chassis there will no longer be a need for a streamer board to drive the front panel?

Why are we producing a new chassis and not the MDAC2 board to fit into the original one?
 
Stunsworth said:
I'm getting confused again.

Are you now saying that there will be the option of a new chassis for the MDAC2, and it will have a touch panel interface, and that with this new chassis there will no longer be a need for a streamer board to drive the front panel?

Why are we producing a new chassis and not the MDAC2 board to fit into the original one?
Click to expand...

The way I understand it, the Streamer board which is very small and will fit above/alongside the MDAC2 board inside the original mdac chassis is required for the 4 x ESS-DAC (16 channels) design and facilitate other features too.
 
Stunsworth said:
I'm getting confused again.

Are you now saying that there will be the option of a new chassis for the MDAC2, and it will have a touch panel interface, and that with this new chassis there will no longer be a need for a streamer board to drive the front panel?

Why are we producing a new chassis and not the MDAC2 board to fit into the original one?
Click to expand...

Steve,

The DevDAC / MDAC2 streamer board 'Kit" require some form of chassis so the idea developed to purchase a chassis from China and add custom front and rear panels here in Europe. As we gave it more thought we developed the plan to use the same basic chassis (but with a different rear panel + Base) for the MDAC2 for those who dont already own an MDAC.

The MDAC2 PCB can still be fitted in the original MDAC sleeve or into this "Universal" DAC chassis.

As the DevDAC / MDAC2 streamer boards are ready for production (we have working prototypes), adding chassis allows us to offer a completed DAC / streamer solution in the nearterm, which can then be upgraded to the MDAC2 PCB once its ready. Both solutions required the MDAC2 Streamer PCB (when used in the universal chassis) as this interfaces to the Universal DAC chassis front panel.

The DevDAC is also the only ESS DAC solution we will offer (twin ES9038Q2M) - the MDAC2 now goes down a very different path.

The DevDAc has now reached a very high standard of development so its a very worthy DAC in its own right.... but MDAC2 is a competently different beast WRT audio performance - as I promised it would be when i started this tortured development path :)

So in summary the MDAC2 PCB will fit BOTH the original MDAC sleeve AND the universal DAC chassis.
 
John,
Assuming a reasonably inexpensive psu and remote can be sourced somewhere, does paying for the universal DAC chassis and selling the original MDAC make economic sense?
 
davidjt said:
John,
Assuming a reasonably inexpensive psu and remote can be sourced somewhere, does paying for the universal DAC chassis and selling the original MDAC make economic sense?
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... I feel most people would prefer a fresh chassis that doesn’t have AUDIOLAB on it...but I don’t know why John doesn’t just spec out the FDAC size chassis in this instance, seeing as the MDAC2 Mainboard is being touted as portable to this FDAC chassis in future anyway?
 
ti33er said:
... I feel most people would prefer a fresh chassis that doesn’t have AUDIOLAB on it...but I don’t know why John doesn’t just spec out the FDAC size chassis in this instance, seeing as the MDAC2 Mainboard is being touted as portable to this FDAC chassis in future anyway?
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Maybe because there are many that like the size of MDAC and do not want full width. So it make sense to start with the small chassis first.

I will end up with both.

I really like the design of the FDAC chassis we have seen. Only thing IMHO is that I do not like the idea of having CD integrated that makes it look dated. (sure many disagree)

The direction hifi is going is either streaming or vinyl. NOT CD.

When ripping CD's it is better to use a real computer.
 
Rune said:
The direction hifi is going is streaming
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Fixed that for you. Streaming - whether locally or via the web (on demand) is absolutely where we're heading. Vinyl will always be super-niche in comparison to either streaming OR CD (remember, lots of people still spin their little silver discs...) :)
 
It was for ease of ripping CDs afaik (the OEM CD ROM was cheap like £50’ish, so why not)
 
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John,
I have been following this thread closely for some time and my main interest in the MDAC2 and FDAC is for high end headphone use.

What is the maximum output impedance in the new design for headphone output?
Ideally I would be looking for a maximum output impedance of less than 4 ohms (one eighth rule applied to my 32 ohm headphones).

P.S Thank you for all your hard work.

Robert Anderson
 
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