MDAC first listen (part II)

[sq225917]

I've heard it twice properly, in the same system. The first time I was quite impressed; however, the second time I was less impressed as I heard a piece of music I had only just listened to at home and found the sound to be too soft and laid back. I can't help but wonder if much of the improvement I initially heard was more down to the fact that the DAC replaced the pre-amp in that system, rather than it's absolute quality as a DAC.

You have to take into account that Ynwan is comparing the Mdac at my house to the sound of his hifi which shares no common components and only has a vinyl front end. I'd expect his set-up to be more dynamic than mine because it uses a Naim 72 and 135's which highlight the whole PRAT aspect of playback.

I'm sat here with a Weiss 202 plugged in at the minute and theres no loss of dynamics swapping between the two units. In fact the Mdac holds up its end very well indeed considering it's 1/9 of the cost of the 202. I suspect that if you hear better dynamics with your pre-amp then that's either because it's tilted in that direction or somehow a better match with your power amps.

 

[sq225917]

No analogue input.

 

[JTC]

The upgrades mentioned are by JW and Dominic's new company and will not be available until at least Q3 of next year. They intend to leapfrog (John's words) the Mdac sound quality. Cool eh?

BTW, now my Adams have run in the Mdac is showing a clean pair of heels to the CDQ. But oddly enough the CDQ is still sounding fabulous and I could happily live with either.

Very interesting. FWIW I have a deal agreed which could see me getting an MDAC in the new year. I just have to check that it'll work with a long USB cable (with repeater/booster) without any issues, and also whether PureMusic (which I use on the Mac to allow iTunes to work with FLAC and do the funky memory caching stuff) will support two USB dacs connected at the same time...

I'm looking forward to getting the OLED and Transformer upgrade soon, but despite that I'm still very impressed with the CDQ:Adams combo. VERY impressed indeed

 

[strocky]

I'm up and running

 

[arthur]

How did you decide to go?

 

[strocky]

How did you decide to go?

MDAC (DAC mode) into the Yamaha 3900 (analogue input + Direct Mode)

Too much hassle to go straight into the Poweramp

Only tried using my SB Touch into the MDAC via optical, good thing is I can easily switch between the MDAC and the Yamaha Internal DAC at the touch of the remote

Initial feedback is improved clarity but not getting the "hearing things I've never heard before" that others have remarked on

Still early days (and i've still to try my other sources)

 

[sleepysurf]

Greetings from across the pond! I have an M-DAC on order (anticipating it will replace my Benchmark DAC-1), and am curious if those who already have one are leaving it powered on 24/7. If so, how hot does it run?

 

[arthur]

Greetings from across the pond! I have an M-DAC on order (anticipating it will replace my Benchmark DAC-1), and am curious if those who already have one are leaving it powered on 24/7. If so, how hot does it run?

Hi ss.

Mine's been on for a week now and it refuses to get hot.

The CDQ is an egg fryer, but the Mdac is barely warm to the touch even after playing for 10 hrs.

 

[adamlau]

Will the upgraded external power supply have an IEC C14, or C18 interface for the power cord? Or will the power cord be hardwired? Going to pick up a few Shunyata power cords in the next few days, need to know whether, or not I should buy an extra Black Mamba CX in order to save on future shipping costs and possible price hikes!

IEC C14 (Inlet)

IEC C18 (Inlet)

 

[sq225917]

Why put a big thick power cable on the external psu when the pins to the plug into the mdac itself are less than .5mm thick? The Mdac draws 300mA you could happily run that through a piece of wire less than 1mm thick, a bigger thicker cable on the other side of the psu will make zero difference.

 

[adamlau]

In that case, can someone please kindly post a picture of the current PS? North America is still a few weeks away from the M-DAC and I would like to see what we are in store for...

 

[Barkiss]

Here's a photo of the UK power supply. I've been increasingly impressed with the M-DAC. It makes me want to listen to more music - and that can't be bad!

 

[sq225917]

Nothing showing

 

[spxy]

So have i read that right, is there to be a better power supply in the future?

 

[sq225917]

At some point in the future... bear in mind John's epic timescales. ;-)

 

[frylock]

Hi all,

Anyone using WASAPI and how are you finding the sound?

I know this is a bit weird but I _much_ prefer the ‘Direct Sound’ output mode vs WASAPI. The bitperfect test passed in both Foobar and J River (using WASAPI). In J River, I’ve tried both ‘WASAPI’ and ‘WASAPI – Event style’ and messed around with ‘Play files from memory instead of disk’ and various other settings.

In terms of sounds: it seems to lose in clarity / precision… it’s hard to describe… it’s just that whenever I go back to ‘Direct sound’ there’s a palpable improvement… the missus also agrees.

Any idea why this might be? Given that the DAC is receiving the signal bit perfect, I can only guess that there is a lot more jitter??? From what I’ve read (a glance to be honest), WASAPI is quite buggy… has anyone else experienced this?

My setup: Win 7 64bit – USB – MDAC – Balanced interconnects – Parasound A21 poweramp – ELAC FS 249 speakers.

Caveat: I’ve not tried mucking around with the ASIO drivers yet… perhaps that’s the next option…

 

[Mr Ian]

Has any one tried placing it between a skybox/dvd and a processor yet. I have it wired this way - huge improvment on stereo outputting via the Mdac but I am not so sure about the digital out to the processor. Difficult to describe but its almost as if the top end is distorting and the central channel is non distinct. a 5.1 signal seems to be ok but not so sure about stereo and the processed from stereo variants.

Grand Prix on Sunday was a classic example - but the picture was the worse I have seen this year so it could be transmission quality related.

I really need to try re-routing the SPDIF to miss out the Mdac and comparing some recordings but thats easier said than done, so wondered if any one else had any experiences.

 

[adamlau]

Will the upgraded external power supply have an IEC C14, or C18 interface for the power cord? Or will the power cord be hardwired?...

Found the answer buried somewhere in the past ...

The MDAC adaptor currently has a pre-attached power cable. There was some talk to add a C7 (Figure-8 / Shotgun) type power inlet.

Our upgrade PSU that will be compatible with the MDAC has a detachable C7 (Figure-8 / Shotgun) type power inlet.

 

[frylock]

Hi all,

Anyone using WASAPI and how are you finding the sound?

I know this is a bit weird but I _much_ prefer the ‘Direct Sound’ output mode vs WASAPI. The bitperfect test passed in both Foobar and J River (using WASAPI). In J River, I’ve tried both ‘WASAPI’ and ‘WASAPI – Event style’ and messed around with ‘Play files from memory instead of disk’ and various other settings.

In terms of sounds: it seems to lose in clarity / precision… it’s hard to describe… it’s just that whenever I go back to ‘Direct sound’ there’s a palpable improvement… the missus also agrees.

Any idea why this might be? Given that the DAC is receiving the signal bit perfect, I can only guess that there is a lot more jitter??? From what I’ve read (a glance to be honest), WASAPI is quite buggy… has anyone else experienced this?

My setup: Win 7 64bit – USB – MDAC – Balanced interconnects – Parasound A21 poweramp – ELAC FS 249 speakers.

Caveat: I’ve not tried mucking around with the ASIO drivers yet… perhaps that’s the next option…

Ok.. I think I know what fixes it! But I don't know why...

In the J River player, I changed the 'Hardware buffer size' in Output Mode, WASAPI settings to '10 milliseconds' from '100 milliseconds'. It's bloody awesome!!!!

In Foobar, the lowest buffer length is quite a bit larger at 50 milliseconds. Goes some way to explaining why WASAPI stilll doesn't sound good for me in Foobar...

Anyone know the reason though? On the USB buffer it was always hovering around the 50% mark... it's just that now it's fixed perfectly (doesn't move) at the 50% mark... Anyone care to try this with J River? The program is free to to try for 30 days... just make sure that in the 'DSP & output format' the bitdepth is set to 24...

 

[Barkiss]

Nothing showing

Curses! "supply" should link to a Picassa image - should be visible via this now.