I don't think it does, when I first plugged it in the "installing device driver" notification came up and when using USB it shows up as "Audiolab M-DAC" in the sound settings.elnero
The mdac uses standard usb drivers - the ones included in the operating system
Every time you plug a new piece of hardware into a new usb slot the operating system realises it's never seen it there before and has to work out what to do with it. If it recognises the signature as matching one of the drivers it already has, it will use that. Each piece of hardware has a unique name whether it uses standard drivers or not. The device name and driver signature are independent pieces of information (there loads of others too). This decision and installation process is 'installing device driver' whether it's MS's driver or one from the manufacturer.
React differently?
Because they move data in a different way (synchronous vs asynchronous) and they buffer and handle the data internally in a different way, even though they use the same common driver
Thanks for the explanation, that all makes perfect sense. I had always assumed that if the device used standard MS drivers there would be no install process. I didn't remember there being one for my Pico DAC but I just plugged it in to one of the other slots and sure enough it did an install process as well. You learn something new every day!
Hi John (or others who can help me),
I received my M-DAC a couple of days ago from the Canadian distributor.
Even with minimal burn-in, it's definitely a step up from my heavily modded Caiman in terms of sound quality.
There is one problem though. When I'm watching TV and running the audio from the cable box via optical (the only choice) the sound cuts out for about half a second every minute or two. As you can imagine, it's rather annoying. I've tried both optical inputs, and even used our other cable box, but the problem persists. This was never an issue with the Caiman.
I was wondering if any else has experienced this and what you might suggest as a solution, short of sending it back. I know from PFM forums that there have definitely been some QC issues with the first batch of MDACs, and would rather wait a bit if a replacement unit becomes necessary.
Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks.
Bill
I can use the Optical output, it did test bit pefect, but it does cut off the first second or so of a track when you jump to it in a playlist which is only minor but still a bit of an annoyance.
same here - any ideas how this can be solved?
If the device or player stops or changes the sample rate between tracks, ie changes from 44.1Khz to say 96kHz and back to 44.1kHz when changing tracks, there's nothing the MDAC can do - its takes about 300mS to re-establish signal lock between changes in sampling rate - you don't really want to be continually changing sample rate for no reason... its bad practice - poor software design.
Does the MDAC indicate change of lock when skipping tracks?
John
Thanks for confirming ChrisPa's explanation John.Hi elnero,
There is no user "install" process as such - well in truth Windows identifies a new device connected and in the case of the MDAC automatically installs a "standard" USB audio driver.
The MDAC identifies itself to the OS - and windows installs its own device driver under the name of MDAC...
In my setup it does it all the time when skipping tracks or first playing a track in a playlist.
This is something I've noticed with almost every DAC I've tried via an optical connection in computer setup, the exception would be the Neko D100 MKII I had the pleasure of auditioning a few months ago, I don't remember it doing this.
Please correct me if I'm wrong on this, I've always assumed that this is due to the optical connection only locking when there's a signal present so when skipping tracks it loses lock then has to re-establish it which causes the first second or part of a second to be cut off.
This also brings up another question I've had, given the choice between USB and optical which would be preferable?
Good