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MDAC first listen (part IV)

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quad2fan said:
Also noticed MP3s (I don't have many!) display as 24-bit. I assume they're being padded from 16-bit for some reason. Again this happens in iTunes+Bitperfect or Audirvana, and any MP3.
Click to expand...

Do your MP3s contain volume information? Some Media Player programs can use this information to correct volume levels. This feature was enabled by default in my MediaMonkey application. All files with volume information displayed as 24bit instead of 16bit until I disabled this feature.
 
quad2fan said:
Surprisingly 'The Two Towers' files display as 22-bit on the MDACs display no matter what music playback software I use (iTunes+Bitperfect or Audirvana). The other two soundtracks display properly as 24-bit. So I take it there might have been a mistake made when mastering The Two Towers DVD-A release & MDAC is accurately reflecting the true bit-depth?
Click to expand...

Yes the MDAC analyses the "toggling" of the LSB (Least significant Bits) of the Audio Data to determine whats going on - if the Bits remain the same.

If the MDAC's say's 22 Bits then the lower 2 bits are not changing - thus no Audio Data.

quad2fan said:
Also noticed MP3s display as 24-bit. I assume they're being padded from 16-bit for some reason. Again this happens in iTunes+Bitperfect or Audirvana, and any MP3.
Click to expand...

Upon "decoding" of MP3 the decoding engines work in 24 Bits - The Data's not "real" anyway, so why limit to 16Bits. On my Martin Logans more so then ever I can hear how bad MP3 really is!

quad2fan said:
I also have several WAV files that were ripped from CD using the HDCD plug-in via dbpoweramp. These are approximately 20-bit files once the HDCD decoder has done it's thing, but 'packaged' as 24-bit files. When I play any of these MDAC displays them as 16-bit in the display window, even though they display as 24-bit files in the music software windows.
Click to expand...

With HDCD you should see the display change from anywhere between 17Bits to 20Bits - otherwise you are not gaining the benefit of HDCD.

Windows Media Player has an option under DEVICES => SPEAKER PROPERTIES to select HDCD decoding.

Once selected you will notice that all Non HDCD CD playback is 17 bits, scaled 1 bit to allow for HDCD level compensation.

John
 
fusion5 said:
Do your MP3s contain volume information? Some Media Player programs can use this information to correct volume levels. This feature was enabled by default in my MediaMonkey application. All files with volume information displayed as 24bit instead of 16bit until I disabled this feature.
Click to expand...

No it seems to be any MP3 file (whether it contains volume info. or not), and any volume levelling disabled in all instances. Weird!
 
JohnW said:
Yes the MDAC analyses the "toggling" of the LSB (Least significant Bits) of the Audio Data to determine whats going on - if the Bits remain the same.

If the MDAC's say's 22 Bits then the lower 2 bits are not changing - thus no Audio Data.



Upon "decoding" of MP3 the decoding engines work in 24 Bits - The Data's not "real" anyway, so why limit to 16Bits. On my Martin Logans more so then ever I can hear how bad MP3 really is!



With HDCD you should see the display change from anywhere between 17Bits to 20Bits - otherwise you are not gaining the benefit of HDCD.

Windows Media Player has an option under DEVICES => SPEAKER PROPERTIES to select HDCD decoding.

Once selected you will notice that all Non HDCD CD playback is 17 bits, scaled 1 bit to allow for HDCD level compensation.

John
Click to expand...

Thanks for your replies John!

I'm actually using a Mac, though the HDCD decoded files were created using dbpoweramp with the HDCD plugin. You're right have noticed on other HDCD files the MDACs display constantly flickers between 17-20bit. The sound doesn't 'flicker' in quality though so I assume this is fine and the dbpoweramp hdcd-decoded/recreated files are indeed variable bit-rate, but within a 24-bit 'wrapper'.

As to Two Towers I guess that was a mastering error then - I'll email the studio and see if I get any feedback (won't hold my breath!).

MP3s: I try to stay away from them but I must say MDAC does a better job than most at getting the best out of them.

Cheers,

- John

P.S. I need to PM you John but your email space is maxed out.
 
Is the clock locked CD streamer going to be available soon or is it on the backburner for a while? Also will the clock locked tranpsort make a big difference to sound quality as my Pioneer BDP51FD sounds pretty good through the MDAC playing CDs via it's coaxial output? I am very pleased with the MDAC sounds excellent :)
 
Hi
Got my M-DAC today and am well pleased. Just one question for anyone with HD600 phones and using JRiver, I'm listening at +1dB so suspect I have something set up wrong. Any ideas?
 
Will the M-PAX support AES input? This would be great as it would allow us to use studio-class soundcards (RME/Lynx) of which I have been looking into...
 
Hi Folks,

Very interesting thread... I'm in a process to add a DAC to my system and the MDAC has all the features I'm interesting in a DAC.

Tomorrow, I'm going to have a listening session of this unit, which I'm exited about since this unit is pretty rare these days...

For now I'm planning to use the DAC with a Squeezebox Touch. For later I was thinking get a laptop but lately I read about the Mac Mini which would be more practical for me.

I plan to use J River (through Parallels or with Win7 in dual boot)

Unfortunately I have no comparaision reference to determin if a the MDAC is better or not than other DACs. I'll guess I'll follow my instinct (and ears).

Other dacs considered (but more expensive) are W4S DAC2 and MOON 300D...

I'll post about my audition later.....

What do you think ?
 
Hello John.

I am keen to know more on the headphone amplifier specification of MDAC.
don't seen to see any specification on it.
Please advise the output power and voltage from the headphone amp. at 32 ohm , 50 ohm...etc and also the THD%
it will give me a indication on the amplifier performance to be able to drive my IEM/Ortho Headphone.

Many thanks
Raymond Lim
 
Received my M-Dac a few days ago. Sound is brillant but I have a similar problem as some of you: dropouts when using toslink, here coming from the Apple Airport Express.

My DacMagic was happy with the toslink signal, so I wondered if using the coax out from the Dacmagic itself feeded from the airport express, would provide be a better signal to the MDAC. Unfortunately not, still dropouts as before.

Will have to wait for the firmware update I guess.
 
jmbulg said:
Received my M-Dac a few days ago. Sound is brillant but I have a similar problem as some of you: dropouts when using toslink, here coming from the Apple Airport Express.

My DacMagic was happy with the toslink signal, so I wondered if using the coax out from the Dacmagic itself feeded from the airport express, would provide be a better signal to the MDAC. Unfortunately not, still dropouts as before.

Will have to wait for the firmware update I guess.
Click to expand...


Hi jmbulg,

Here's the Beta Software if you want to try before the full "Official" release. This opens the Optical 2 input to maxim DPLL bandwidth which should resolve your Airplay Express drop-outs.

Please understand that this is NOT an official release so “at your own risk”, although I’ll offer all the support I can.

The updater only works on Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7 (32 Bit Mode).

This is a console version of software update tool for Audiolab M-DAC.

Close all audio applications before proceeding with the update.

Before running 'update.exe', please make sure the M-DAC is powered on and connected to the computer via USB.

Once finished, turn the M-DAC off and on again to restart with new software.

Download the Beta software from:

http://db.tt/pV5gEOND

1. Extract the files from the Zip folder

2. Insure MDAC is connected to PC via USB - selected to USB input and the MDAC Display indicates "Ready"

3. Insure no other software is operating on the PC (anything that could interrupt the upload process to the MDAC).

4. Run the "Upload.exe" program, within 10 seconds the computer should report a successful upload.

You need to power cycle the MDAC - switch Off the MDAC for 5 seconds and then re-power for the software changes to take effect.

You can Push and hold the MDAC's Volume Knob while powering-up to indicated the software versions.

Old software v0.90 / v0.90

New Software v0.90 / vA.10

John
 
McKMini said:
Hi
Got my M-DAC today and am well pleased. Just one question for anyone with HD600 phones and using JRiver, I'm listening at +1dB so suspect I have something set up wrong. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have the volume control on the PC set to less then full level - you need to set the PC's Volume control to Max.
 
adamlau said:
Will the M-PAX support AES input? This would be great as it would allow us to use studio-class soundcards (RME/Lynx) of which I have been looking into...
Click to expand...

The M-PAX is only a PSU with Analogue signal handling - there are no digital inputs etc.

I'm not sure why you would want to use a PC sound card when you have Async USB (apart from 192kHz support).

John
 
raysclim said:
Hello John.

I am keen to know more on the headphone amplifier specification of MDAC.
don't seen to see any specification on it.
Please advise the output power and voltage from the headphone amp. at 32 ohm , 50 ohm...etc and also the THD%
it will give me a indication on the amplifier performance to be able to drive my IEM/Ortho Headphone.

Many thanks
Raymond Lim
Click to expand...

The Headphone outputs are the same quality as the Mainoutputs.

THD 0.0015%

SNR-A 117dB

Output impedance lessthen 1 Ohm

Output current limited to +/- 120mA (Before current limit starts to kickin)

John
 
TwoSeventy said:
Is the clock locked CD streamer going to be available soon or is it on the backburner for a while? Also will the clock locked tranpsort make a big difference to sound quality as my Pioneer BDP51FD sounds pretty good through the MDAC playing CDs via it's coaxial output? I am very pleased with the MDAC sounds excellent :)
Click to expand...

Yes - the Clock-locked Transport is still in design (with Async 192kHz USB) - to be released in 3-4 months.

John
 
JohnW said:
Hi jmbulg,

Here's the Beta Software if you want to try before the full "Official" release. This opens the Optical 2 input to maxim DPLL bandwidth which should resolve your Airplay Express drop-outs.

Please understand that this is NOT an official release so “at your own risk”, although I’ll offer all the support I can.

The updater only works on Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7 (32 Bit Mode).

This is a console version of software update tool for Audiolab M-DAC.

Close all audio applications before proceeding with the update.

Before running 'update.exe', please make sure the M-DAC is powered on and connected to the computer via USB.

Once finished, turn the M-DAC off and on again to restart with new software.

Download the Beta software from:

http://db.tt/pV5gEOND

1. Extract the files from the Zip folder

2. Insure MDAC is connected to PC via USB - selected to USB input and the MDAC Display indicates "Ready"

3. Insure no other software is operating on the PC (anything that could interrupt the upload process to the MDAC).

4. Run the "Upload.exe" program, within 10 seconds the computer should report a successful upload.

You need to power cycle the MDAC - switch Off the MDAC for 5 seconds and then re-power for the software changes to take effect.

You can Push and hold the MDAC's Volume Knob while powering-up to indicated the software versions.

Old software v0.90 / v0.90

New Software v0.90 / vA.10

John
Click to expand...


Hi John,
Many thanks for the quick reply. I installed the new firmware and I'am currently listening to music via airport-express toslink into OPT2 without any dropouts. Now this is a service !
:)

Jean-Marie
 
Hi John, could you give some info on the clock locked transport? As i am now starting to archive my music collection i am looking for "that" product that will allow playback from HDD storage but still allow me to insert the silver discs.

kr Steven.
 
Hi John
I suppose the "dangerous" moment of the upload of new firmware is when something is interrupting the update (another application or power supply failures)? Maybe you could add in the README or later manual that whenever possibly to work with MDAC and computer plugged into an UPS; unless one can recover with a global reset in any case ?
Much appreciated the quick help and now looking forward to the M-Pax ;-)
 
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