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MDAC first listen (part XIII)

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Thing is Delange, on my system, if I had the volume control disabled (on the M-dac) then I'm never getting past 10 o'clock on my amp.

I've now got the Rothwell (-10db) attenuators in, I'm not sure but I think I prefer them to having the M-dac at -10db; obviously I'm listening for differences, so I'll let it run for a bit more and then take them out, see if I'm imagining things...
 
To me analgoue should mean 0 - infinity.

Without some form of attenuation, I've got basically, very quiet, loud and ASBO levels of sound, more control is desirable in my situation.

Also I don't know if it's bollocks (I intend to find out) but I've heard that certain amps have a sweetspot, if it's past 9 on mine, I'm never going to get there to find out.
 
Wow! After around 30 hours of playing, it sounds absolutely stunning. I liked it a lot earlier this week, but I'm amazed now. So much detail, depth and dynamics. Blows away the V-DAC quite easily, but it's a lousy comparison as I've switched interlinks too. :) (Kimber PBJ with Eichmann plugs > Van Den Hul Jubilee).

Just finished the wonderful MA recording Sera Una Noche. Skipped to Joni's Court and Spark now. Happiness.
 
I've had my M-DAC for 9 months now and very happy with it. I'm running with an Olimex USB isolator and non-fancy computer USB cables.

I have a Halide Bridge USB-to-SPDIF converter lying around which I haven't used ever since I installed the M-DAC in my system. The bridge was used with my previous DAC, a CA DACMagic.

So today I decide to try the Halide Bridge on the coax input of the M-DAC and... lo and behold, the sound opens up, the bass becomes stronger and much tighter, the highs more precise, the mids clearer. I didn't expect that at all, the opposite in fact. Assuming my ears are not fooling me, are there any variable I should try to eliminate in order to bring the USB sound back on top? One thought that comes to mind is that my USB connections are mixed with a whole bunch of wires in the back of the equipment cabinet, including some AC power cables and what not.

I'm really puzzled by this. Anyone else preferring the M-DAC running on coax input with a computer source and an external USB to SPDIF converter? I'd be very interested to hear about you.
 
mcoteca said:
I've had my M-DAC for 9 months now and very

I'm really puzzled by this. Anyone else preferring the M-DAC running on coax input with a computer source and an external USB to SPDIF converter? I'd be very interested to hear about you.
Click to expand...

I guess it's all about jitter introduced by your (cheap?) USB cable or USB interface? Although, I thought the async. USB scheme should take care of this.

So the question is, does it worth to get a decent (yet not too expensive) USB cable?

Cheers
 
Just found out about the Enhanced Digital Output app for Squeezebox Touch (I've been running Soundcheck's Toolbox for a while now). I'm interested in trying it out. In the instructions I read this:

please connect your dac and leave turned on at present [this is likely to improve in future]
Click to expand...

Is it necessary to leave the M-DAC turned on at the moment? It it OK to leave it turned on always?

EDIT: never mind, just installed it. Everything works.
 
I got a DJ app for the iPad the other day, to my surprise it works with the MDAC! You get the main out over ASYNC USB and are able to cue/mix/adjust pitch completely independantly using the iPad's headphone output!

Needless to say the sound in amazing through it - with uncompressed music - you've got a very powerful and amazing combo there that I bet is better than most sources a club would use.
 
jimmy.cross said:
Yet, he can listen a difference...
Click to expand...

No. He 'says' he can hear a difference, which means he 'thinks' he can hear a difference, not that a difference actually exists. He would have put his belief to the test to prove that he can actually hear what he think she can.

There's quite a difference.
 
sq225917 said:
No. He 'says' he can hear a difference, which means he 'thinks' he can hear a difference, not that a difference actually exists. He would have put his belief to the test to prove that he can actually hear what he think she can.

There's quite a difference.
Click to expand...

It's not a cable...

It is a USB to Spdif converter that boasts about reducing jitter.

There is logic to why he can hear a difference... Wether it was positive or negative....
 
Strange, playing 16/44, 24/96 and 24/88 bit using EDO on the Squeezebox Touch is working fine. A ripped (and converted with cuetools) HDCD shows up as 17 (!)/44 though. It's a 24 bit FLAC.
 
Trojka said:
Strange, playing 16/44, 24/96 and 24/88 bit using EDO on the Squeezebox Touch is working fine. A ripped (and converted with cuetools) HDCD shows up as 17 (!)/44 though. It's a 24 bit FLAC.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing the file is actually only 17bit! If every other file is working fine. I have had some "dodgy" hi-res files that are not actually hi-res.
 
If I remember well, it's 20 bit padded to 24 bit. I've ripped and converted it myself a while ago. I've used HDCD.exe btw (not cuetools, just remembered).
 
Mediainfo says '24/44'.

Tried a different ripped HDCD (Béla Fleck's Left Of Cool): with this album the displays switches from 20 to 17 bit every few seconds. :) It plays fine though.
 
Don't know mediainfo - Does it have a spectrogram? You need to be able too see if there is content there.
 
Trojka said:
A ripped (and converted with cuetools) HDCD shows up as 17 (!)/44 though
Click to expand...

This is quite normal for an HDCD converted to a true 20bit format. The CD can only generate a 16 bit sample at any instant and the HDCD decoder will usually encapsulate this into bits 1-16* hence the MDAC concludes that it's 17bit data. In very quiet sections you might notice the MDAC's display flip to 20 bit when the HDCD system ranges to bits 5-20.

You only ever get 16 bits at any one time; it flips between the top 16 and bottom 16 within a 20bit range.

* standard 16bit data within a 20bit wrapper would be bits 0-15, here it's bits 1-16 to allow a margin for headroom
 
Sebbyp: sent you a PM with an example.

Plutox: thanks for the explanation. Makes sense to me.
 
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