MDAC first listen (part XX)
- Thread starter JohnW
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More than that- to those of us who still like our CDs, this offers the prospect of being better than most available CD transports/players, because the transport can be clock-locked to the MDAC (and BDAC).I personally like the idea of including a cd drive in the mtrn. It would be nice being able to play cd:s direcly instead of having to rip them first, If it hits the market i won't have any excuse for not buying the mdac when upgrading to a new system
John, I have a couple of queries about the MTRN. What's it going to look like? Will it be in the MAMP style box?
Also, what happens to the FM output on this- do we need to have our own volume control (unless the attenuator version of MPAX appears....)?
Thanks
Bob
sam_cat
C'est Crounchifique!
Tried across 3 different computers now, using the intel z77 chipset, H61 chipset and an older chipset (cant remember specifically whats on that board), using the native usb3 ports and the usb3 ports provided by the 'other' chipsets (that provide all the extra usb ports).. Same result.
BUT after the last test it was still making the 'broken' noises once I switched it back to usb2 ports... Had to power off and power on the M-Dac for this behaviour to be corrected (tried source up/down etc) so am thinking I need to do this between tests.. Will revisit this evening if I get a chance.
Sam
JohnW
pfm member
Hi Sam,
Guess your using V0.90 software? later software indicates Buffer Flush (X).... Jirij suggestion that it might be the driver is interesting... Note the Buffer Flush (x) just indicates that the USB "packets" have been broken which can be due to Software / Drivers or Hardware...
JohnW
pfm member
Olivman,
The RCA output of the MDAC is a fairly standard 2.2Vrms - I cannot believe the issue is with the MDAC's output level as all modern Pre-Amplifier design should be able to handle "CD / Digital" output levels.
Also, by setting the MDAC level to -20dB then its output level is now reduced by x10 so 230mV - which should cause no problems even with Hi-Gain older designs.
I cannot see how there can be an issue with the MDAC - I suggest an issue with the Pre-amplifier or cables... your not doing something odd with XLR to RCA leads are you?
JohnW
pfm member
Hi Bob,
The MTRN's tuner section is an all digital design, so its volume level is controlled via the MDAC.
The MTRN matches the MDAC/ BDAC... we will have it for the Munich show - so I'll post pictures of the show unit when Dominik brings it over.
JohnW
pfm member
Hi Sam,
Not sure what issue your having as the USB3.0 issue I’m referring to manifests itself as an occasional drop-out (clicking) with Buffer Flush error message on later software builds - sounds like you have another issue at hand.. try re-powering the MDAC after each system change.
90% of the time the Windows Ding is broken as the MDAC requires a few 100mS to lock onto the incoming Data - so you nearly always chop the very first part of the "Ding"...
Apologies if this has been covered somewhere prior. I installed A.10 which I found linked within the forum threads but never appeared on the Wiki. A.08 is still the latest on the official Wiki.
Has A.10 been cast out as bad, or the Wiki never updated, or some other reason? I like the input labeling which was introduced in this version. I saw the usual discussions on the thread about whether A.10 is as good as 0.90 and saw a divided opinion on this....it seemed to be closer to the original first edition firmware than previous versions however.
Has A.10 been cast out as bad, or the Wiki never updated, or some other reason? I like the input labeling which was introduced in this version. I saw the usual discussions on the thread about whether A.10 is as good as 0.90 and saw a divided opinion on this....it seemed to be closer to the original first edition firmware than previous versions however.
JohnW
pfm member
Dominik was unable to access the Wiki from China - seems like the great wall of China decided that our Wiki is too politically sensitive...
He's been unable to upload A.10 - and I have no time to learn how to add to the Wiki - so If anybody's wants to add A.10 and the Mac version I'm sure many would be greatful ....
He's been unable to upload A.10 - and I have no time to learn how to add to the Wiki - so If anybody's wants to add A.10 and the Mac version I'm sure many would be greatful
....
JohnW
pfm member
Thanks indeed. I could see other forum members also getting confused what the latest version was....so we are all good now
I am trying to persuade a friend to bring over his MDAC with 0.90 on it so I can do a proper A/B comparison. By the time it takes to reload the firmware I can start convincing myself I am hearing things between the versions.
I am trying to persuade a friend to bring over his MDAC with 0.90 on it so I can do a proper A/B comparison. By the time it takes to reload the firmware I can start convincing myself I am hearing things between the versions.
0.96 (the one my MDAC came with and the one I'm using) should be enough.
You might give another OS a shot. If your boxes are Windows and you're out of reach of Mac with USB3, you might want to try ie. Ubuntu, bootable from a flash thumb. Once booted, you can run ie. firefox and access some popular video on youtube - it won't have flash player, but popular videos immediately switch to HTML5 player (because that version is available as well for that particular video).
If you have more than one sound card available (ie. internal not disabled in BIOS), launch terminal (left click on the upper left corner, type "terminal" in Search) and use "ALSA_CARD=MDAC firefox" to launch firefox, as opposed to clicking on it in the left panel.
Trying this could eliminate a hardware issue.
edit: feel free to PM me if you decide to try it and run into problems
mattgbell
Help the elderly and unwell!
Pls excuse this ignorant question.
I've been messing about for the last couple of days with a Naim Superuniti that I borrowed from my local dealer. One of the permutations I experimented with was connecting my M-DAC's RCA analogue outputs to the analogue inputs in the Superuniti. Am I right in thinking that this would in effect be putting the signal through two preamps, i.e. the preamp in the M-DAC and the preamp in the Superuniti?
(I should add that I have no intention of actually buying the Superuniti, but it was fun to play around with ...)
I've been messing about for the last couple of days with a Naim Superuniti that I borrowed from my local dealer. One of the permutations I experimented with was connecting my M-DAC's RCA analogue outputs to the analogue inputs in the Superuniti. Am I right in thinking that this would in effect be putting the signal through two preamps, i.e. the preamp in the M-DAC and the preamp in the Superuniti?
(I should add that I have no intention of actually buying the Superuniti, but it was fun to play around with ...)
Besides mdac Wiki, there are Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, Google.....(the latter two only allow China version with censored news and their tailor made search engine for screening things) and a long list of useful resources that are censored. I often wonder how do people live and still be so tolerant with this notorious policy.
If Dominik and JownW are interested, I can provide you with a convenient little proxy freeware that very effectively in bypassing this "great wall".
No intention to be political here, just in case anyone are travelling to China and do want to have free access to the internet, may PM me, freeware size 1.8MB only.
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