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MDAC first listen (part XXIV)

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JemHayward

JemHayward

pfm Member
Plutox said:
Could you elucidate, please?
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I contacted Charcroft directly via http://www.charcroft.com/ and got a reply to my query after a day or so. They have all the resistors in stock for the "Fusion" modification, but their quote came out £110+ more expensive than HiFiCollective.

However, they had stock. If the price had been a bit closer, I'd have been tempted as I've been without my MDAC since the end of April, but having sent it off for a £350 upgrade, I'm now looking at nearly £800 which is a bit difficult, though I'm totally confident it will be worthwhile...
 
Brab, I hear very little difference between the filters, the only one that stands out for me is the optimal spectrum, I find this sounds a little 'NOS' dac. I wouldn't claim to be able to identify any of the others.
 
brab said:
M-dac - passive preamp - VTL amps - Spendor 2/3. I'm using the latest M-dac software. Thanks.
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I'll take that as a 'No' then...you'd be better off using the MDAC as a pre

As SQ states there's not a massive difference between the filters, but I couldn't detect any when running through my pre-amp
 
sq225917 said:
Brab, I hear very little difference between the filters, the only one that stands out for me is the optimal spectrum, I find this sounds a little 'NOS' dac. I wouldn't claim to be able to identify any of the others.
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To my ears that is one of three filters that sound wrong.
 
JemHayward said:
I contacted Charcroft directly via http://www.charcroft.com/ and got a reply to my query after a day or so. They have all the resistors in stock for the "Fusion" modification, but their quote came out £110+ more expensive than HiFiCollective.

However, they had stock. If the price had been a bit closer, I'd have been tempted as I've been without my MDAC since the end of April, but having sent it off for a £350 upgrade, I'm now looking at nearly £800 which is a bit difficult, though I'm totally confident it will be worthwhile...
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So is Charcroft just a distributor, and HiFiCollective has ordered from someone else who is cheaper but doesn't have the stock?

- Richard.
 
Vaughan said:
Any one have any updates from HiFi Collective yet ?
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No. I think John was going to contact them a few weeks ago to try and speed things up? Does anyone know how many Fusion orders they have had? I will be very impressed if they get all the orders out first week of July. Something is telling me they won't though.😟
 
Ian M said:
No. I think John was going to contact them a few weeks ago to try and speed things up? Does anyone know how many Fusion orders they have had? I will be very impressed if they get all the orders out first week of July. Something is telling me they won't though.��
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John posted an email he received from Nick (hificollectives.co.uk):

Nick said:
For the leaded version, the lead time for bulk is 2/3 weeks for the 47R and 120R however its 6/8 weeks for the 1K and 220R!!! I do feel I can get this down though, will know more on Monday.

We have had many enquiries I will create these products on the shop but
make it clear that there is a wait on these before dispatch.

regards, Nick
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Source: http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?p=2030383#post2030383

I think there is no definite delivery date for the resistors.

Both upgrade kits started with a quantity of 50 in the hificollectives shop. The fusion kit is down to 30.
 
Richard,

I don't think Nick ordered a single fusion kit of 28 resistors. If he ordered the 50 fusion kits he put into the shop .. that would be 1400 resistors.

But my guess is as good as anyone else's.

Michael
 
fusion5 said:
Richard,

I don't think Nick ordered a single fusion kit of 28 resistors. If he ordered the 50 fusion kits he put into the shop .. that would be 1400 resistors.

But my guess is as good as anyone else's.

Michael
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Fair enough, though I'd have thought that would be relatively small beer to a manufacturer.

- Richard.
 
Maybe it's due to the fact that the Charcroft Z-Foil Resistors for Audio are hand made.
 
Are those prices for real? For resistors? Or am I hallucinating? Maybe I'll rethink my plans to go Fusion as even I baulk at the thought of spending that much money on eensy weensy resistors....

I'm definitely in the wrong game...

Edit: Might settle for the 'Toy' kit.... the 'Fusion' one seems to be just crazy.....
 
Now that there are a few (not many) prototypes of the toy and fusion upgrades....
There can be some testing on various speakers.
I know it will be better to test them when the MIMP and MAMP arrive, but was wondering on how Johns speaker choice may have influenced the progress of upgrades.

I mean to say that speaker choices can very often play a more important factor in sound then amps do.

Furthermore, it is the detail as well as sounds being projected in the right proportion to other sounds.
This is one of the main issues I found when purchasing the MDAC before.
Some DACS just provide an airy sound where subtle details are hard to hear.
I found this when comparing the Musical Fidelity HPA and M1 DAC.
This often gives the sound a more live feel etc...
But what I found with MDAC was it can reproduce subtle detail, and when choosing the correct filter can provide a less compressed sound. Although the sound is a little compressed with not enough air and imaging around other frequencies.

Its only worth considering floorstanders with such a setup.
I currently have the Monitor Audio BR5. They have metal tweeter dome and I find the sound unnatural.
I wonder what sort of floorstanders would be best suited to both 'toy' and 'fusion' upgrades. Maybe metal is not the way to go.

I don't expect John to design speakers too, but if he did, imagine the synergy of the system. Leaving out interconnects and power supplies/cables of course!!!!!
 
Steven Toy said:
To my ears that is one of three filters that sound wrong.
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To my ears definitely not. Expresses the full power of the MDAC pre-amp level 2 in combination with my Adam Actives. Definitely in rock, and dance music. Classics, vocals and jazz sound better @ XD though...
 
laviefacile said:
To my ears definitely not. Expresses the full power of the MDAC pre-amp level 2 in combination with my Adam Actives. Definitely in rock, and dance music. Classics, vocals and jazz sound better @ XD though...
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Don't you mean Optimal Transient @ XD....
 
@laviefacile
How did you change your 'signature' to Dutch HiFi enthusiast? Wee spelling mistake there BTW.
@pkerai
John posted he used EAR890 with Martin Logan Summits. I agree speakers have a very strong bearing on the final SQ, however I think John has carefully selected these as very revealing and uncoloured. So good for fine details, realism and of course diagnostics.
 
The resistors are made under license from Vishay. Charcroft buy the blanks and trim them to value with a laser. They come in different nominal values 0-100 ohm 100-500 ohm etc and Charcroft will have to order the 'blanks' in from Vishay. Anything they have in stock is a short delivery time, anything they have to order from Vishay is much further out.
 
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