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MDAC first listen (part XXIV)

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JohnW said:
I've been thinking that in fact it might make better financial sense to spend the GBP350 or so for a salvaged unit and either keeping the MDAC TOY version or selling them as its really a shame to "scrape" such an excellent performing DAC...
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John, this is a very kind and generous offer from you to those current (and whose MDACs are with you waiting to be upgraded) L2 owners. I hope you can get those new/salvaged MDACs from Audiolab, because I will be looking for one so that I can keep the Toy MDAC :)

I have just replied (email) that I will go with the Toy upgrade for now, and keep the balance of my Fusion resistors for the MkII PCB. Hope this will help you get started on the MkII just that little bit sooner!

Leon
 
The replacement chassis option interests me as well... My sovereign dc mdac can then go upstairs to the second system.. :)
 
JohnW said:
The MDAC2 PCB will be shipped with the new rear panel, allowing a quick and easy DIY swap - that's why I would need to know the colour of your unit before we ship your MDAC2 PCB to allow us to supply the correct colour rear panel.

AV bypass will be standard on the MDAC2 upgrade.
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Are AV bypass and balanced headphone out mutually exclusive, do we have to choose one or the other?'

Leon
 
JohnW said:
Yes, this can be an internal optional board - which would not be as hard as the selectable Gain - I'll try :)
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Would this be a generic facility? I.e. would this work with my Quad monos? At the moment they are on standby and switched on by the pre-amp via the remote that controls the pre-amp. If I run the MDAC directly into the monos, as I plan, having them switch on automatically when the MDAC plays would be great. Or am I misunderstanding something (yet again)?

- Richard.
 
JohnW said:
I've been thinking that in fact it might make better financial sense to spend the GBP350 or so for a salvaged unit and either keeping the MDAC TOY version or selling them as its really a shame to "scrape" such an excellent performing DAC...

Lets say they could be sold swiftly for say GBP400 to GBP600 they are so much better then any DAC that can be bought at the price - and will bring enjoyment to more people :) - they are also covered by a lifetime warranty (with the usual restrictions).

Just a shame to "scrape" a Toy MDAC for the sake of say GBP350 and a replacement set of resistors...
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That's what I have planned. The toy dac will be number one, then be sent to duties in number two room when I buy the mkII.

Ill either be asking for a 'new' old one from johns Audiolab supply if that pans out, or buying one from eBay and shipping that across.

But fo people who don't need two dacs, selling their toy or L2 dacs and getting a new 'old' one makes more sense.
 
John, I really hope you didn't miss my post,
jirij said:
John,
if my back panel still doesn't have another hole, I'd like to wait with the balanced headphones option. It will save me some time resoldering the connectors, you should have less work as well, ... and I can live with unbalanced for the time being. Or with the dual 3pin XLRs on the back.

If you're still not 100% sure what connector to use for balanced headphones on MDAC2 (back panel?), I'd probably suggest the 4pin female XLR socket. It might not make much sense engineering-wise, but it's what people mostly use, I've seen it in at least 2 different DIY setups aside from those sennheiser amps. Aside from the crazy double-3pin, of course.

Thanks,
Jiri

edit: One more point for full size 4pin connector - Neutrik sells them ... miniXLR are a lot harder to come by, especially in a good quality.
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(won't be bugging you with it again even if you did :) )

As for the output power - the more juice for my headphones, the better! On unbalanced, I used to listen close to 0db sometimes (on quiet songs) and more headroom would certainly be welcome (that's the reason why I'm going balanced).

Thanks for all the work,
Jiri
 
jirij said:
John,
If you're still not 100% sure what connector to use for balanced headphones on MDAC2 (back panel?), I'd probably suggest the 4pin female XLR socket. It might not make much sense engineering-wise, but it's what people mostly use, I've seen it in at least 2 different DIY setups aside from those sennheiser amps. Aside from the crazy double-3pin, of course.

Thanks,
Jiri

edit: One more point for full size 4pin connector - Neutrik sells them ... miniXLR are a lot harder to come by, especially in a good quality.
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I second full size 4pin female XLR socket
 
misterdog said:
Did someone doubt the inclusion of DSD on the new motherboard?

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue60/dsd.htm

Sounds good to me, already included with JRiver. :D
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Plutox has I believe some doubts about DSD. While I'd agree with him that DSD is not mainstream, there's a lot going on and if John can fit it onto the MK2 MDAC without too much work I reckon it's a very good selling point. There's 20 odd DAC manufacturers on board with this already, 6 media player vendors and 10 download sites listed here http://www.audiostream.com/content/dsd-ready-dacs-short-list. Your link also mentions a DSD over USB standard coming soon.

However the main thing is to get the MK2 into production ASAP so who knows at this early stage if it'll make it on to the final feature set list or maybe as a planned for upgrade.
 
jamjar784 said:
Plutox has I believe some doubts about DSD. While I'd agree with him that DSD is not mainstream, there's a lot going on and if John can fit it onto the MK2 MDAC without too much work I reckon it's a very good selling point. There's 20 odd DAC manufacturers on board with this already, 6 media player vendors and 10 download sites listed here http://www.audiostream.com/content/dsd-ready-dacs-short-list. Your link also mentions a DSD over USB standard coming soon.

However the main thing is to get the MK2 into production ASAP so who knows at this early stage if it'll make it on to the final feature set list or maybe as a planned for upgrade.
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As for the players - I believe any "bit perfect" player should be capable of "playing" PCM-encoded DSD data. It's still just PCM bitstream to the player / driver / streamer hardware, if I understand it correctly. Or is there some "pure DSD" non-PCM-encoded format, playable via proprietary drivers?
 
arthur said:
I do believe you mis-read the fellows post.
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Silly me, how in the world could I think that the fellow wanted his unit to be upgraded to Fusion level only to be able to sell it later on eBay.

arthur said:
The notion that someone cannot sell their own, paid for, stuff is bloody half arsed, botty licking nonsense.
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Now, when and where did I object anyone selling their own property?

We are not talking about stock product here. John is perfectionist and spends great amount of time upgrading each and every MDAC to L2 Fusion. He has indicated, that _he_ is not making any profit out this upgrade.

Do whatever you want with your own unit.

arthur said:
Such sycophants irritate me.
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Thank you Sir, that's the first time I've been called as such.
 
jarip said:
Silly me, how in the world could I think that the fellow wanted his unit to be upgraded to Fusion level only to be able to sell it later on eBay.

when he gets the new mk2 dac he will want to ba able to sell his fusioned one. he may not need two dacs. That difficult to understand??


Now, when and where did I object anyone selling their own property?

again, just to make it clear, when any and all upgrades are done and paid for the dac is the owners to do with as pleases. Including, should it be possible and should he wish too, sell it for a profit.

We are not talking about stock product here. John is perfectionist and spends great amount of time upgrading each and every MDAC to L2 Fusion. He has indicated, that _he_ is not making any profit out this upgrade.

he is being paid the £350 ( less the cost of parts) for the L2 dac mods. That is his income for the work done. Again quite simple.

Do whatever you want with your own unit.

why thank you very much for your permission. Too kind :rolleyes:


Thank you Sir, that's the first time I've been called as such.
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Most welcome.
 
jirij said:
As for the players - I believe any "bit perfect" player should be capable of "playing" PCM-encoded DSD data. It's still just PCM bitstream to the player / driver / streamer hardware, if I understand it correctly. Or is there some "pure DSD" non-PCM-encoded format, playable via proprietary drivers?
Click to expand...
The new way to do it is encoding the DSD bitstream inside PCM packets i.e. DoP http://dsd-guide.com/dop-open-standard so no info lost converting DSD to PCM (which does not get so good reviews). This requires special drivers as supported in the list of players I posted e.g. foobar2000.
 
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