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MDAC First Listen (part XXVIII)

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PhilCTTE said:
Oi ! Taking the p out of my amp again :)

Back in the day, TMA owners thread with Dr Zucker & co, it was highly regarded.
Douglas Self was the engineer. Everyone raved on about it. I believe it was well over twice the price of Audiolab retail price . I managed to get them at half the current rrp . So thought it was worth a punt. I,ve heard that Audiolab have put a smaller transformer in place , apart from that I believe they are the same.

I needed a solution as the Mamps are far off from production.
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How many more Ebay links do you want John to post up? ;)
 
LarsS said:
Using this not very enjoyable disc to test/verify systems, covers total spectrum in music - - > http://www.elusivedisc.com/THE-ALL-STAR-PERCUSSION-ENSEMBLE-DXD-CD/productinfo/GSDX002/
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"Super High Definition format: Digital eXtreme Definition 24-bit 352.8kHz CD! Playable on all CD players! "

Well a bit misleading as of coarse it has to be downsampled to 44.1KHz 16 buts, but atleast one would hope that little has been lost in the proceeding stages of mastering.

LarsS said:
Using this not very enjoyable disc to test/verify systems
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Yep, I'm not a big fan of "reference recordings" for sound test... I tend to fall asleep! give me a real band playing live and enjoying themselves :)
 
JohnW said:
No, it does not work how you describe, it drives the headphones deferentially (As a bridged amplifier) - thus provides twice the power, but at all levels and frequency - its totally linear, just twice the power.
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Thank you, John!
 
Otis Taylor is great!!!


JohnW said:
:D :p :D

Ohhh Somebody noticed :)

Well one things for sure, atleast your Bass is tight and firm like...

Heres a great live recording that I use to test that the systems Bass "Jells"...


Sadly is MP3 so you can hear the MD/HF getting"Messy" when it gets complex... but still a great recorded Bass line / drum kit, gets my little speakers going...
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Best amp I owned was a very reasonably priced Copland hi bred valve/solid state CSA515 uses 2 x ECC82. Rated at 125watts / 8 ohms. Problem was I regularly made it shutdown by playing it too loud.
I had it re-built after an accident with my youngest, and sold it during the repair, when it came back, wow it sounded good, lucid and lovely mids with open top end, wish I never let it go.

Must be getting close (50hours on MDAC) to giving the 8200mbs a proper audition. I'll reserve judgement until then.

Are you sure you gave them chance John ?

Its very obvious the improvements in bass , big powerful and controlled , no flabby mosfets or flappy valves here ! :)

Interestingly I've read of someone who salvaged the orig TMA 250mr transformers and popped them in the 8200mbs.. So in your opinion was the Tag Mclaren 250mr's over rated as well ?
 
JohnW said:
Michael,

Your resistors arrived (470R + 1K5) - just need the adaptors...
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Great! I should receive 13 Hicon HI-X3X3-FM any day now.

a_4312_otsi1.jpg
 
Certainly out of my league but these are the best amplifiers I have ever heard in my whole life and the last time I heard them they were fronted by my MDAC L3 :)

http://www.tubedistinctions.co.uk/soul_amps_1.htm

I am fairly confident that most people on hearing these amps would
agree.

They are a hybrid design with solid state circuitry at the front end and a pair of KT120s on the output, run single-ended.

Breathtaking dynamics, speed and transparency sum them up.


The amp I use comes from the same stable or should I say workshop that is similar to John's Lab complete with dog and a few guinea pigs.
 
uwe061 said:
Otis Taylor is great!!!
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Yep :)

I must say that Wintoid's MDAC sounds REALLY good - sadly it will be shipped out this evening, then back to Phils (Ex) standard Black MDAC :(

One thing I've noticed with Youtube is that the Audio drops quite substantially with lower resolution video streams - I have my viewer set to "Auto" video Quality, and when the network traffic gets heavy and Youtube lowers the video resolution, so does the audio quality.... Badly!
 
Steven Toy said:
Certainly out of my league but these are the best amplifiers I have ever heard in my whole life and the last time I heard them they were fronted by my MDAC L3 :)

http://www.tubedistinctions.co.uk/soul_amps_1.htm

I am fairly confident that most people on hearing these amps would
agree.

The amp I use comes from the same stable or should I say workshop that is similar to John's Lab complete with dog and a few guinea pigs.

They are a hybrid design with solid state circuitry at the front end and a pair of KT120s on the output, run single-ended.

Breathtaking dynamics, speed and transparency sum them up.
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Price on application... Give us a clue ;)
 
JohnW said:
Yep :)

I must say that Wintoid's MDAC sounds REALLY good - sadly it will be shipped out this evening, then back to Phils (Ex) standard Black MDAC :(
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Sorry :p


May have opportunity of comparing stock vs fusion. As soon as Mark (ItemAudio) can visit. Maybe within the next week with a bit of luck , otherwise there's another Pfm member from Coventry (Nick1881), who has kindly offered.
 
PhilCTTE said:
:eek::eek::eek: stopped spending that sort of money over 10 years ago, since starting a family and not contracting anymore. Still if you want the best ...
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Lets just say that having heard the MDAC L3 through these amps, their designer and manufacturer is considering getting an MDAC2.
 
JohnW said:
13???? I'll have to employ the 3 little Pups for some slave labour duties! :)
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Yes, thirteen :D

I was about to order four pieces but this guy on ebay was selling his remaining stock...

I'll send them over and you can use the remaining adopters for Tonyb or anyone else who is in need. Well, unless the quality isn't satisfying.

Michael
 
JohnW said:
Heres a great live recording that I use to test that the systems Bass "gels" read as "times well", foot taping etc :) ...

Sadly is MP3 so you can hear the MD/HF getting"Messy" when it gets complex... but still a great recorded Bass line / drum kit, gets my little speakers going...
Click to expand...
I came across a nice "song" I enjoy for both the bass line and the distorted sounds of an electric guitar, both very well represented even by my Toy MDAC. My usual listening levels on (balanced) headphones are around -20dB, but for this rather quiet song, I use -9 to -6dB, just to enjoy the sharpness of the guitar.

It's called Sonho Dourado by Daniel Lanois, I don't know if I can link it from youtube here, but it doesn't matter anyway as the youtube version is nowhere near the CD/flac version.
I really recommend it for bass-based relaxation. :)

JohnW said:
One thing I've noticed with Youtube is that the Audio drops quite substantially with lower resolution video streams - I have my viewer set to "Auto" video Quality, and when the network traffic gets heavy and Youtube lowers the video resolution, so does the audio quality.... Badly!
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There was a vinyl video of Old Time Rock 'n' Roll by Bob Seger which I used to demonstrate the audio quality dependency on video quality, as many friends didn't believe me, because it's not that apparent on vast majority of videos. I guess you need a special music signature to highlight the differences in whatever algorithms Youtube uses. On that video, it was not just subtle, but a whole different song for each of 240p, 360p, 480p and 720p. Too bad I can't find the video anymore. :( edit: found it, OfLu7EFWCnI
 
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