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Musiland MD-10 - Page 9

post #121 of 269
1/31/07 at 8:30pm
You can set bit depth?

Hmm... I'm not home at the moment but I thought bit depth was automatic in the Musiland. For me it doesn't matter, since I use a Behringer 2496 to do all my upsampling. (UPDATE, UPDATE) Got home. Yes bit depth is settable. After some prolonged listening it does work as advertised, but IMHO not as good (by the smallest of margins) as the SRC2496.

Upsampling does make a difference in sound. Good or bad?, it's up to your ears. But my engineering textbooks say that upsampling makes the sound better but at a small price in precision.

In my system I upsample to 24/96 most of the time. Sounds warmer and richer to me, at the expense of not quite sounding as sharp. Might be good, might be bad. Depends on your system and your ears. FWIW I don't upsample on punk or early, well mastered rock. Everything else gets upsampled.
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post #122 of 269
2/1/07 at 8:17pm
OK, I'm ready to comment on the Musiland MD-10. Not a review, mind you but my feelings only.

To me the Musiland is well worth the $285 shipped that I paid at iFi.com.

Much richer sounding than anything that I've heard under about $750. Very flexible with good inputs (coax, BNC, USB and optical). Only one set of rca outs. I wish there were more, including XLR balanced. But what can I expect for the price?

The sound is musical, lots of overtones with a slight emphasis on the lower mids in my system. YMMV, of course. Good tight bass, given the right phones, again, of course. Highs are there, very clean, maybe a slight graininess until breakin is complete. I've got 350 hours on mine and I still think it's smoothing out.

As far as the headphone out, I'd call it servicable. No more. Not bad sounding and a good interim solution until you can upgrade. BUT only if you have low impedance phones, like the UM2's. Senn 580, 600, 650's simply won't work. Ultrasone 2500's while better are marginal. You've been forewarned.

Overall, I'm quite pleased and think it's hard to beat. Especially for the price. This is not just a computer DAC IMO, it's worth consideration in a good mid to mid high priced headphone setup.
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post #123 of 269
2/2/07 at 7:40pm
thanks for the impression pageman99. If someone could do a comparison between MD-10 and SVDAC05 (both available at pacific valve), that be great.
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post #124 of 269
2/3/07 at 8:30am
Hi all. Mine has FINALLY arrvived in the country (friend of mind bought it with him from Australia). I am going to pick it up tonight. However, it seems that the glass toslink cable I ordered from the US has not arrived and has been lost (read stolen) by the local PO. I know the MD10 comes with one, but the one I ordered came with a mini-Toslink adapter which I need, and which no one in the country actually keeps stock of!

I am going to try arrange another one ASAP, but in the interim I wanted to ask: has anyone tried comparing the MD10 used with bit-perfect ASIO input (i.e. digital coax or optical) vs. using it via USB with ASIO4ALL or ASIO2KS?

Cheers,
X
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post #125 of 269
2/9/07 at 1:34am
Got my MD10 today.

But there is no sound coming out of it - nether the headphone nor the rca.

I connect it to DVD digital out via RCA. The input shows correctly though.

I am going to play with one more time before send it back.
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post #126 of 269
2/9/07 at 2:31am
OK, now I can make it work with my notebook via USB.

I will try my DVD again later.
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post #127 of 269
2/9/07 at 5:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pftrvlr View Post
OK, now I can make it work with my notebook via USB.

I will try my DVD again later.
Make sure the DVD player's output is set to PCM Audio, NOT Dolby Digital.
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post #128 of 269
2/11/07 at 3:43pm
I did some more tests on the MD10/TC7510 with CDP/DVP. Here is the results:

MD10 + Rotel 951 CDP - OK
MD10 + DVP - No sound
TC7510 + CDP - OK
TC7510 + DVP - OK

So, looks like that MD10 is more picky about the source than TC7510.

It is fine with me, I will use the MD10 with my computer only.

BTW, the TC7510 thread

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=209849
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post #129 of 269
2/13/07 at 11:31am
Odd. The MD10 works fine with my DVD player, and with everything, DVD-A (both 5.1 and stereo), CDs, DVD's, burned CD's.

I've no idea why yours wouldn't work, wish I could help.
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post #130 of 269
2/14/07 at 2:06pm
I'm very close to buying the MD10.

Some people suggested it could compete with a Zhaolu 2.5...modded (zapfilter, bypassing, ect) or stock?
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post #131 of 269
2/16/07 at 4:35pm
Just got mine up and running now, finally! Will do some listening and post some initial impressions, as well as any changes I hear (I've read it needs quite a bit of burn-in). On a quick sidenote - I am now using it with optical input using a glass optical cable, coming from the optical out of my Edirole UA-1EX. Sound is far superior to USB IMHO.
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post #132 of 269
2/16/07 at 7:18pm

Musiland MD-10

I too am very impressed with the MD10. For $270 from iFi audio (thanks Wei for the great service) it's a steal. I have tried it on several playback systems using it as a preamp with it's digital attenuator, and I have always heard details I never knew were there. I haven't had the opportunity to compare it to the Zhaolu 2.5, but I took it to my work (I'm an audio engineer) and compared it to the Apogee Rosetta 800 (8-channel), and the stock converters in a Pro Tools HD system and the details I heard coming from this unit were far better than the Pro Tools HD and very comparable to the Apogee, but not better. The Apogee just has more air around it, better bass definition and greater depth in the soundstage, but at $337 per channel I might add.

I agree that it does take some time for burn in, but it's worth it. I agree that the USB (while good) doesn't compare to a good HQ coax cable. I haven't had the opportunity to try it with a glass toslink cable, but it sounds very promising.

I would highly recommend the MD10 and the selectable bitrate depth is kinda cool for taking the "edge" off of "loudness-war" mastered CD's, but on good recordings, I prefer the 16bit setting for CD's.
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post #133 of 269
2/16/07 at 7:27pm
yeah i have had one for about two months now and I must say it's a great little box. warms up digital sound nicely imo.
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post #134 of 269
2/19/07 at 2:02pm
Just want to say how much I'm loving my Musiland MD10. I've paired it with a pair of 32ohm DT 990's. The internal amp drives these brilliantly.

I tried a comparison with my Corda Aria. The DAC in the Musiland is way better than the Aria - very easy for me to A/B the difference. More detail and warmth from the Musiland. I then took the RCA out from the Musiland into the Aria and used the Aria just as an amp. I honestly couldn't tell a difference between the Aria's amp and the Musiland's into the 32ohm Beyers. So I've sold the Aria (as well as a Zhaolu 1.3 - the Musiland sounds warmer and more organic to me than the Zhaolu.)

I've got used to the 3 button controls on the Musiland and I love how it remembers settings after it's been switched on and off.

I can thoroughly recommend pairing the Musiland with some low impedence Beyers.

Computer info: I'm listening via the optical out from the computer. The USB sounds just as good but I find it easier to run Foobar2000 in Kernel streaming mode which doesn't work via USB on my system. Running it this way I can reduce the volume of other Windoze sounds so they don't interfere with the music.
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post #135 of 269
2/19/07 at 4:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by minktoast View Post
Computer info: I'm listening via the optical out from the computer. The USB sounds just as good but I find it easier to run Foobar2000 in Kernel streaming mode which doesn't work via USB on my system. Running it this way I can reduce the volume of other Windoze sounds so they don't interfere with the music.
The fb2k KS USB does not work on my laptop either. I have to use DS USB, because I can't add sound card to the laptop.
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