MHDT Havana DAC - Page 6

The one I got is a demo unit.

I emailed asking if they would send one for review at the Houston Head-fi meet this weekend.

Never heard back.

Just got this the DAC in the mail.

I plan on sending it back to them after the meet.

Nice folk at MHDT, for sure.

Just a note for any Havana/Paradisea+ owners out there ...

The Bendix 6385 is, by far, the best tube I've heard in the Havana (and I'm sure in my Paradisea+ as well) ...

Utterly quiet, smooth and more detailed than the Bendix 2C51.

...



...

Worth the 80 bucks or so that I paid for it, to be sure.

Just a tip.

This just in from "Mouse" at MHDT in Taiwan.

I got this email from him while attending the Houston head-fi.org meet earlier today.

(I've edited out some of the expected taiwanese to english translation problems)

...

Hi Joel,

During the development and "trial testing" of the Havana DAC, many considerations needed to be taken into account.

To us, the source of real digital music ... the center of the DAC world, is the Havana DAC ...

So, we arrived at the name, "Havana."

Meaning that this DAC was all encompassing enough ... all inclusive enough of a DAC ... that it could perform well with any kind of music produced nowadays, ... jazz, classic, rap, rock, electric ... etc.

Some of the more important and essential aspects of the Havana DAC?:

It's more detailed and refined, all the while remaining musical and natural... the same general characteristics that are hallmarks of all of our NOS DACs.

AND ... a surprising fact ... though being a digital DAC, ... the Havana produces "REAL and NATURAL SOUND"

Find yourself an instrument player such as a pianist, violinist, drummer...etc..., and let them listen to the Havana DAC ... then, let them comment on what they hear ... and you will know what I mean.

Real instruments play real sound.

It could be smooth, sharp, loose, edged, harmonic...

Whatever the originally recorded and musical qualities were/are ... that's what you get from the Havana DAC.

The Havana uses dual PCM56P DAC chips; it is a true R2R DAC.

FYI: We will be stopping production of the Havana within the next year due to its expensive manufacturing cost (when compared to other delta-sigma DACS).

...

Otherwise ... and regarding your questions/comments ...

There are many secrets to the Havana DAC, however, I am to busy at the moment to discuss them (I haven't even been able to post new Ebay ads!).

If I have time later, I shall talk more of these "secrets" with you ...

Best Regards,
Jiun-Hsien
Mhdt Labs

...

Ah, hell.

I love this DAC (Havana)

And I love talking to the designers in Taiwan.

Their lack of English/grammatical skills not withstanding ...

I've found everything he said about the Havana (and Paradisea+) to be on point, true and accurate.



To "Mouse" and gang ... thanks again for your contributions to the head-fi/hi-fi scene!!

Best.

.joel (aka "s1rrah")

AFAIK, MHDT is in Taiwan, not China.

Thanks for the clarification.

Honest mistake.

Best.

./joel/.

I had no problems with my copies of Arnaud's tracks. BTW thanks for turning me on to Jack Johnson's Monsoon. I was wondering if anyone out there could comment on the tubes in their Havana DAC? I seem to like the sound better immediately after I swap tubes or when I keep my DAC off and turn it on when I listen to music. If I leave the DAC on all the time and allow the tubes to settle in at their "temperature" I don't like the sound as much. At first I thought it was a mental block, but my wife has become convinced of this as well. I switch the tube out quite a bit. I have some LM Ericsson Gold Pins, Raytheon CK5670's, Ge 5-Stars and Bendix 2c51'a that are my favorites, but the issue seems to be the same with all of them.

Similar experience of tube in Havana

Yes, sometimes the early impression of the tube in swapping is better than after extended on. At first, I thought it is my sub-par ac mains conditions.

Do you think it is heat-related ?
As I use the Havana in open top now (because of my caps mod and also dual battery mod), it seems to suffer less from this problem.

Do you use close the case after each tube swap?

Can you please post some photos of your above mentioned mods?

Also ... can you comment on the sonic differences that the mods made?

Thanks!

.joel

Just a quick word regarding the Havana that MHDT labs sent me for review at the Houston Head-fi.org get together ...

As some might have suspected ... I can now not tolerate having to send the Havana DAC back and so have made arrangements with MHDT to keep it.

Anyway ...

I'm posting the contents of a recent PM between myself and a fellow Head-fi user who is selling his Paradisea+ in order to get a Havana.

I thought my very brief comments regarding the relative differences between the two DACs (Paradisea+ vs. Havana) might be of interest to others, so here goes:


Happy listening!

Sounds like your Paradisea+ was broken.

Oh, it's not broken ... it sounds fantastic ... but the Havana is certainly an upgrade.



Seems the lack of an OPAMP circuit and the inclusion of *dual* Burr Brown PCM56P DACS really does make a pretty dramatic difference.

Got both Paradisea and Havana myself. To me the difference are not as night and day maybe because I already have full tube in downstream, but it's pretty noticeable, the fluidity and the dynamic are so nice, and with more detail.

Maybe its the bendix?! I got Raytheon for both, ordered a batch of 10 russian new issues 6N3P-EV for like $1.20 a pc from Russia. Will try it out in Dec.

Havana with Duelund caps and dual battery mod.

While I was expecting a lot for the dual battery mod, especially that I don't have very good power conditions here, the immediate result is not that impressive. After one day, I added the two "golden caps" to the battery terminals, and another went by, things start to get much better.

I still don't have time to do a complete A/B comparison with the stock power yet, but I am very very impressed with my system right now I also have a bendix 5670 and two tungsols.

Wow now that's some modification Promethk! I like to swap out the tube quite a bit so I run my Havana topless as well. Xcel built a 2 million dollar substation a 1/2 mile from my house so I'm not going to get into the AC line conditioning issue. What value output capacitors are you using? I'm thinking about picking up some 2.0µF / 200VDC Gen I Sonicaps to start with. The battery mod will have a miniscule WAF, so I'm stuck with AC.