Musical Fidelity V-DAC Owners? - Page 56

Is the MF V-dac able to convert 5 channels of toslink to 2 channels of headphone? Wouldn't be a deal breaker, but just curious.

OK. I finally purchased the Pyramid PSU which is the next model up of the PS3KX (3 amp instead of 2.5 amp) since that is the lowest Pyramid model I can get in Canada. Shipping PS3KX from US would not be much cheaper than buying this model locally.

I also switched it with the wall wart for comparison and found that the high seems cleaner and the sound stage seems more stable but not sure if this is placebo effect but the bass is noticeably tighter. This I can be sure. At least, there is improvement over the original wall wart although not night & day and as you said, the dac will run cooler and hopefully will extend the life of the equipment in long term.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nycbone 

A few of us posted impressions above. I switch the power supplies from time to time (just for laughs) and find the bass a little tighter with the Pyramid, but nothing earth-shattering. Was it worth $17 + shipping from Amazon? Maybe... if only to get rid my power strip of the fat wal-wart plug. I also use the Pyramid with my V-LPS and may use it to run a cooling fan for my HD Radio tuner. Then I'll be getting my $'s worth, since it will be used for each of my three sources.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlai08 

Honestly, do you hear any improvement by replacing the wall-wart with the Pyramid PSU apart from placebo effects? I read that some users did not hear any difference. Not sure if it is worth to buy the Pyramid.

Battery power tested again

This year october I set up a test between psu and a battery as power supply (see page 55 on this forum). Because I had nothing else to do for Christmas (besides eating and drinking with my family) I decided to pick up the project again. Last october I was disapointed because I did not hear any differences between a 1A psu and a 12V battery. I used the battery of a Black and Decker drill which has a noticably steady 12V supply compared to the standard MF wall ward. 

This time I decided to invest in a 12V 7Ah SLA battery (20 euro's). Using the same microcontroller based setup I seem to hear a lot more bass. May be this really works. It is hard to be certain yet because I did not compare the battery with the psu yet. Also the cristmas tree is in the way of the ideal speaker setup. So the real testing has to wait a week or two. But for now I'm satisfied with my new battery powered system!  

Greetings,

Jaap

Bump!

Apologies that I have not read this whole thread, but searching for this answer is a bit difficult.

Does the V-DAC take 24/96 or 24/192 as input as well as standard CD formats?  The manual only says "[b]Up Sampling:[/b] 24/192."  I want to use high-end FLAC, and I don't want it downconverted then upconverted again!

Thanks.

-Pie

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eating Pie 

Bump!

 

Apologies that I have not read this whole thread, but searching for this answer is a bit difficult.

 

Does the V-DAC take 24/96 or 24/192 as input as well as standard CD formats?  The manual only says "[b]Up Sampling:[/b] 24/192."  I want to use high-end FLAC, and I don't want it downconverted then upconverted again!

 

Found the answer from Stereophile.

The USB input feeds the ubiquitous Burr-Brown PCM2706 receiver chip, which is limited to 16-bit data and sample rates of up to 48kHz. The USB receiver operates in "adaptive" mode, where control of the data flow is subcontracted to the PC; it feeds the recovered audio data to a Burr-Brown SRC4392 sample-rate-converter chip, which also handles data up to 24-bit resolution and sample rates up to 96kHz from the TosLink and coaxial S/PDIF ports. Using this chip to upsample incoming data to 192kHz reduces the effect of datastream jitter.

USB is 16/48.

Toslink/SPDIF is 24/96.

-Pie

I found the blue LED of my V-DAC is much dimmer than the green one when there is a music signal to the DAC, are all the V-DAC the same like mine?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eating Pie 

 

Found the answer from Stereophile.

 

The USB input feeds the ubiquitous Burr-Brown PCM2706 receiver chip, which is limited to 16-bit data and sample rates of up to 48kHz. The USB receiver operates in "adaptive" mode, where control of the data flow is subcontracted to the PC; it feeds the recovered audio data to a Burr-Brown SRC4392 sample-rate-converter chip, which also handles data up to 24-bit resolution and sample rates up to 96kHz from the TosLink and coaxial S/PDIF ports. Using this chip to upsample incoming data to 192kHz reduces the effect of datastream jitter.

 

USB is 16/48.

Toslink/SPDIF is 24/96.

 

-Pie

SPDIF 24/192

Hi everyone,  this is my solution for upgrading the power supply of the V-DAC.  I love using it!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/12v10-Power-Supply-for-Musical-Fidelity-V-series-V-PsU-Alternative/206318899418686?sk=info

If anyone is looking for a linear 12v PSU to use with the V-DAC, and is comfortable tinkering with circuit boards, I have an Eagle benchtop-style one that must have a little blown resistor somewhere (I was hastily trying to connect it during my first attempt at upgrading the V-DAC's power supply and reversed polarity).  Free to anyone who's interested.  I never got to hear this one and ended up using a Mean Well SMPS and/or SLA battery supply instead, and they both sound good.  Send me a message if you can use the PSU.  Located in UK West Midlands or I can post at your expense.

Has anyone tried the Pangea Power supply sold on AudioAdvisor.com?  Initial observations are good - beefy transformer and nice vibrations dampening enclosure.  It's made for both the DacMagic and the V-dac.  reasonably priced at 100 bucks...not bad.   BTW currently using Pyramid Linear Power Supply.

I've been using it for about two weeks, but only got around to A/B'ing it with the wall wart tonight. It smoothed out the upper midrange and softened the treble some. The bass might be a little rounder as well, but this was subtle. I actually found it to be a tiny bit too polite with my tube preamp in line, and I missed the slight "bite" of the wall wart. I'm debating what to do with it. It's definitely a substantial power supply that looks cool on the AV rack.          

Thanks a lot for the input about the Pangea PSU.  When you say that it "softened" the treble, do you think that this is do to less coloration in the treble?  Could it be more refined treble?  My system is not what you'd call bright, having Spendors and a French amp.  I was mainly hoping that the PSU would enhance the already great qualities of the VDAc (great timbre, smooth midrange, etc.).  

I would say that it did refine the sound, but primarliy in a subtractive way. It eliminated little traces of glare around female voices, saxophones, etc. that I hadn't noticed before, and pushed them a little backwards. Cymbals lost some of their hardness (a bad quality) and crispness (a good quality) in favor of shimmer and a little less prominence. Hardness, crispness and prominence may all be distortions, but some of these in certain systems can actually add to the musical involvement. At first I thought these changes might just be indicative of the "Pangea" sound, but a V-PSU review on Amazon pretty much mirrors my findings and also suggests a careful audition. These are two different forms of regulated power, but both seem to be having a similar effect. Ultimately I think you should give it a try, but if you don't already have $100 invested in interconnects, even good digital one, then maybe you should also order a new pair of those in order to see which of the two products improve your sound more. Believe it or not, I actually feel the $30 I spent on my USB cable was equally effective at changing the sound.

Also, keep in mind that that my current impressions were made while wearing closed back headphones, so I might notice some of those supposed additive refinements (soundstage, imaging, etc.) after comparing through my MMGs.     

Just wanted to give an update on the old trusty V-DAC.  Received my Pangea P-100 PSU in the mail today and have been listening for the past two hours.  First impressions are that the level of detail has gone up noticeably and the overall transparency is better.  Also, there seems to be more "quickness" or PRAT in the sound.  Articulations in strings have more bite and uh..articulation.  To me, there seems to be more blackness in-between the notes making the sound more immediate and punchy.  Highs are less fatiguing and just sweeter.  So far, I'm super happy with this upgrade over the Pyramid PSU.  

Day two:

I'd say that the bass has tightened up substantially after burning in for a number of hours.  It's interesting that Mark6 said that the highs got softer - the highs sound more refined to my ears than before and the subtraction of sibilance may have something to do with this.  While I've always thought that the V-dac was sweet in the upper register, I think it is now even sweeter and more extended - doesn't get harsh in the upper registers.