Review : AUDINST HUD-MX1 DAC/amp - a promising newcomer (compared to Audio-gd FUN, AMB Gamma2) - Page 6

I received my MX1 yesterday. While I won't comment on its performance, as my only other DAC is an Icon Mobile, other than to say it does its job well and is very powerful for its size. I was quite impressed by how it was packaged and presented. It looks very official, and I wouldn't be able to tell they were a new company just from looking at the box. The engineering is also very precise, and the device is well built. The prepackaged cables don't seem that bad; I was expecting thin, flimsy crap, but at least the USB and RCA cables are quite sturdy. Oh, and personally, the faceplate doesn't look that bad to me.

Just some thoughts of mine, but I'll leave the sound impressions up to more experienced Head-Fiers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 12345142 

I received my MX1 yesterday. While I won't comment on its performance, as my only other DAC is an Icon Mobile, other than to say it does its job well and is very powerful for its size. I was quite impressed by how it was packaged and presented. It looks very official, and I wouldn't be able to tell they were a new company just from looking at the box. The engineering is also very precise, and the device is well built. The prepackaged cables don't seem that bad; I was expecting thin, flimsy crap, but at least the USB and RCA cables are quite sturdy. Oh, and personally, the faceplate doesn't look that bad to me.

 

Just some thoughts of mine, but I'll leave the sound impressions up to more experienced Head-Fiers.

I think you should do a comparison it's important to have impressions from all sorts of users in this forum. So tells how you feel it differs from the Icon Mobile. It will be a good exercise.
 

Seeing as I don't have much to do right now, I'll do that after 50 hours or so on the Audinst. Thanks for making me reconsider.

Got mine yesterday. I got Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 before. My HP are AKG k271s. Can't say what's better, i'd decide later. but mx-1 plays way louder. I could listen to HD2 @max level, and with mx-1 i can't. First impression: the lows are softer a bit, but the scene definitely wider. Anyway i'd write my opinion after some use.

And i got some question about it. 

1. Does the 1/4" jack output differs from 3.5mm?? I got an adaptor fron 3.5mm to 1/4". What jack is better? or there's no significant difference.

2. Now i play with foobar and outpur to DS: SPDIF(mx-1). OS is windows7. i used ASIO drivers with hd2(and Windows XP). Do i need any drivers? I also got WASAPI plugin. Should i use it or not?

3. Power unit. I've read it makes some noticeable difference. The one was in the box doesn't seem to be high quality. Where i can buy one, or get a circuit(device scheme) to soilder it by myself?

4. USB cable? Does it worth it to change??

Excuse for my bad english, it's not my native.

How does this DAC/amp stack up against the Maverick D1?

hi audiofil, you mentioned that you have audio-gd discrete opamp Moon and Earth. Did you try it with Audinst? I'm wondering how much can the MX be upgraded. Is moon or earth better than your favourite other opamp? which one and is it worth it?

My Audinst HUD arrived yesterday. My first impressions right out of the box were terrible.. I was really terrified by the harshness of trebles. They were even worst compared to the integrated laptop HD audio.. 

After a night of burn-in , things changed , but only slightly..

Today, after 20 hours of burn-in, I've made a serious comparison between Audinst and my PC's XtremeMusic (default settings, no 3D), with Sennheiser HD 595 headphones. The test was made using Winamp 5.5, Windows 7 OS, selected FLAC recordings (Billy McLaughlin, Yes, Elvis, Stix, Paco de Lucia, Blackmore Nights, Alone in the Dark OST)

Fortunately , harshness of the trebles reduced, but did not disappear. The scene, compared to X-fi, has slightly reduced, all the musicians are presented in a single line, very closed to each over and to the listener. XtremeMusic give a little more space and air in the sound, IMHO (109db DAC  vs 117db on Audinst) . 

BUT, the overall sound in MX1 is better balanced. No more painfull sibilance in soprano (but still, there is some sibilance), and also a slightly better bass impact, that's all..

The main complain is about detail.. In fact, I was hoping to hear an entirely new level of quality and detail compared to an 5 years-old, 120$ Creative sound-card.. Especially after some guy here, ensured me that Audinst is much better then Emu 0404usb , X-fi Forte , or even Asus STX !..  But no detail change at all.. Little difference in sound balance, but that's all !

So, my question is, what's the point in all that high-end stuff, the huge amplification factor, if the product sounds close to an avarage X-fi (on my HD595 at least)?   . Oh, and i've powered Audinst properly, with power adapter pluged in, not from usb output only.

Where's the promised SQ, huge scene and detail, is it all about 100 hours burn-in ? 

Do you use ASIO, Kernel Streaming or WASAPI with HUD? Install foobar2000, get a proper plugin and give it a try :)

I've just acquired the Audinst HUD-MX1 as a loaner unit of sort and the first impressions are really positive. I had the very popular nuForce uDAC prior to this for 2 weeks but overall I was not really impressed as detail retrieval was so-so and the bass and treble were fuzzy. I think it's obvious to me that the HUD-MX1 is better sounding unit of the two at least in terms of balance. Overall it presents a more even sound with greater details at both ends of the spectrum compared to the uDAC. It's also less forward sounding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexRoma 

My Audinst HUD arrived yesterday. My first impressions right out of the box were terrible.. I was really terrified by the harshness of trebles. They were even worst compared to the integrated laptop HD audio.. 

After a night of burn-in , things changed , but only slightly..

Today, after 20 hours of burn-in, I've made a serious comparison between Audinst and my PC's XtremeMusic (default settings, no 3D), with Sennheiser HD 595 headphones. The test was made using Winamp 5.5, Windows 7 OS, selected FLAC recordings (Billy McLaughlin, Yes, Elvis, Stix, Paco de Lucia, Blackmore Nights, Alone in the Dark OST)

Fortunately , harshness of the trebles reduced, but did not disappear. The scene, compared to X-fi, has slightly reduced, all the musicians are presented in a single line, very closed to each over and to the listener. XtremeMusic give a little more space and air in the sound, IMHO (109db DAC  vs 117db on Audinst) . 

BUT, the overall sound in MX1 is better balanced. No more painfull sibilance in soprano (but still, there is some sibilance), and also a slightly better bass impact, that's all..

 

The main complain is about detail.. In fact, I was hoping to hear an entirely new level of quality and detail compared to an 5 years-old, 120$ Creative sound-card.. Especially after some guy here, ensured me that Audinst is much better then Emu 0404usb , X-fi Forte , or even Asus STX !..  But no detail change at all.. Little difference in sound balance, but that's all !

 

 

So, my question is, what's the point in all that high-end stuff, the huge amplification factor, if the product sounds close to an avarage X-fi (on my HD595 at least)?   . Oh, and i've powered Audinst properly, with power adapter pluged in, not from usb output only.

 

Where's the promised SQ, huge scene and detail, is it all about 100 hours burn-in ? 

Ever considered that the Audinst simply reveals your HD595 as the terrible sounding headphone as it is?
 

I've never really liked the HD5xx in Sennheiser line of headphones as they sound like well, crap.

I already asked that in another post, but let me ask again.

Did you manage to get HUD send pass-through AC3/DTS sound to your home cinema.

I've been trying to do that for a couple of days, but still no results.

I have Win7 x64, kmplayer (also tried vlc, powerdvd, media player classic with ac3filter), optical link to my amplifier. All I ger is 2 channel (even 96kHz) but to ac3/dts.

Also no sound while testing 3 options in Windows parameters of HUD. Only in test for frequencies - all sounds fine.

Any help? How to set it up in Win7?

I tried that. It seems that Win7 decodes the signal instead of ac3filter. In foobar WASAPI sending dts encoded in wav works fine. Well I now only know that it CAN pass through the signal. Only have to work out how to do "no mixing" in film players/decoders.

Thanks anyway.