Review : AUDINST HUD-MX1 DAC/amp - a promising newcomer (compared to Audio-gd FUN, AMB Gamma2) - Page 7

have you tried their e-mail customer support?

I asked on their forum:

http://www.audinst.com/en/discussions/topic.php?id=12

The answer is: Microsoft. Maybe a service pack will help in a future. Hopefuly near one!

Thanks for the review, very informative.

woohoo, I got mine today! after two hours of listening I'm really liking it. especially the bass reproduction is what I like. refined and tight, but never bloated. but! if there is a heavier bass line it can show it too! listening to Ametsub's Peaks for Afield, or some James Blake EPs trough the Grado SR125is is really mind blowing. my other reference track Heard It All Before by Emíliana Torrini also shines. just like anything from Iron & Wine to Ólafur Arnalds, if it's well recorded*. I'm also very satisfied with the balance. overall it's a nice improvement after my M-audio audiophile 2496 PCI card.

I'm using it with my desktop pc, powered only by the USB cable, running windows xp, and using winamp+asio4all, because kernel streaming doesn't work.

is there anything else on the software side to do? (maybe upgrading to windows 7 later, but now I don't want to)

aslo, this stuff has a LOT of power. the volume knob is at the 3rd marker and it's completely enough. sometimes I go up to 3.5, but thats the maximum. is this normal? :D

*I really don't get this "Grados are for rock and metal" thing, it's just nonsense. it really depends on the production and not on the genre.

Hello Head-Fiers,
I am new to this whole thing and am trying to figure out a good cheap DAC/Amp. I've already got a pair of Alessandro MS1i phones, but, as expected, the headphone-out of my laptop is lackluster at best. So, after spending many hours lurking and reading the many very informative reviews and opinions found herein, I've set my eye on the HUD-MX1. Would this be a good choice to pair up with the Alessandros or have I missed something and there's a much better choice to go with in this price range? My budget is 100-150£ and the Audinst seems to fit that perfectly.

we have very similar phones, and I'm quite pleased with this DAC. unfortunately I've never tried any other type. I could rely only on the reviews here and elsewhere, and for me it seemed this is the best for the price (with regard to it's components and other's expressions). after a month of hesitation between 5 different DACs I went with the Audinst, and I think I made the right decision.. I'd say go for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zenemano 

aslo, this stuff has a LOT of power. the volume knob is at the 3rd marker and it's completely enough. sometimes I go up to 3.5, but thats the maximum. is this normal? :D

 

Just a quick correction: The position of the volume knob is not related to how much power something has, but what the gain has been set to.  Sounds like the gain is set quite high on the MX1 and you have sensitive, low-impedance headphones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

Just a quick correction: The position of the volume knob is not related to how much power something has, but what the gain has been set to.  Sounds like the gain is set quite high on the MX1 and you have sensitive, low-impedance headphones.

yeah, that's true. also, I have low-impedance headphones, however, the gain in the DAC is set for 16-300 ohm phones.

just found it a little odd..

After 3 weeks of burn-in i can finally enjoy the sound i had payed for. Now I do believe in burn-in, it's not a myth and it can change dramatically the SQ.. Right out of the box Audinst sounded like an onboard realtek codec, after 3 days It reached the quality of an old XtremeMusic. Now, after 3 weeks of waiting, Audinst has finally blown creativ's soundcard away, in nearly everything..  I can finally enjoy classic music, but still, Asus STX did a better job, thus, i consider STX a much superior soundcard in terms of SQ (at least for Sennheiser HD 595 headphones).

And yes, I will recommend Audinst MX-1 to my friends. It's a very ergonomic and easy to use device with good (but not excellent) performance, very suitable for a laptop user. BUT, if you are a desktop PC user , go for Asus STX. You'll get better Sound Quality for the same price.

Yeah, as soon as I got mine I hooked it up to my Caliente (which arrived first) so the amp section of my MX1 isn't really burned in. If what AlexRoma says is true, then there are several dozen hours to go. Perhaps when I go on vacation, I'll only take the MX1 with me and the amp will get its fair share of use. As it is right now, though, it's a great DAC. There are no significant flaws; it completely outclasses my Icon Mobile, unsurprisingly. The imaging and soundstage in particular is very good, and I'm sure it's not the amp doing the work here.

One problem I've experienced is that when I set the output in Foobar2000 to WASAPI, the music inexplicably plays distortedly and at twice the speed. Because of this, I've been using DS, (what does it stand for? Digital Sound?) which sounds great to me, but I really want to try using the WASAPI. Apparently buffer length might have something to do with it - mine is set to 2400 ms - but WASAPI is working fine with the Icon Mobile.

Any help?

Try to lower your buffer length when you you use WASAPI, for my DAC/Amp which uses a PCM2707 USB chip, foobar WASAPI simply refuses to play with buffer over 2000ms long.

Guys, recommend me, please, a seller/shop where I could buy a TREAD PSU for HUD-MX1. I live in Europe (international shipping preferably), browsing for an hour gave me no results... 

 It would be nice to buy it as an plug&play brand device with no need of extra tweaking. 

I ask for help because I'm bad in electronics and do not have extra money for more sophisticated upgrades... From what I've read, the stock PSU is the issue why can't this DAC really bring us the musicality it's up to.. 

why would you want to get a PSU when the power from your computer usb is enough to run this little wonderful device. I'm playing it straight out of usb and no PSU or whatsoever. No problem encountered at all. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noobiiee 

why would you want to get a PSU when the power from your computer usb is enough to run this little wonderful device. I'm playing it straight out of usb and no PSU or whatsoever. No problem encountered at all. 

Well, it's not so much whether the MX1 can be driven sufficiently, it's that a good PSU is a substantial improvement. Either way, I don't think a power supply is that important for AlexRoma's needs, there would probably be a bigger difference from getting a new amp and using the MX1 as a DAC.

OKAY. So after reading about audiofil's experience with switching opamps with the MX1, I wanted to try it for myself. I did some research and decided to go with the AD797. I looked at the datasheets on AD's website and noticed that there was an 8-pin PDIP package of it, which was great because that is the form factor of the stock opamp and I wanted to avoid using an adapter if possible. I know audiofil used got two of the AD797BRZs and used an adapter. I sprung for the AD797ANZ (the PDIP AD797).

Today I got it in the mail and installed it easy as pie, and yes, it is definitely installed in the right direction, the notches are in the same place. Unfortunately, there seems to be something very wrong. The volume is now very low and muffled and there is a lot of distortion in the (very quiet) sound. In short, music comes out, but clearly there is a problem.

Please help! Is there really something so different between the AD797BRZ and the AD797ANZ or did I just install it wrong? Thanks so much in advance!