New Audiolab DAC - Page 37

hey yeah no probs. Even 6moons placed it really highly next to even players like puremusic and amarra which cost way more. it is quite revealing though and for some tracks that means some more hiss. so getting an EQ (redline etc) would interest me personally. As said v1.5 will allow for that. Disclaimer: I use ety er4s iems so maybe it is also their fault as they are super revealing on top of audirvana! :0

Did a couple of A/B with the standard power supply(SPS) and the MCRU Power Supply.  I listened to 6 songs with one power supply and the same 6 with the other.  I did this twice and this is what I noticed.  The tracks consist of 2 pop, 2 pop vocal and 2 dance.  Not the best test music.  But this is the type of music I listen to most, thus most familiar with. 

Impression

I turned the V200 headphone amp volume to max without any music playing and could not notice any noise with either power supply.  So noise is not an issue with either of these power supplies.  Now on to the sound.  There is more clarity in the overall presentation with the MCRU.  As a result, I could hear more detail and better separation.  Micro Detail?  The biggest thing I noticed with the MCRU was the treble and how smooth the upper range was.  Female vocals sounded really good with the MCRU.  Each breath taken and certain notes seemed more pronounced.  Bass seem a touch tighter but this was much less noticeable.

The hardware setup is as following:  Apple loss-less CD rips > J River Media Center > ASIO > ASUS Xonar Essence ST > M-DAC > Violectric V200 > HD800.

The above hardware should be sufficient to show any differences between the 2 power supplies.

Sorry I don't have a similar or more expensive DAC to compare it to.

hmm thanks for info! The only higher end DAC ive used with my system was a trial of the arcam DAC which costs 2k sterling. I noticed a more solid presentation and 

less hiss in upper freq bands..smoother as you say the MDAC is now with the new PSU. 

My longer term plan is looking at chord DAC .. but that is 3200 sterling! I mostly listen to modern classical and ambient drone. upper band smoothness is a priority for me. 

So thanks for impressions. Personally Ive found power cables have made a massive difference to my SPL amp. ive settled on a merlin black widow over the beefier audioquest

nrg2..which would work great with HD800 and SPL but with HD650s the bass is too emphasized. great way to bring amp presentation forward also! if i had the HD800s id get 

a nrg2 for sure. (i have ety er4s which are in similar sound characteristics to hd800) 

Not sure if I'm a big believer in power cables.  But I do have a big beefy cable for my V200.  Cost about $125 on clearance.  Regular was suppose to be $250.  I'm just using the supplied $5 cable that came with the MCRU PS at the moment.

Anyone got a chance to compare the M-Dac to the Mytek stereo 96 ? I can't seem to find any comparison of the to on-line. I'm looking for a new dac int the 800-900$ range, and currently trying to decide witch one of those two. Will use the dac with AKG K1000s.

Well, I replaced the Mytek Stereo 96 with a M-DAC. When I first got the M-DAC I was convinced it was more detailed than the Mytek so it was sold few days later. The MDAC became my fith DACs in the space of one year. While it was obvious differences were subtle between DACs, every times I though my last one was slighlty better than the previous ones.

Now I spend the last four days A/B four dacs in a proper way and it doesn't matter how hard I tried I can't detect any differences 

so, you're saying that they're on the same level ? what about the sound signature, are there any differences there ?

I don't have the Mytek any longer. But I am confident the four DACs I have at the moment sounds exaclty the same to those ears through the HE-6, despite using very different designs. Make your own conclusion...

I knew there would be very stubble differences between dacs in the same price range, but didn't tough they would be this stubble, any chance that your amp is not up for the job ?, I know that the HE-6 is tough to drive.

That was my initial reaction but I tried my HE-6 on many amplifiers , including vintage monster receiver and the Shiit Mjolnir, and the Topping TP60 I used for the comparison is one of the most transparent I heard. 

Maybe you're concentrating to hard, you should listen to the music and focus on your feelings about it. I once read it from Till that this way it's easier, the swapping quickly.

@zenpunk .. i see you have the dacmagic in your room there. Are you saying you can't tell the difference between it and the mdac? I got the mdac after dacmagic and i felt it was

very clearly better...esp around vocals and drums. much more engaging and smoother. I found the dacmagic with my SPL amp harsh. 

But I would agree that many have said the mdac competes well with dacs even costing 2k sterling e.g zodiacs. Personally Im looking at Chord DACs or Meitner (lol if i win the lottery) 

as alternatives. computeraudiophile.com has a cool 'C.A.S.H list' section on the top dacs today. 

P.S anyone have any tips on the best balanced SS amps for HD800s? im looking at bryston at the mo

The funny thing is the Dacmagic belong to my friend and when he first brought it I plugged it in place of my MDAC and I really liked the sound of it. It was not as detailed as the MDAC but very "analogue" and slightly laidback somehow.

But when I compared it head to head with the MDAC it  was pretty clear I couldn't hear the slightest difference.

To be honest I am not interested in convincing anybody but I just KNOW after four days of testing that those four DACs sound exactly the same through my system and my ears. 

I had already decided I was going to upgrade to a NAD51 but no more DACs for me for a while. 

hmmm amps do make a difference is discerning diffs between dacs maybe. I had a lehmann linear amp with the dacmagic, but the lehmann became faulty so i replaced

it with the SPL amp and then pretty quickly I wasn't happy with the dacmagic. i think the lehmann smoothed the dacmagic while the SPL is a more transparent amp. 

The way people praise it (for a SE amp) means its pretty scalable. Would love to check it out with chord dacs.