Musical Fidelity V-DAC Mk. II & V-Link Mk. II - Page 2

Just got my hands on the MK-II.  I am uploading my unboxing video on YouTube right now.  

Keep hitting Refresh.

It's UP!!

I've had mine for around a week. Too busy for detailed listening or comparisons but via HD800s driven by a Zana Deux, it sounds natural, spacious and musical with notably fine tone on strings, guitars and female voices. From memory it has more bass impact and clarity and better separation than the original, but wouldn't want to commit to more than that on the basis of of my limited critical listening. New casing is nice, still light but more attractive and sturdier anchoring for plugs I reckon.

I have an X-PSU (v1) kicking around, but annoyingly the DC plugs are different sizes, so can't connect it up until I have an adapter.

More in a few days, once work thins a little.

o

Read the British magazine Hifi News and Record Review.... review. They loved it, and said it trounces the original. The measurements back this up to, its not all fluff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Norman 

Can someone tell me if the new DC plugs are the same size as the old ones?
Was planning to get a V-PSU MK2 but not sure if the sizes were compatible.

Yes. It's a 3.5 mm plug. Doesn't fit the original V-PSU. I think you can buy adapters.

o

I'm currently in the market for a DAC as well, and the V-Dac MKII is currently on the top of my list.

My budget is around 200-300 euros (275-400 dollars).

I'm surprised to see that there is not much interest in this DAC on Head-Fi, everybody seems to be drooling over the Schiit Bifrost and whatnot.

But since I live in Europe, importing the Bifrost would be quite a hassle and financially not attractive at all, the USB version of the Bifrost would cost me somewhere between $600-700 with all the importing costs and taxes added.

Anyone else received their V-Dac II and would comment or write a review on it? 

With the lack of reviews/responses out there its kind of hard to make a decision.

Is it just me? I still prefer the separate components V-Link>>>V-Dac over the combined unit......And I also still prefer the old black style box over the silver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wazza 

 

With the lack of reviews/responses out there its kind of hard to make a decision.

 

 

 

Ouhhh.. Your ears will make the decision :). I have the V-DAC and for me it sounds good and is sufficient..

Quote:

Originally Posted by monoethylene 

Ouhhh.. Your ears will make the decision :). I have the V-DAC and for me it sounds good and is sufficient..

Hehe, well.. If I want to listen to it I probably have to buy it first, there aren't exactly a lot of dealers around here who got it in the showroom, so I'm sort of depending on responses from other people to get a bit of an idea whether it would be a good buy or not, and the overall lack of interest on these forums makes one wonder if there something wrong about it. 

I ve only found one review and there it has been very good. Nevertheless there are a lot of reviews of the V DAC and normally there would be an improvement in the second version..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wazza 

Hehe, well.. If I want to listen to it I probably have to buy it first, there aren't exactly a lot of dealers around here who got it in the showroom, so I'm sort of depending on responses from other people to get a bit of an idea whether it would be a good buy or not, and the overall lack of interest on these forums makes one wonder if there something wrong about it. 

 

No, it is a very, very good dac. I think it performs similar to Audio-GD NFB2/3; balanced, pretty quiet. I think the Schiit Bifrost has sucked the air out of the room for the past few months so other new dacs are being ignored. That said I also bought a Dacport LX and it is outstanding (but usb-only).

I own both the V-DAC and V-DAC II, as well as the V-Link.  They are both very good.  This is in comparison to a Benchmark USB costing 4-5 times as much as well as the highly regarded Marantz SA-8004 (DAC mode) and a DAC Magic.  My experience with good DAC's is a matter of voicing.  The V-DAC line is not as detailed as the Benchmark but it is very smooth and highly enjoyable, and possibly (read very subtle differences) not as spacious as the DAC Magic.  However, as with all good quality modern audio products, it is a matter of taste.  There are few significant differences, all are subtle and have their own pluses and minuses.  You cannot go wrong with the V-DAC I or II.

I am also more leaning to the musical fidelity V dac II . It looks very good , stylish and has good reputation of MF. 

With upgraded power supply, it will be even more impressive

Any links to published reviews for the V-Link II?  Early UK reports say that the V-Link II is still capped at 96, contradicting some claims that it goes up to 192.

It looks like there's a V-Link 192 coming out in Dec 2011 at $399.

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-53356-musical-fidelity-v-link-192-usb-to-coax-converter.aspx

http://www.musicdirect.com/images/product/large/amufivlink192.jpg

Wish there was a comparison of the V-Link 192 vs the SotM dX-USB-HD unit, but I can't find a single thing on the latter.