Austin Morrow
Headphoneus Supremus
MHDT Labs is a company that has been on the audio scene for quite a few number of years. One of their very first products, the Havana (and now the Balanced Havana, which has been heavily requested) was an absolutely gorgeous looking DAC that had fabulous audio fidelity, very good specifications, and was priced at just a tick under $1000. While it didn’t gain as much popularity as it should have in the audio community, MHDT has come a long way and have since released the Stockholm V2, which incorporates the PCM65P-J DAC chip, as well as a variety of other things. Anyway, enough about the short intro, let’s get to the review, because I have a lot to talk about with this little gem.
I don’t even know where to begin with this thing. Actually, I know exactly where to start. Let’s talk customer service and shipping. I received an email back within 10 minutes from Jiun after a quick review request email. He immediately sent the unit out the next day after I provided my shipping information. What’s even more insane (and I mean insane in the most literal sense of the word) is that the Stockholm V2 arrived at my doorstep a mere 3 days after being shipped out. I mean, really, 3 days to ship from Taiwan all the way to Washington? That’s a miracle in and of itself, kudos to MHDT Labs for fantastic customer service and extremely reliable shipping.
The Stockholm V2 arrived in a very simple, form fitting box that doesn’t have a lot of unneeded labels and stickers, it was just a box with the product. Included is a simple power cable, the unit itself, and some kind of disc (I’m guessing the disc includes Windows drivers or something of the sort, I’ll have to look more into that as I can’t find any additional information on what it might be). After fiddling around with the styrofoam covers, I was finally able to pry the unit out of the box, and my goodness, it was beautiful. I really don’t understand where people think this looks and feels like a DIY project, because it’s the farthest thing from that. Okay, maybe the slightly transparent acrylic panel looks slightly DIY, but the rest of the chassis screams high-end to me.
Speaking of the design, why don’t we go over the Stockholm V2 as a whole? Like I said in the previous paragraph, the faceplate of the Stockholm V2 is slightly transparent, with a red hue that’s visible in the sunlight, almost ruby-red. You can clearly see the innards of the device, and while I think that this might actually be a slight turn off for some people, I enjoy it a lot. Not only does it provide a slightly more naked look inside the DAC, but you can also see the tube glow when listening at night, neat! Additionally, the rest of the chassis is screwed together very tightly using very nice individual pieces of brushed aluminum. I’m not joking when I say the build quality surpasses and rivals some of the best DAC’s int he high end range, it’s that good.
The Stockholm V2 has all the inputs and outputs one can hope for, sans balanced outputs (there’s the Balanced Havana and the Balanced Stockholm for that), Toslink, Coaxial, USB, and even BNC are all standard, as well as some RCA jacks for the output. So, with that out of the way, you’re probably wondering why in the hell there is a tube sitting in a DAC. Well, it’s simple really, the Stockholm 2, as well as every other MHDT DAC, uses a tube buffer stage coupled with a solid state design. I’m not going to go into specifications and the like (there’s Google for that), and I’d much rather talk about the sonic capabilities than bore you with the science behind how this thing works.
Generally speaking, the Stockholm V2 is not a fast or speedy DAC, nor is it a slow or syrupy DAC. It sits a little bit behind the Yulong DA8 when it comes to speed and dynamic punch, but is on nearly the same level when it comes to transparency and imaging. The Stockholm V2 has a very mild tonal balance that is slightly more revealing than that of the Yulong DA8. There’s a slight mid bass punch with a bit of bloom, but it’s nothing to be tangled up about. The Stockholm V2 presents bass with elegant finesse, a slower than usual decay time that makes for a very relaxing and very full bodied bass presence, and a transient response that is better fitted for a slower and less up tempo genres, like trance and jazz. The midrange is slightly less forward than the lower octaves, about an inch or so behind, with a brighter vocality presence than the DA8. Additionally, I find that the midrange of the Stockholm V2 is more neutral than warm, which is very nice, as there isn’t a lot of coloration going on at all.
Up top, the Stockholm V2 has an ever so slight bit of treble roll off that I can sense. Don’t get me wrong, it extends well (just as good as the DA8), but is slightly more warm than most DAC’s I’ve heard. It isn’t as smooth as the DA8, but it is less than neutral, that’s for sure. It’s extremely enjoyable and peaceful (I’m starting to wonder if all these sonic capabilities are due to the tube implementation). Lastly, just like the DA8, the Stockholm V2 has a great sense of spatial awareness and airiness. The soundstage is very big in both directions, and depth is something to die for with this DAC, everything is just so accurately placed and well done. I still feel like the DA8 is the king of all DAC’s when it comes to pure precision, but the Stockholm V2 is very, very close in this regard.
I’ve come away feeling like the Stockholm V2 is a very nice product, considering it’s price of $1028, as it sounds about twice that price, and really does push the envelope when it comes to sonic fidelity, especially when you take into consideration that this is a mid-fi priced product.
