MHDT enthusiasts! I've created a tour of the Stockholm V2 I've recently purchased, sign-ups are open and 7 members will be picked on Feb 15th for the tour with a total of 10 members being on tour:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/797275/tour-mhdt-labs-stockholm-v2-nos-dac-tour-pcm56p-j-r2r-d-a-chips-bendix-2c51-tube-24-192-input
Here's a great chance to listen to one of the newer offerings of MHDT Labs! Eligibility requirements posted on the page.
Has anyone done extended comparisons between the WE396A and JJ 6386?
As I wait for customs to clear my Atlantis, I keep looking at tubes. I realized I've spent more than $120 on WE396A / WE2C51 tubes just trying to find good ones.
Oh my goodness this is lovely! 15 minutes in and the MHDT Labs Atlantis is already delivering beautiful euphony directly to my soul. Instruments sound downright real, timbre is excellent, detail is not at all wanting.
It's feeding my Master-11 with absolute authority. There's nothing like R-2R, and a well-implemented NOS dac is to die for. This thing is already blowing my mind a little bit.
I dare say this NOS implementation is superior to the NOS of my Audio-GD Master-11 in NOS mode. Perhaps not equal to it in its stock 8x oversampling setup, but the jury is out. I haven't changed the tube for the Western Electric JW 396A/2C51 D-getters I picked up yet.
More impressions later tonight after I get several hours of warm-up and listening in.
Wow... The AD1862N-J chip is seriously great. I'd never heard a DAC with these chips before.
This thing is positively diminutive compared to the Audio-GD DACs/Amps I've been using lately, which frankly is a great thing because I'm pairing it with a Garage1217 Project Sunrise III at work. The Audio-GD NFB-2.32 I had previously was quite excellent but was rather large.
I actually downloaded Schiit's latest Gen 2 drivers for Windows 10. They're the same chipset (CM6631A) and appear to be newer than what is provided on the MHDT Labs website (which doesn't list Win 10 on any of its drivers).
Plug and Play. Using ASIO successfully from JRiver right now.
I just listened to Good Mystery in 96kHz, Blagutten in 192kHz, and Blue Eyes Blue in 44.1kHz. All sounded great.
Oh my goodness this is lovely! 15 minutes in and the MHDT Labs Atlantis is already delivering beautiful euphony directly to my soul. Instruments sound downright real, timbre is excellent, detail is not at all wanting.
It's feeding my Master-11 with absolute authority. There's nothing like R-2R, and a well-implemented NOS dac is to die for. This thing is already blowing my mind a little bit.
I dare say this NOS implementation is superior to the NOS of my Audio-GD Master-11 in NOS mode. Perhaps not equal to it in its stock 8x oversampling setup, but the jury is out. I haven't changed the tube for the Western Electric JW 396A/2C51 D-getters I picked up yet.
More impressions later tonight after I get several hours of warm-up and listening in.
Wow... The AD1862N-J chip is seriously great. I'd never heard a DAC with these chips before.
This thing is positively diminutive compared to the Audio-GD DACs/Amps I've been using lately, which frankly is a great thing because I'm pairing it with a Garage1217 Project Sunrise III at work. The Audio-GD NFB-2.32 I had previously was quite excellent but was rather large.
I actually downloaded Schiit's latest Gen 2 drivers for Windows 10. They're the same chipset (CM6631A) and appear to be newer than what is provided on the MHDT Labs website (which doesn't list Win 10 on any of its drivers).
Plug and Play. Using ASIO successfully from JRiver right now.
I just listened to Good Mystery in 96kHz, Blagutten in 192kHz, and Blue Eyes Blue in 44.1kHz. All sounded great.
This is an incredible chain for around 1K, accidentally realized the incredible synergy these two had when I showed up to a mini-meet @ericr 's office without an amp and he let me hook up one of his Project Embers in. Between Ember and PS3, the sound behaves quite differently between the DAC and amps (class-A vs class-D) but both very pleasing sound.
How's that JVC HA-DX2000?!? Didn't realize JVC had released a phone to contend with the Fostex TH900s. Drivers mounted directly on the wood, very interesting!!
Lol, this was exactly what I did as well. Except I had the Ember II first, then went to the Polaris, then the Sunrise 3. Although I did settle for the Project Horizon 3 due to it's higher voltage and just a hair improvement (imo) for high impedance phones.
This is an incredible chain for around 1K, accidentally realized the incredible synergy these two had when I showed up to a mini-meet @ericr 's office without an amp and he let me hook up one of his Project Embers in. Between Ember and PS3, the sound behaves quite differently between the DAC and amps (class-A vs class-D) but both very pleasing sound.
How's that JVC HA-DX2000?!? Didn't realize JVC had released a phone to contend with the Fostex TH900s. Drivers mounted directly on the wood, very interesting!!
I've owned the Garage1217 Project Polaris, Project Ember II, and Project Sunrise III. I preferred the Sunrise the most. It gives the most tube sweetness of everything, though is less versatile than the other two. I settled on the amp a couple months ago as my primary amplifier for work.
I've been searching for months for the right DAC for work. Schiit Bifrost Multibit, Audio-GD NFB-2.32, Emotiva Big Ego, and half a dozen others.
After seeing your Paradisea for sale--a DAC I'd seen before and found interesting--then failing to buy it from you in time... well, I then looked into all of the MHDT offerings further and was pleasantly surprised when I found the Atlantis on eBay (but not their website!). The AD1862N-J chip is absolutely legendary, on the level of the PCM1704U-K in some circles.
I already have the Audio-GD Master-11 with the PCM1704U-K chips, and it's amazing. I've always wanted to try Analog Devices' best chip, and the price was right.
I also love NOS, or at least love the idea of NOS. I've owned a NOS dac before and tried several others either in NOS mode or at meets. They've always almost scratched the itch.
The romance of the MHDT Labs gear finally tugged at me enough for me to bite the bullet and order one.
Holy crap is it awesome!
I've been loving the combination of detail and outright euphony that it provides. I'm a little worried I might get so addicted to the sound that I would consider selling the Master-11 (What?!) to get a clone of my work setup for home.
To address the JVC HA-DX2000 comment: I went through several dozen full-size closed headphones to find the right one for work. The JVC HP-DX1000 is the one that finally did it for me. The DX2000 is just the anniversary edition of the same headphone. It has a significant bass emphasis, especially in the sub-bass. The mids are excellent, and the treble is very smooth and a bit rolled off, which is exactly what I want. It's a gorgeous and euphonic headphone now coupled with the DAC of my dreams and an excellent bang-for-the-buck tube amp.
This setup is my work endgame for the foreseeable future. No more rolling through DACs like water. The dust has long since settled on the headphones and amplifier as well.
The combination of musicality, capability, and relatively compact form factor (compared to some of my ridiculous choices) is absolutely ideal.
I'm super happy with the Atlantis and want to thank all of the loyalists in this and similar threads for holding MHDT DACs up as great examples of both R-2R multibit offerings and non-oversampled goodness. The merits are not overstated.
These deserve a place on the podium with the likes of the Schiit Bifrost/Gungnir Multibit and Audio-GD DAC-19. That MHDT is still somewhat unknown is a friggin' travesty.
Can't wait to listen to the Atlantis, thanks for the impressions so far luckbad!
Would the project Polaris be a good match do you think? Been looking at picking one up.
Can't wait to listen to the Atlantis, thanks for the impressions so far luckbad!
Would the project Polaris be a good match do you think? Been looking at picking one up.
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