Tuneslover
Headphoneus Supremus
I have been burning in my Modi MB during the night throughout our vacaction in Tennessee and North Carolina and have about 52 hours on it now. we are on our way home now and should be home by Wednesday night. I'll plug it in overnight when we get home and give it a comparative listen to my Modi original, as well as, my Bifrost 4490 and Bifrost MB the next day. Really missing my X5ii coaxial out > Bifrost MB > HD650 setup.
I have been home for a week now and have had a great time comparing the Mimby with the 4490 and Bimby.
The Mimby versus my original Modi comparison was a very clear illustration of how much DAC technology has improved over the last 3-4 years. Soundscape width and depth, as well as detail retrieval improvement over the original Modi was startling. Very live-like sounding. I should note that I took advantage of the Toslink connectivity provided by the Mimby which may have assisted in the improvement in sound quality. This iMac setup is amped by a Magni 2Über.
Next, I moved the Mimby to my second setup which consists of the Bifrost 4490 (I upgraded it from an Über) which is amped by a Lake People G109S. The comparison of DACS was much closer. My opinion of DS and MB comparison, that I made back in February (when I purchased the Bimby), still holds true. Again the 4490 hits a bit harder in the bass and the details have a more "troweled over" characteristic whereas the Mimby presents instrument separation and details better, again more live-like in nature. Being very familiar with how the Bimby sounds, I already recognized how close my next comparison was going to be.
Finally I moved the Mimby to my bedroom setup where I have the Bimby driven by a Vali 2. So I had a MB vs MB face-off. Cutting to the chase, I heard very little, if any difference between these 2 DACS. If anything I hazard to say that the Bimby was ever so slightly smoother and relaxed, as in effortless, sounding way. I absolutely love detail and spatial separation creating that amazing realistic sound of the instruments and ambience and these MB DACS achieve this very well indeed.
I'm impressed, plain and simple...Mike (you too Jason)! The Mimby presents such a tremendous value that most anyone can now get a taste of MB technology.
I love the DAC flexibility that I now have. I decided to move the 4490 to my iMac setup which has seen the biggest system improvement with the original Modi now sidelined. Since both MB DACS are so close in performance I decided to put the Mimby with the V2 which has converted the bedroom setup to a much more portable layout. The Bimby obviously went to the Lake People setup. I upgraded/replaced 1 of my DACS but all 3 of my systems have benefitted positively in one or another.