[Herandu]

and I am actually quite excited! Saw it mentioned last week on a UK forum, but the home hifi site was down for ordering and it wasn't on eBay when I last checked.
I stuck to the MK3 for a while and did the MKV headphone mod by myself. But the MK6 has a variable output, which is what I need for my power amp. My normal preamp is a big beast, and I can use the space it takes up. The power LED is supposed to be off now when the unit is in standby. Very useful for me on the one in my bedroom by the PC. The brightness on the MK3 LED caused me to stick a black piece of insulating tape over it. The LED could light up my room at 2 in the morning. Female visitors found it very distracting.
The MK6 is reported to be a newly laid out DAC, rather than the old one with a modified PCB. No mention of an analogue input, so I got to figure out how to add my turntable if I want to use the MK6 as a preamp.
There is some marketing blurb on the site at <URL REMOVED> about improved soundstage and "information retrieval". Well, I shall see how the old and new design stack up against each other. But on that other UK forum one guy mentioned that it beat his high-end CD player hands down straight out of the box. That's reassuring to know, because the MK3 took several weeks to burn in properly.


[size=large]2009-03-05 1515 EST MODERATOR NOTE: This thread was closed because the original poster (Herandu) shares IP addresses with StanleyB1 (Stanley Beresford) and DC Lee.[/size]

 

[Jono3642]

Just out of interest, will you ever write a post that isn't about Beresford, just asking.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jono3642 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just out of interest, will you ever write a post that isn't about Beresford, just asking.

I do, and I am not always on this section of the forum. perhaps you don't own a turntable or good interconnects *mains or otherwise), or even a headphone? Otherwise you might have noticed my name there. I can only mention what I have or have listened to, so no use me commenting on stuff I don't have or haven't heard. What do you post about out of interest? What you have, or what you haven't got?

 

[tbonner1]

Let us know how it sounds after burn in.

I am wondering if the ultra bright LED is a new cosmetic design trend. I just got a tube preamp from China and the the clear LED is so bright at night it bothers me.

 

[Goh]

I bought a tweaked version of the Beresford DAC about two weeks ago, called the MKVb. I believe it's got the soundstage and detail tweaks made to the MKVI, but not the variable pre-amp and LED. It's a solid improvement over my M-Audio Transit and CMOY combination. The integrated headamp drives my K601s very well.

 

[thubble]

Damn, Stanley just keeps improving this thing!

I have a MkIII and on well-recorded music it's unbelievable. Unfortunately I've never heard anything higher-end so I can't verify those comparisons made to products like the DAC1.

The problem is that on music that isn't so well-recorded (i.e. most modern rock/pop) the highs are just too brutal to listen to at all. It's times like these I wish I liked different kinds of music.

I'm planning to order a Corda Opera soon and trying its built-in DAC, hopefully this will smooth out the highs a bit. I'll definitely be keeping the Beresford to do a comparison, maybe I'll actually prefer it on music that's well-recorded.

 

[Herandu]

I picked it up after work, and also met someone else there from another forum who was picking up two of them!! I put a CD in repeat mode and left the DAC playing away through an old set of headphones set at mid volume. That should give the headphone amp part a good burn in as well. I shall give it a quick try when I get home after work to see what the initial burn in phase sounds like. It is a bit higher and heavier and actually looks far nicer with the new on the front panel.

One good piece of advise if you are thinking about getting one: don't forget to ask about the head-fi discount!!!! I didn't know about that for a long time, but I asked this time

.

 

[penguindude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herandu /img/forum/go_quote.gif I picked it up after work, and also met someone else there from another forum who was picking up two of them!! I put a CD in repeat mode and left the DAC playing away through an old set of headphones set at mid volume. That should give the headphone amp part a good burn in as well. I shall give it a quick try when I get home after work to see what the initial burn in phase sounds like. It is a bit higher and heavier and actually looks far nicer with the new on the front panel. One good piece of advise if you are thinking about getting one: don't forget to ask about the head-fi discount!!!! I didn't know about that for a long time, but I asked this time .

The front looks pretty much the same to me on his Ebay page.

 

[Shout It Out Lou]

The funniest thing is that British utter tool who spammed various boards with his crap about Beresford a few months ago hasn't had a Beresford in his system for months. What a complete and utter jessie of the highest order. The man has no dignity.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by penguindude /img/forum/go_quote.gif The front looks pretty much the same to me on his Ebay page.

I just checked the eBay page and my MKIII. The rectangular bars under the words COAX and OPTICAL have been removed on the MK6. The word Standby is now changed to Power. The case on the MK6 is also bigger, I haven't opened it yet since I want to do some listening test tonight and don't want to get side tracked.

 

[penguindude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herandu /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just checked the eBay page and my MKIII. The rectangular bars under the words COAX and OPTICAL have been removed on the MK6. The word Standby is now changed to Power. The case on the MK6 is also bigger, I haven't opened it yet since I want to do some listening test tonight and don't want to get side tracked.

Don't be afraid to let us know ur initial impression, even if it's 10 minutes of auditioning.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shout It Out Lou /img/forum/go_quote.gif The funniest thing is that British utter tool who spammed various boards with his crap about Beresford a few months ago hasn't had a Beresford in his system for months. What a complete and utter jessie of the highest order. The man has no dignity.

He is normally on the hifiwigwam site. As the guy wrote there, he is using a Burmester these days and has disconnected his TC-7510. From what I understand, he is well loaded and changes some parts of his system quite regularly. If I had that sort of money I too would be experimenting with different gear on a regular basis. Even with my modest income I got duplicate power amps, pre-amps, DVD players, CD players, speakers, turntables, tuners, etc. But I am in no way unique. Lots of British audiophiles have stacks of systems they are constantly swapping round on eBay etc.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by penguindude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't be afraid to let us know ur initial impression, even if it's 10 minutes of auditioning.

I am warming up my power amps and my speakers right now so that they are at a constant operational temperature prior to auditioning tests. I am going to try it as a pre-amp and also do some A-B tests via my Pioneer Laboratory Reference pre-amp to compare it to my MKIII and the Pioneer.
See ya later

.

 

[anthonylei]

Hello guys... I also received mine today in the office.... got to wait after work to try this out~~~ hoho... as I dont own the previous version, so there is common on the improvements / differences

here is the new MK6 with Hd595

 

[Herandu]

OK, so I spent a few two hours comparing my MK3 against the MK6. I don’t have a MK5 to compare so I can’t say how close the MK5 is to the MK6.
I went straight for the three areas in the sound of my MK3 that were not quite to my satisfaction, whilst listening out for any new ones that the MK6 might have introduced that aren’t an issue in the MK3. So here they are.
-1. Nasal sound on some voice renditions.
Test record used: Barry White – Just the way you are.
Barry White has a wide vocal range that extends across two drive units in a 3way speaker. His voice helps in identifying a number of possible system imbalances and reproduction accuracy.
The MK3 sounds dry and sharp with his voice in the 1KHz to 3KHz range, giving a nasal type singing experience. It shares this issue with another more expensive DAC that it is frequently compared against.
The MK6 produces a far more natural male vocal expression that is less edgy and has a greater warmth of embrace.
-2. Hair raising experience.
Test records used: M People – Search for the hero inside of you / Michael Jackson – One day in your life.
These two tunes have a certain glow to them that causes a tingling of the skin and your hairs to rise when the audio system is able to convey the emotion behind those tunes with great soundstage and ambience.
The sharpness of the MK3 seems to hold back some of that emotion, thereby holding back some of the vital ingredient that has made those tunes classic cuts.
The MK6 is emotionally charged on the other hand. The expression” fighting back the tears” aren’t out of place.
-3. Bass depth, especially during a busy track when power supply performance is critical.
Main test record used: Robert Miles – Children (plus a heavy metal one of which I forgot the name of the artist to make notes.)
This tune has a bass sequence where the bass is felt before it is heard. That means that it is starting off at a lower frequency before sliding up the frequency scale.
The MK3 gives only a mild hint of the impending rise in the bass, which indicates a higher bass cut off point in the analogue stage of the MK3..
The MK6 was a second or more earlier in the feel of the bass before it became audible to me. That would indicate that it has a wider and deeper bass range than the MK3.
-On instruments such as guitar strings and piano keys the MK6 managed to resolve the after ripples for longer as they became fainter. The MK3 sounded sharper (due to less resolution?), and didn’t last as long.

Other things I picked up, and that had not attracted my attention previously were:
-Signal separation. On the MK6 there was more space between the instrument players, whilst on the MK3 you have to politely push your way through the crowd so the speak.
-The MK6 felt also far better than the MK3 at home with the Maplin 5A power supply I use.
-When used as a pre-amp driving any of my power amps direct the MK6 out performed all of my dedicated pre-amps/MK3 combination. There was far more information that I could pick up from it used that way.

I only just fitted blue LEDs to my MK3, so like I shall have to fit them to the MK6 as well. I might do that tonight just for fun if I can get to Maplin this lunch time.