Mayflower Arc

[selvakumar]

10 years warranty first time in Audio industary

 

[oxidized]

Hello everyone, i'm a noob on the matter, could you explain to me how is it possible that it comes with no eq software or similar stuff, i find these kind of stuff very useful as i like my music to sound clear, with low bass, and even lower soundstage. I mean i'd like something that sounds better than my current sound blaster X G5, but this won't make me play with eq levels and other stuff.
Also, any idea on when it (if) will be available in europe?
Thanks

 

[overhaze]

What does the Arcs lack of Op Amps mean in practical terms?

 

[Dexon]

10 years warranty first time in Audio industary

This stands for decades back... http://www.bryston.com/pages/warranty.html .

 

[selvakumar]

What does the Arcs lack of Op Amps mean in practical terms?

a completely neutral sound since if we use opamps it will colour the audio

 

[Cb1scu1t]

I just got mine. Has anyone had issues connecting the mic out on the arc to either the line in or mic in on their pc? It seems to work if its on usb only but not when on optical. Reason I ask is that i have the USB going to the ps4 and the Spdif from my pc. Ive tried all kinds of combinations but it only works on usb.

 

[Muinarc]

Optical is not a bidirectional (2-way) data connection. My guess is USB is the only way to get a mic to work unless there is an analogue microphone out on the back of the unit.

 

[selvakumar]

Optical is not a bidirectional (2-way) data connection. My guess is USB is the only way to get a mic to work unless there is an analogue microphone out on the back of the unit.

yes

 

[Cb1scu1t]

Its just weird because the mixamp i was using previously had a stream out which basically did the same thing and worked with usb or optical. if its a pass through it should work regardless of what mode its on. I feel like im missing something somewhere


UPDATE: after speaking with Mayflower support it looks like i may just have a faulty unit. apparently you should be able to use the mic out on usb or optical mode. they sent me a return label and sending me another. ill update if i find out anything. also i guess i could solve the issue by just getting a second modmic and plugging it into my pc so worst case scenario.

 

[hja13]

I have an issue with my unit where silence (pausing a track, silence during a track, skipping to a new track, starting the unit) causes a 'popping'. I'm going to wait until I can test with another pair of headphones before I contact mayflower.

One thing I want to mention is the Microphone in, as that's a unique part of this unit. There are a several comparisons of arc vs. laptop mic in in this video, and while it does reduce/eliminate the white noise, it does make the microphone sound a bit tinny/high-pitched/odd:



To quote the mayflower rep from the comments:

Hey guys - Just quick note on why certain mics may sound tinny. When we designed the microphone circuit we designed it with the full vocal range, from 300hz to 16khz. What this does is pick up pretty much everything from the mic, and it's what the microphones truly sound like. Now most microphone input devices have a cut off at 8khz which removes a lot of the higher end frequencies, and some have low end boosters that make everything sound more warm. We are taking this feedback now and we will most likely be cutting off the high end from 16khz to around 10khz in later revisions of the ARC. So if this is a very important feature to you, you may want to wait until our second revision is release.

So, if you DON'T yet have the Arc, and want it for the mic in, I'd suggest waiting for Rev2. If you DO have an arc, and don't like the tinny mic, you can try what I just did, and download Equalizer APO (https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/) and mess around with the Mic Equalizer. This is what I ended up with (You might not need to the main equalizer and just the peak filters, give it a try, it's real-time to super easy to test).

# Preamp: 0 dB
# Include: example.txt
GraphicEQ: 20 0; 25 0; 31.5 0; 40 0; 50 0; 63 0; 80 0; 100 0; 125 0; 160 0; 200 0; 250 0; 315 0; 400 0; 500 0; 630 0; 800 0; 1000 0; 1250 0; 1600 0; 2000 0; 2500 0; 3150 0; 4000 0; 5000 0; 6300 -0.7; 8000 -2.3; 10000 -5.7; 12500 -10.2; 16000 -20.3; 20000 -35.9
Filter: ON PK Fc 3000 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 1
Filter: ON PK Fc 125 Hz Gain 3 dB Q 0.8

(This was with a Antlion Modmic 3 or 4, not sure what version I have exactly. Probably 3)

I'm too lazy to upload a voice comparison with arc and arc+filters, but it only takes a few minutes to set this up and try it yourself.

 

[rhenom]

I got the Mayflower ARC in the mail a few days ago now, and while the sound quality, whether it be to headphones or the pre-outs, is good, the microphone input is not so good. I also have a Sound Blaster Katana soundbar and it's mic input absolutely destroys the ARC for mic sound quality. I'm going to be inquiring with Mayflower about returning the unit.

Also, as a side note, with the pre-outs they appear to be reversed, or maybe it's a perspective thing, but the right channel on the unit is actually the left speaker as I sit at my desk. Not sure if this is a design flaw, but is worth noting.

 

[overhaze]

I got the Mayflower ARC in the mail a few days ago now, and while the sound quality, whether it be to headphones or the pre-outs, is good, the microphone input is not so good. I also have a Sound Blaster Katana soundbar and it's mic input absolutely destroys the ARC for mic sound quality. I'm going to be inquiring with Mayflower about returning the unit.

Also, as a side note, with the pre-outs they appear to be reversed, or maybe it's a perspective thing, but the right channel on the unit is actually the left speaker as I sit at my desk. Not sure if this is a design flaw, but is worth noting.

Hows it sound compared to an O2/ODac combo? Neutral is neutral right?

 

[selvakumar]

I got the Mayflower ARC in the mail a few days ago now, and while the sound quality, whether it be to headphones or the pre-outs, is good, the microphone input is not so good. I also have a Sound Blaster Katana soundbar and it's mic input absolutely destroys the ARC for mic sound quality. I'm going to be inquiring with Mayflower about returning the unit.

Also, as a side note, with the pre-outs they appear to be reversed, or maybe it's a perspective thing, but the right channel on the unit is actually the left speaker as I sit at my desk. Not sure if this is a design flaw, but is worth noting.

I got my arc but it works good my right channel is right and it's not reversed if you have a problem then its time to RMA

 

[Cb1scu1t]

Its just weird because the mixamp i was using previously had a stream out which basically did the same thing and worked with usb or optical. if its a pass through it should work regardless of what mode its on. I feel like im missing something somewhere


UPDATE: after speaking with Mayflower support it looks like i may just have a faulty unit. apparently you should be able to use the mic out on usb or optical mode. they sent me a return label and sending me another. ill update if i find out anything. also i guess i could solve the issue by just getting a second modmic and plugging it into my pc so worst case scenario.

UPDATE2: Just got my unit back and im happy to report that the mic out is now working perfectly. So to confirm I did just get a bad unit and the mic out work whether in usb or optical mode. Goodbye crappy astro mixamp and incredibly annoying randomly buzzing chord mojo

 

[rhenom]

I sent my ARC back for a refund, I didn't want it back since I was less than impressed with the audio quality coming from the microphone input. Even though it was a defective unit with the pre-outs reversed, Mayflower still made me pay for shipping and on top of that they kept 15% for a restocking fee, again, on a defective unit. Can't say that I plan on buying any products from Mayflower in the future.