TheSloth
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2005
- Posts
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I just got hold of the first component in my system refresh - a used, but basically mint condition Musical Fidelity A3.24 DAC for $585 with a nice silver power cord to go with it. Came in a box for a Krell KAV400xi, so I can look at it and pretend I can afford a single component worth that much!
My first impressions of this beast (it is big - the same size as my Rega Planar 3 TT in all dimensions) is that it is a very impressive piece of kit. Design-wise, it goes back to 2002 but sonically it's absolutely current. It's an upsampling design, with selectable 96 or 192 upsampling. It accepts digital inputs up to just over 100khz, and has a coaxial digital loop out.
I only have 1 DAC to compare it with directly, and that's the Desktop DAC in my convertible (a $249 add-on board), and it's miles ahead. OK, so it should be, but the difference is quite striking. I have owned amps with HeadRoom Max DAC's in them, a Monarchy M22C and a QUAD 99CDP. The HeadRoom design uses a more modern DAC than the rest of them, with the Monarchy being a straight 16bit 48k design and the QUAD being an upsampling design much like the MF. This is better than any of them (of course, impressions by memory, but still).
The PSU is dead quiet - I don't hear any background noise above the noise floor of the amp itself. The unit itself is solid and heavy, and has decent feet for support and isolation. It is understated, with just a few lights to indicate power and lock on the front panel.
What it doesn't do is anything remotely balanced. It is unashamedly single ended. It also has only fixed outputs, outputting just over the CD standard of 2V.
That's it for now, but I'll post some photos including the innards later this evening.
My first impressions of this beast (it is big - the same size as my Rega Planar 3 TT in all dimensions) is that it is a very impressive piece of kit. Design-wise, it goes back to 2002 but sonically it's absolutely current. It's an upsampling design, with selectable 96 or 192 upsampling. It accepts digital inputs up to just over 100khz, and has a coaxial digital loop out.
I only have 1 DAC to compare it with directly, and that's the Desktop DAC in my convertible (a $249 add-on board), and it's miles ahead. OK, so it should be, but the difference is quite striking. I have owned amps with HeadRoom Max DAC's in them, a Monarchy M22C and a QUAD 99CDP. The HeadRoom design uses a more modern DAC than the rest of them, with the Monarchy being a straight 16bit 48k design and the QUAD being an upsampling design much like the MF. This is better than any of them (of course, impressions by memory, but still).
The PSU is dead quiet - I don't hear any background noise above the noise floor of the amp itself. The unit itself is solid and heavy, and has decent feet for support and isolation. It is understated, with just a few lights to indicate power and lock on the front panel.
What it doesn't do is anything remotely balanced. It is unashamedly single ended. It also has only fixed outputs, outputting just over the CD standard of 2V.
That's it for now, but I'll post some photos including the innards later this evening.
