Musiland MD10 as an Amp
Apr 20, 2008 at 7:52 PM Post #2 of 10
I used to have this DAC. Amp section is OK... nothing to write home about.
 
Apr 20, 2008 at 8:59 PM Post #3 of 10
I had the chance to test most of the Musiland models for a french forum these past two weeks and the amp section of the MD10 is very good to my ears. I did a lot of blind tests against my Opera and the SVDAC05 (Musiland also) and the MD10 is a bit warmer than the Opera, and not better than the SVDAC05. I suspect it's the same components and circuitry. Plenty of power in both cases too.

Unfortunately I haven't compared it to a zero.

A big flaw of this amp is that the headphone output is located on the rear of the amp, and is a mini one...
 
Apr 20, 2008 at 9:07 PM Post #4 of 10
Quote:

Originally Posted by iozz /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I had the chance to test most of the Musiland models for a french forum these past two weeks and the amp section of the MD10 is very good to my ears. I did a lot of blind tests against my Opera and the SVDAC05 (Musiland also) and the MD10 is a bit warmer than the Opera, and not better than the SVDAC05. I suspect it's the same components and circuitry. Plenty of power in both cases too.

Unfortunately I haven't compared it to a zero.

A big flaw of this amp is that the headphone output is located on the rear of the amp, and is a mini one...


Hm...so you thought the SVDAC05 was better than the MD10? I wish the hp output was on the front too...too bad!
 
Apr 20, 2008 at 9:13 PM Post #6 of 10
Quote:

Originally Posted by souperman /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hm...so you thought the SVDAC05 was better than the MD10? I wish the hp output was on the front too...too bad!


No, for me they are as good sonically.
For the other aspects, the MD10 is more flexible (you can change the sampling rate etc), has two different volume controls (one for the hp output, one for the RCA output) whereas the SVDAC05 has only one for all the outputs.
 
Apr 21, 2008 at 3:34 AM Post #8 of 10
Very interesting IOZZ. I just got the SVDAC05, and am slowly adjusting to it.

Did you think the MD10 sounded better upsampled than at 44.1?

I do find the HP jack on the back to be a little inconvenient - but the lack of separate volume controls doesn't bother me, because I can easily turn off my amp for HP listening. I'm wondering if the HP amp circuit is also in the rca output stage, since there is no ability to by-pass the preamp?

It is too bad you couldn't compare the zero, which has some nice features lacking in the 05.

Did you have a chance to compare the svdac05 with the svdac06? The 06 uses the same dac as the zero, and is about $40 cheaper.
 
Apr 21, 2008 at 7:08 AM Post #9 of 10
Quote:

Originally Posted by classicalguy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Did you think the MD10 sounded better upsampled than at 44.1?


In fact you cannot upsample, you can just adjust what they call "bit depth" to 16, 20 or 24 bits. In 16 or 20 the sound is less refined but a bit warmer. There is also a "HI-FI" or "AV" mode that change the sound to a little warmer (in AV).

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicalguy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I do find the HP jack on the back to be a little inconvenient - but the lack of separate volume controls doesn't bother me, because I can easily turn off my amp for HP listening. I'm wondering if the HP amp circuit is also in the rca output stage, since there is no ability to by-pass the preamp?


Yeah, same for me
smily_headphones1.gif


Quote:

Originally Posted by classicalguy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It is too bad you couldn't compare the zero, which has some nice features lacking in the 05.
Did you have a chance to compare the svdac05 with the svdac06? The 06 uses the same dac as the zero, and is about $40 cheaper.


No, I only had the MD10, SVDAC05 and LILO to compare to a Firestone Fubar3 and my Meier Opera.
I'd really like to compare to a Zero, Moodlab Dice or Keces DA151...
 
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