fomoz
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Yeah. As a matter of fact, I found out about the M-Dac from the DacMagic Plus thread
New Audiolab DAC
Yeah. As a matter of fact, I found out about the M-Dac from the DacMagic Plus thread
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Cool. Glad I didn't know about the DM+ or I'm sure I would have just got one without thinking...
BoogieWoogie
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Well like the M-Dac it has a Headphone Amp or at least headphone socket. There is not much on the way of specs for it (unlike the M-Dac). That said, I did like my DacMagic when I had it....
Blurpapa
Formerly known as swishbrade.
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Goodness. That's ridiculous! Did u manage to get a set before they were all gone?
Blurpapa
Formerly known as swishbrade.
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Congratulations
Are you just using the Headphone Amp of the M-Dac or external amp? I've just been using the M-Dacs amp for a few days now and am really impressed. Thinking of sheading some external amps now as they seem redundant with such a brilliant one built in. Neater too of course as no extra cables/wires.
Anyway, enjoy!
Hey Spud!! This MDAC is great. I woke up this morning after letting it run overnight and whether imaginary or real, it seems to be smoother and less forward. but the details and clarity remain.
I've been using it wired up balanced to the SR71B using the pin out you taught me but have not had the chance to use the MDAC's own headphone amp. And when I came home today, I watched Fast 5 through my setup. It was great! The timbre voices, and placement of special effects, bullets and car crashes were very realistic. But I did find myself wishing that I had a pair of cans with a more colored low end though.
Am going to have a go at music through the unit's own headphone amp tonight and report back. It must be very special for Mavwong to say that its on par with the Lyr!
Joe-Siow
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Ah well... I was there earlier and couldn't decide between M-DAC and 8200CD. Guess I just saved S$1,100 quids.
Shall deliberate further till the next shipment, which is likely to be after Chinese New Year.
Blurpapa
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Joe-Siow
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Not quite. I brought my burson & hd600 down, but they were busy and thus unwilling to connect the m-dac to my burson.
In any case, I managed to hear the m-Dac on my hd600 and was quite impressed with wat I heard but frankly it was far from ideal as I didn't had my own source nor amp. Well, if anything is to go, I guessed I temporarily saved S$1,100.
And I have still to properly audition the m-dac.
In any case, I managed to hear the m-Dac on my hd600 and was quite impressed with wat I heard but frankly it was far from ideal as I didn't had my own source nor amp. Well, if anything is to go, I guessed I temporarily saved S$1,100.
And I have still to properly audition the m-dac.
Mavwong
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I did a comparison with the build in HP amp with lyr yesterday. Initial impression with the build in was great probably due to the sudden jump in SQ due to the DAC. But when I connect the lyr after MDAC burn in for 18hours, lol, you won't believe how well the lcd2 now sound. So much fuller sounding and dynamic, so the lyr is safe now, lol.
By the way anyone tried plug in the lcd2 to the balance out of the MDAC?
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By the way anyone tried plug in the lcd2 to the balance out of the MDAC?
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Mavwong
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I plug in my HD600 (deform, with stock cable), I was blown away by the MDAC and the build in amp cos it sound better than my LCD2 with my previous DAC + LYR. With HD600, add in the LYR doesn't benefit much compare to the build in HP amp though but it's already very good. Sometimes I wonder why I have pay so much for other highend hp.... the HD600 is really very value for money especially you buy a used set.
If you have IPAD, you can just plug into the MDAC with the USB adaptor and start play the song you want when you audit with your HD600. But if you were to compare to CD8200... no need to compare, sure hoot MDAC, sound better and slightly cheaper. The new CD8200CDQ was around 1.6 to 1.7k.
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If you have IPAD, you can just plug into the MDAC with the USB adaptor and start play the song you want when you audit with your HD600. But if you were to compare to CD8200... no need to compare, sure hoot MDAC, sound better and slightly cheaper. The new CD8200CDQ was around 1.6 to 1.7k.
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Not quite. I brought my burson & hd600 down, but they were busy and thus unwilling to connect the m-dac to my burson.
In any case, I managed to hear the m-Dac on my hd600 and was quite impressed with wat I heard but frankly it was far from ideal as I didn't had my own source nor amp. Well, if anything is to go, I guessed I temporarily saved S$1,100.
And I have still to properly audition the m-dac.
Joe-Siow
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What do you know? Me got me a silver M-DAC today after all.
Called this morning and Par Audio informed that they had 2 last units, both black.
Went down to pick up at around 5pm and they presented me a silver one.
What a pleasant surprise!
It shall take over the DAC duties from my DACport, feeding my Burson HA-160.
LCD-2 next in sights! It's indeed a Merry Christmas!
Called this morning and Par Audio informed that they had 2 last units, both black.
Went down to pick up at around 5pm and they presented me a silver one.
What a pleasant surprise!
It shall take over the DAC duties from my DACport, feeding my Burson HA-160.
LCD-2 next in sights! It's indeed a Merry Christmas!
Mavwong
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Wow..... nice color and screen is blue! Man, now I'm jealous 
A silver one would match my lyr nicely....
Congrats on the purchase bro. Remember to play with the filter setting.
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A silver one would match my lyr nicely....Congrats on the purchase bro. Remember to play with the filter setting.
Quote:
What do you know? Me got me a silver M-DAC today after all.
Called this morning and Par Audio informed that they had 2 last units, both black.
Went down to pick up at around 5pm and they presented me a silver one.
What a pleasant surprise!
It shall take over the DAC duties from my DACport, feeding my Burson HA-160.
LCD-2 next in sights! It's indeed a Merry Christmas!
fomoz
100+ Head-Fier
What do you know? Me got me a silver M-DAC today after all.
Called this morning and Par Audio informed that they had 2 last units, both black.
Went down to pick up at around 5pm and they presented me a silver one.
What a pleasant surprise!
It shall take over the DAC duties from my DACport, feeding my Burson HA-160.
LCD-2 next in sights! It's indeed a Merry Christmas!
How does the built-in headphone out compare to the Burson? I'm wondering if it will be a good idea to sell my Burson if I get the M-DAC
9VARZ
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Spent nearly half a day with the MDAC (and a fortnight before that running it in).... So here are some of my pointers.
(Don't take this personally, owners! My review is not going to be pretty, if I'd say so myself!)
Fresh out of the box, I'd found that the MDAC actually sounded pleasant enough to live with (esp. when you plug your cans in to its onboard headphone amp). Quite smooth, mellow sounding, almost valve-like in nature with a reasonable amount of detail.
However, as time wore on and the unit continued to run in, I was taken aback at how it was starting to sound VERY much like it's 8200CDQ cousin, except only worse.
Everything was too loud, I got hard clipped on most of my tunes (both CD quality and high-rez stuff), the soundstage narrowed to silly levels and the bass was too overpowering to the point of clipping wildly (almost Big Bad Wolf levels of bad, if you know what I mean). Timbrally, a lot of notes and textures seemed to have lost a lot of detail and accuracy in the insane levels of distortion (I mean, really? boxy sounds on HEADPHONES??). Mind you, this was consistent regardless if I had used USB or SPDIF or even a reference quality CD player as a transport for my source files/material. In fact, it got a hell lot worse along the line; in THAT order.
And that was just the start. The troubles really came when you output those onto speakers. It was plain horrible! Again, everything was too loud, there's a definite harshness to the whole thing, timbres and soundstage were off and distortions all around. What in the world was What Hi-Fi thinking when they've written the bloody review for this thing?
It's just plain bad sounding, really. To the point of making a Fiio E7+E9 setup (for cans) look like a freaking bargain.
Oh btw, Audiolab being part of IAG is presumably Chinese by design and make (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). If it's possible at all, someone should properly ABX this against two of its other Chinese brethren just to see how it truly fares. Namely, the Matrix Mini-i and Audio GD NFB-10. I'll bet you any money that party is going to be a real treat!
(Don't take this personally, owners! My review is not going to be pretty, if I'd say so myself!)
Fresh out of the box, I'd found that the MDAC actually sounded pleasant enough to live with (esp. when you plug your cans in to its onboard headphone amp). Quite smooth, mellow sounding, almost valve-like in nature with a reasonable amount of detail.
However, as time wore on and the unit continued to run in, I was taken aback at how it was starting to sound VERY much like it's 8200CDQ cousin, except only worse.
Everything was too loud, I got hard clipped on most of my tunes (both CD quality and high-rez stuff), the soundstage narrowed to silly levels and the bass was too overpowering to the point of clipping wildly (almost Big Bad Wolf levels of bad, if you know what I mean). Timbrally, a lot of notes and textures seemed to have lost a lot of detail and accuracy in the insane levels of distortion (I mean, really? boxy sounds on HEADPHONES??). Mind you, this was consistent regardless if I had used USB or SPDIF or even a reference quality CD player as a transport for my source files/material. In fact, it got a hell lot worse along the line; in THAT order.
And that was just the start. The troubles really came when you output those onto speakers. It was plain horrible! Again, everything was too loud, there's a definite harshness to the whole thing, timbres and soundstage were off and distortions all around. What in the world was What Hi-Fi thinking when they've written the bloody review for this thing?
It's just plain bad sounding, really. To the point of making a Fiio E7+E9 setup (for cans) look like a freaking bargain.
Oh btw, Audiolab being part of IAG is presumably Chinese by design and make (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). If it's possible at all, someone should properly ABX this against two of its other Chinese brethren just to see how it truly fares. Namely, the Matrix Mini-i and Audio GD NFB-10. I'll bet you any money that party is going to be a real treat!
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