[Chris J]

Some of the better thought out DACs have a grounding point of some sort in order to take care of the issue that you just ran into. I am surprised that John overlooked this.

My solution is to:
Get a piece of insulated wire of about 1 meter. You can strip an old power cord of its outer insulation and then cut out one of the cables inside to give you a length of insulated wire.
Next: strip about 2cm or a thumb's width of insulation off both ends of the wire.
Unplug the DAC and amplifier from the mains. Don't just switch them OFF. You must physically remove the plug from the mains socket on the wall.
Twist the copper strands of each end a bit so that you don't have any tiny wires floating about and stabbing you in your Fingers.
Then look for a screw point on the DAC to wrap one end of the bare wires around it. You will need a screwdriver to undo a screw a little bit to do this.
Repeat the above process on a screw on the amplifier side.
Now plug the DAC and amp back into the mains and try them out. The problem should be now solved if it is an earth loop problem.

Before you do this, plug an interconnect from the DAC to the amp.
Take an Ohmmeter and measure the resistance from the case of the DAC to the case of the amp. If the resistance is zero (or virtually zero), then adding your extra ground wire may do nothing or may even make the problem worse.

 

[amigastar]

Just want to throw my two cents about the M-DAC.
 
I have to admit it was not a love relationship at first i had with the M-DAC. I compared him to the Audinst Hud Mx1 and sure the m-dac had better bass extension, was more clear and sounded more organized. But it was not the milestone i've expected.
But after using it in my day to day music listening, i discovered that the mdac sounded better (burn-in?)
 
Now the instruments so it seems to me have a slightly longer decay and better body of sound, if i could say this. It's delicate, and let my AKG K501 sing, a clearer window into the different aspects of the song.
 
Like i said it's hard to pinpoint and may sometimes stay unnoticed, but now all in all i'm happy with the M-DAC.
One has to be very delicate sometimes to notice these things but they are there.

 

[stvn758]

Should you connect the DAC into the CD or LINE IN jacks on an integrated Amp? Does it make any difference? I untangled a mess of cables going into my power strip and the MDAC is no longer tripping off, never enough wall sockets, eh.

 

[Chris J]

Should you connect the DAC into the CD or LINE IN jacks on an integrated Amp? Does it make any difference? I untangled a mess of cables going into my power strip and the MDAC is no longer tripping off, never enough wall sockets, eh.

You can connect a DAC to a LINE IN or CD input on an integrated amp or pre-amp.
You will probably want to set the M-DAC to a fixed output level.

 

[stvn758]

Thanks. If there is one thing this DAC has shown me - it shows up every other piece of equipment you have, so AKG 702's and a Little Dot MK3 on the way.

 

[Flognuts]

The MDAC improves greatly with Burn-In, usually after about a week or 2.
 
Also If you can help it, never turn it off.....just leave it on all the time. 

 

[shane55]

   
Also If you can help it, never turn it off.....just leave it on all the time.

 
Really?
Why do you say that?

 

[Namkung]

  The MDAC improves greatly with Burn-In, usually after about a week or 2.
 
Also If you can help it, never turn it off.....just leave it on all the time.

 
I am not sure if I would recommend this..
My M-DAC runs fairly hot . The fact that I have it on top of my amp greatly exacerbates this issue however even on its own, I feel it runs a bit too hot for it to be left on 24/7.

 

[CantScareMe]

Just ought to say a few words about this dac too. It's terrific as a dac - but the headphone amplifier is lacking. 
 
As a dac the sound is a level above stuff like the vdac and the difference is quite noticable in terms of resolution, clarity, instrument separation and depth of sound. But when the headphone amp is used, err, the magic disappears. It's surprisingly good with the mad dogs but that's an exception as with my denon's and ultrasone headphones it just doesn't match. Hollow and bright sound. 

 

[Flognuts]

   
Really?
Why do you say that?

just paraphrasing the creator from PFM what I remember him saying there was no reason to have to turn it off and it performs better when its "warm". I remember reading he hadn't turned his off in 3 years.....I haven't turned mine off in about 8 months since I got it. 

 

[stvn758]

When you say not switching it off do you mean literally, with the display on, or just not unplugging it from the mains?

 

[Flognuts]

Display on. It never gets turned off haha. 
 
I prefer the V.90 firmware, but if you install the V10 firmware (the latest one) you can dim the screen, or have the screen turn off
 
just a quote from PFM 
 

TV's and Amps do produce heat thats for sure... the little MDAC would be way down on my list, Why I'd not worry too much about powering it off...

 

[stvn758]

Just got my Little Dot MK3, on my goodness look at that wonderful glow.  Ordered from a UK supplier so no long wait.  And for it's first test Sigur Rós Untitled#6 (E-bow), this song is what I imagine heaven sounds like.

 

[shane55]

  Display on. It never gets turned off haha.
 
I prefer the V.90 firmware, but if you install the V10 firmware (the latest one) you can dim the screen, or have the screen turn off
 
just a quote from PFM
 

 
All right. I understand, but probably won't as electricity is expensive around here, and it just goes too many hours without use to justify it being on 24x7.

 

[stvn758]

It really is surprising how much better MP3's sound through it, I have some that I burned to CD with NERO so they have been re-encoded again, they really do have added depth and weight to them. Hard to tell the difference between them and the FLAC tracks, think they sound better sometimes, very analogue.