[boatheelmusic]

Jester, have you read your manual or called Grace?.......

 

[Dreaming Jester]

Jester, have you read your manual

Long before I bought the m920, several times. 

or called Grace?.......

Haven't bothered them about this particular question. I asked for user experience. I don't remember asking you, but since you're always here to 'help', what is yours? (I hope you'll sleep better seeing that 'I got one, I'm relaxing and enjoying the best') 

 

[Tobes]

Can somebody advise about the DSD filters? What exactly are they supposed to do and how it could impact playing back DSD64 and DSD128? I personally don't hear much of a difference.

DSD has increasing noise as the frequency climbs towards 100Khz - this could potentially upset some amps/speakers.
While I don't personally listen to dsd, I suspect if you had wide bandwidth amps you might want to use the lower cutoff filter or at least experiment. On the other hand a lot of amplifiers roll off anyway in that range, so maybe the higher cutoff filter would be ok. In any case there's not a big spread with the filters anyway, and I believe the filter characteristics are similar, so I'd expect any difference to be very subtle.
All the above is speculation on my part.

 

[boatheelmusic]

Jester it's great that you've got one - now you can even answer your own questions, relax and enjoy the best as I've attempted to tell you.

 

[Dreaming Jester]

DSD has increasing noise as the frequency climbs towards 100Khz - this could potentially upset some amps/speakers.
While I don't personally listen to dsd, I suspect if you had wide bandwidth amps you might want to use the lower cutoff filter or at least experiment. On the other hand a lot of amplifiers roll off anyway in that range, so maybe the higher cutoff filter would be ok. In any case there's not a big spread with the filters anyway, and I believe the filter characteristics are similar, so I'd expect any difference to be very subtle.
All the above is speculation on my part.

Thanks, Tobes. That is actually a useful answer, Boatheel take notes instead of developing unnecessary fixations which I'm not going to do. 

 

[m8o]

Anyone with golden ears have experience with the MHA-100 DAC & amp, and this DAC feeding the MHA-100's amp section?

If so, can you share your experience and compare the dacs, and whether the difference is a side-grade or up-grade?

Thanx if so.

P.s. I own the M9XX.

 

[orkney]

Anyone regularly using the m920 as a pre? 
 
best,
 
o

 

[Tobes]

Yep. Been using the m920 as my preamp for about a year - may well be the best feature of unit.
I actually prefer the sound to the $3000 Jeff Rowland Capri preamp I was using previously - the m920 being more neutral/accurate IMO.
Sounds great with both my Odyssey Khartago and Halcro MC30 power amps
 
I only require 2 analog line inputs and because I use 2 power seperate power amps - for speakers and my HE6 headphones  - the m920 really suits my preamp needs. 
In fact I don't know of another preamp that provides similar independent volume/balance/mute functionality for two power amps. Some offer switching for 2 power amps but operate off a single volume control. I like having the independent volume controls as I like to switch between speakers and headphones when listening.
 
As you can see from my signature, I'm actually using the Schiit Yggdrasil as my main dac now, via the balanced input of the m920. I think the Yggy is a significantly better dac, but it probably needs to be as it's more expensive than the m920 and is a dac only (no pre function or headphone amp).
The m920 pre is plenty good enough to reveal these improvements - and other small system tweaks - while never actually sounding analytical or unnatural.

 

[orkney]

  Yep. Been using the m920 as my preamp for about a year - may well be the best feature of unit.
I actually prefer the sound to the $3000 Jeff Rowland Capri preamp I was using previously - the m920 being more neutral/accurate IMO.
Sounds great with both my Odyssey Khartago and Halcro MC30 power amps
 
I only require 2 analog line inputs and because I use 2 power seperate power amps - for speakers and my HE6 headphones  - the m920 really suits my preamp needs. 
In fact I don't know of another preamp that provides similar independent volume/balance/mute functionality for two power amps. Some offer switching for 2 power amps but operate off a single volume control. I like having the independent volume controls as I like to switch between speakers and headphones when listening.
 
As you can see from my signature, I'm actually using the Schiit Yggdrasil as my main dac now, via the balanced input of the m920. I think the Yggy is a significantly better dac, but it probably needs to be as it's more expensive than the m920 and is a dac only (no pre function or headphone amp).
The m920 pre is plenty good enough to reveal these improvements - and other small system tweaks - while never actually sounding analytical or unnatural.

Thanks for the detailed reply, Tobes, Looking forward to trying one of these out.
 
best,
 
o

 

[supabayes]

  Anyone regularly using the m920 as a pre? 
 
best,
 
o

 
I have a Yggdrasil/Ragnarok driving LS50/sub. For a few months while I was recovering from surgery and could not get up easily to change volume, and so I used the M920 as preamp between the Ygg/Rag. M920 connected to Yggy by unbalanced RCA and to Raggy by XLR out.
 
I did many blind A/B test between direct Yggy/Rag and Yggy/M920/Rag. I was very happy with the result as could not hear any difference. M920 is completely transparent. 

 

[Tobes]

Just wanted to note that the m920 is currently available on Massdrop for $1399 - which is a bargain IMO.

 

[boatheelmusic]

Back up at Massdrop this morning.....

 

[Tomasz2D]

Does it work via USB with Android / iOS mobile devices  without powered USB hub?

 

[AudioMan612]

I haven't tried it, but I would imagine it does since it uses its own power supply.  I don't have a cable to plug it in or I would check it for you.  I would email Grace and ask them, as they are usually very quick to respond to emails.

 

[Xyrium]

So, this is a tough thread to break into, but with all due respect, what are you guys hearing in the Grace that I'm not in the Oppo HA-1? The HA-1 has a class A preamp section as well as XLR out and ins. It uses a balanced headphone output, and a power supply that appears (from photos on Google images) far more robust than the Grace. It seems that the Grace might be more comparable to my Teac UD-301, which is actually a complete giant killer IMO. I'm eyeballing the Grace on Massdrop because I'm a gear junkie, but I'm wondering if I've already reached the point of diminishing returns. Any Oppo HA-1 AND Grace 920 owners out there that have made a fair comparison?