Soundsgoodtome
Headphoneus Supremus
This TOUR HAS Finished and impressions are linked on next post down!!!
Hello Head-Fi community, being a part of this site for some time now and expanding my musical journey as well as the different gear I've been able to listen to; I figured closing in on 5000 posts it would be a great time to put together a tour for one of the best discoveries I've made upon joining the hobby years ago. Looking at my list of gear on my profile will show you I've gone through quite a bit sources, phones, amps. Many I've thoroughly enjoyed through the sonic journeys. Up until today, one discovery in the journey I've made are the MHDT line of DACs. With very little coverage of this DAC, I offer to tour a self-purchased Stockholm V2 to share this little known gem of a company.
The requirements to join the tour:
- Be a USA Head-Fi member
- Have at least 150 posts and have joined H-F prior to 2015 or know me personally / have met in person.
To sign up, write in a post of this thread with the following:
- List of gear you'll be using with the DAC including headphones, speakers, amps, and DACs in comparison.
- Your experience with audio gear and if you've had experience with an R2R DAC previously/currently.
-Also list if you're part of the music industry (engineer, musician, etc) or have some musical training on an instrument.
After sign-up has been closed, I will select 7 members within the list to participate in the tour, 3 have already been chosen and are local Head-Fi members/friends who have shown interest in person. This will make a faster start to the tour and get a few impressions rolling. I do ask that participants refrain from reading the written impressions/reviews until you've made yours, the power of suggestion is quite persuasive.
Details if you are chosen for the tour:
All participants must be in the USA, this makes it less complicated logistically. I ask that you write an impression however short or long of your notes or a full review of the unit when you are finished (although not required). Each touring member is required to pay for shipping to the next member in tour, which is to have tracking and full insurance. USPS or FedEx is to be used for shipping. Members keep the unit for 7 days, first day starts day after receiving the unit and item must be shipped on the 7th day to the next member (if 7th day falls on a Sunday it is to be shipped the next day). Upon receiving the unit, tour members are to report condition of the DAC within the same day with a picture of everything received.
More details in PM upon being chosen for touring. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.
MHDT Labs Stockholm V2:
non-oversampling R2R DAC with a tube buffer. Complete discreet output with no opamps or digital filters.
Comes with GE 5670 stock tube but tour unit will be fitted with Bendix 2C51 NOS tube for better performance.
Unit is configured for 115V usage (switchable via jumpers to 230V)
Dual BB PCM56P-J with tube output buffer. Design output discrete with no opamps or filters in path.
Inputs are up to 24/192khz files via USB, Optical, RCA, or BNC spdif:
Hello Head-Fi community, being a part of this site for some time now and expanding my musical journey as well as the different gear I've been able to listen to; I figured closing in on 5000 posts it would be a great time to put together a tour for one of the best discoveries I've made upon joining the hobby years ago. Looking at my list of gear on my profile will show you I've gone through quite a bit sources, phones, amps. Many I've thoroughly enjoyed through the sonic journeys. Up until today, one discovery in the journey I've made are the MHDT line of DACs. With very little coverage of this DAC, I offer to tour a self-purchased Stockholm V2 to share this little known gem of a company.
MHDT Labs, a Taiwan based company, started producing their own multi-bit/R2R DACs in seeking pleasing but accurate sound to the 4 founders of the company. Their earlier models, Constantine and Paradisea, were some of the most musical DACs I've heard but without sacrificing a whole lot in detail and resolution. Fast forward some 10 years and they now offer several models ranging from AD R2R chips to the more common PCM1704.
The name MHDT comes from an acronym of the original 4 founders and the first letter of their Zodiac signs (Mouse, Horse, Dog, and Tiger). The acronym meaning was later changed to Music Heaven Development Team but given the time of the year and that Lunar New Year is upon us (Feb 7th on this side of the globe), I would prefer the original meaning of the acronyms of the name.
The original focus of the company is to create a musically pleasing sound that catered to the liking of the founders. What it has evolved into is an accurate recreation of sound and timbre of instruments and vocals while remaining musical to ones ears. Searching around the net will yield many reviews from many in the speaker side of audio but using these DACs with headphones has shown the amazing accuracy they're able to reproduce from the digital files.
A little disclaimer: their website is a bit of a throwback in terms of layout, just part of the company charm I suppose. Most e-mails are answered directly by Jiun himself and I believe the company while creating fantastic sounding DACs, may be a bit slow on the response as it is a smaller company compared to Audio-GD. That should not detract you from the company, however keep in mind if you do make inquiries. Lastly I'm not associated or affiliated with the company, just another enthusiast who really likes the products.
The name MHDT comes from an acronym of the original 4 founders and the first letter of their Zodiac signs (Mouse, Horse, Dog, and Tiger). The acronym meaning was later changed to Music Heaven Development Team but given the time of the year and that Lunar New Year is upon us (Feb 7th on this side of the globe), I would prefer the original meaning of the acronyms of the name.
The original focus of the company is to create a musically pleasing sound that catered to the liking of the founders. What it has evolved into is an accurate recreation of sound and timbre of instruments and vocals while remaining musical to ones ears. Searching around the net will yield many reviews from many in the speaker side of audio but using these DACs with headphones has shown the amazing accuracy they're able to reproduce from the digital files.
A little disclaimer: their website is a bit of a throwback in terms of layout, just part of the company charm I suppose. Most e-mails are answered directly by Jiun himself and I believe the company while creating fantastic sounding DACs, may be a bit slow on the response as it is a smaller company compared to Audio-GD. That should not detract you from the company, however keep in mind if you do make inquiries. Lastly I'm not associated or affiliated with the company, just another enthusiast who really likes the products.
There are several models in the MHDT Labs lineup and after a recent comparison between the Paradisea 3 (discontinued), Havana 2, and Pagoda, I've come to the conclusion that the Stockholm V2, which can be said to be the latest iteration of the Havana line using the PCM56P-J R2R chip minus the use of the internal opamp, would be a great candidate to tour as not only does it represent the MHDT house sound it also takes the level of clarity above previous models without sacrificing the lineage signature. I also own the Pagoda which does offer a level of clarity above the other units but at the sacrifice of some of the musicality and timbre that the company has well crafted into their signature, consider the Pagoda as the one-off in terms of of fitting into an 'audiophile' signature by straying from the house sound.
The Stockholm V2 is a non-oversampling tube buffered DAC that can handle files up to an 'audiophile' 24-bit 192khz but downsamples this signal internally to 16-bit which is then turned into an analog signal via the Ti/BB PCM56P-J chips. While the DAC is NOS and tube buffered, the DAC is not slouchy or heavy in color but only hints in warmth and has a sense realism in sound I've not heard in other gear.
The Stockholm V2 is a non-oversampling tube buffered DAC that can handle files up to an 'audiophile' 24-bit 192khz but downsamples this signal internally to 16-bit which is then turned into an analog signal via the Ti/BB PCM56P-J chips. While the DAC is NOS and tube buffered, the DAC is not slouchy or heavy in color but only hints in warmth and has a sense realism in sound I've not heard in other gear.
The requirements to join the tour:
- Be a USA Head-Fi member
- Have at least 150 posts and have joined H-F prior to 2015 or know me personally / have met in person.
To sign up, write in a post of this thread with the following:
- List of gear you'll be using with the DAC including headphones, speakers, amps, and DACs in comparison.
- Your experience with audio gear and if you've had experience with an R2R DAC previously/currently.
-Also list if you're part of the music industry (engineer, musician, etc) or have some musical training on an instrument.
After sign-up has been closed, I will select 7 members within the list to participate in the tour, 3 have already been chosen and are local Head-Fi members/friends who have shown interest in person. This will make a faster start to the tour and get a few impressions rolling. I do ask that participants refrain from reading the written impressions/reviews until you've made yours, the power of suggestion is quite persuasive.
Details if you are chosen for the tour:
All participants must be in the USA, this makes it less complicated logistically. I ask that you write an impression however short or long of your notes or a full review of the unit when you are finished (although not required). Each touring member is required to pay for shipping to the next member in tour, which is to have tracking and full insurance. USPS or FedEx is to be used for shipping. Members keep the unit for 7 days, first day starts day after receiving the unit and item must be shipped on the 7th day to the next member (if 7th day falls on a Sunday it is to be shipped the next day). Upon receiving the unit, tour members are to report condition of the DAC within the same day with a picture of everything received.
More details in PM upon being chosen for touring. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.
MHDT Labs Stockholm V2:
non-oversampling R2R DAC with a tube buffer. Complete discreet output with no opamps or digital filters.
Comes with GE 5670 stock tube but tour unit will be fitted with Bendix 2C51 NOS tube for better performance.
Unit is configured for 115V usage (switchable via jumpers to 230V)
Dual BB PCM56P-J with tube output buffer. Design output discrete with no opamps or filters in path.
Inputs are up to 24/192khz files via USB, Optical, RCA, or BNC spdif:
