New DAC in the house...

[Jim R.]

I just took delivery of a new, fairly inexpensive dac that I hope to be able to hook up and start listening to tomorrow sometime.  The DAC is the Micromega MyDAC -- a $369 dac that has 24/192 capability on all three inputs -- USB, spdif coax and toslink -- and each input is selectable from a horizontal rotary selector switch on the front.

This uses the Xmos usb receiver, indepent clocks for 44.1 and 48 khz sampling rate multiples and is switchable (with a rear panel switch) for class 1 (Windows) and Class 2 (Mac/linux), has amazingly low jitter specs for all inputs and supposedly sounds very, very good.

This dac is taking some flack for being in a plastic housing, but I think that is really a good part of it's sound and high performance, as reported by several folks and reviewers that have heard it.

Anyway, anybody looking for a very good quality dac that can handle just about everything, this may may be the one to set the bar for low cost dacs.

Also, coming very soon will be the Arcam R-Dock for my iPod touch for my  bedside system, and as soon as I can get my big system up, I'll be reporting on another 24/192 PCM, plus direct, native DSD DAC -- the Sonore/exD.

-- Jim

[earwaxxer]

I have read some good things about that DAC. I have the Gungnir. In a similar category of the new sub 1K high end DAC. It would be interesting to read a comparison between the MyDac and the Gungnir.

[Natural Sound]

Hmmm... Interesting. I've been looking for an affordable DAC that will allow me to play 24 bit high resolution files via USB. I wonder if this would work with my ALIX / Voyage set-up.

I'd be interested in hearing how this sounds in your Bottlehead system, Jim.

[Jim R.]

Tom,

This will work fine with the Alix/Voyage box as long as you are running above a certain level of ALSA, the version number of which escapes me at the moment, but in all likelihood you already are.  That really should be all that is to it except for maybe possibly a tweak to some settings, but other than that, it should be as simple as musicfiles -> alix box -> usb cable -> MyDac.

In fact, when I have some free time, I may just give this approach another shot for our media room system -- no need for a full blown mac mini setup as this system will have a CDP, an AppleTV, the TV's own audio out, and then something like the alix box to grab files off the NAS and stream them to the dac.

-- Jim

[Natural Sound]

Jim, did you have an opportunity to listen to the Micromega MyDAC yet? I'm eager to hear what you think of it. -Tom

[Jim R.]

Tom,

Embarrased to say that no, I haven't been able to yet.  Why?  Because I can't find my one remaining digital cable (black cat veloce) and I sold all my interconnects but one pair, so I can't even cheat with a plain ol' interconnect.

I do have an Arcam drDock coming today and that supposedly has a full complement of hookup cables with it, and if it does, then I can borrow the coax cable and put it between the CD player and the MyDac.

So, right now it's only a matter of a digital cable and swapping the interconnects to the amp and I'll b3e listening to the dac.

UPS typically arrives around this time, so maybe tonight I'll have an update.

-- Jim

[Jim R.]

Tom,

Arcam dock arrived and had every cable but a digital coax.  I tore through all the boxes that my black cat cable could be in -- and plenty others as well, and no luck.  In the process I managed to trigger a good back spasm so I'm done for the day.  Tomorrow I'll go out to the garage as there is one more box that may have at least some other interconnects in it.

BTW, I also thought of using a toslink cable but I can't find any of those yet either.  Obviously I have more organizing to do :-).

I did plug in the MyDac though so it is at least warming up some.

-- Jim

[denti alligator]

I really badly want to demo a DAC, any DAC, in my system. I tried synching a CD from my Marantz and the FLAC of that same CD throw J.River with my Juli@ handling the DAC and I couldn't hear a significant difference. I know the Juli@ is supposed to be an impressive DAC on its own, but it's still supposed to pale next to an external DAC.

[Shappers]

I really badly want to demo a DAC, any DAC, in my system. I tried synching a CD from my Marantz and the FLAC of that same CD throw J.River with my Juli@ handling the DAC and I couldn't hear a significant difference. I know the Juli@ is supposed to be an impressive DAC on its own, but it's still supposed to pale next to an external DAC.

I have been using the Juli@ card for a long time to send a good clean digital signal out to my Cambridge DacMagic box. I was very happy with this setup, it sounded great.

Then one day, just for something to do, I decided to try out the DAC built into the Juli@. I hooked up my interconnects from my amp straight onto the back of the card and blow me down, it sounded just as good! There is a small difference which I can hear but I cannot say which one is better so now I just straight use the Juli@ card. My DacMagic was also upgraded with a better power supply. 

I also paid a fifth of the price for the Juli@ than the DacMagic 

[Jim R.]

Hey Sam,

I can loan you my Halide HD for a while if you like.  Warning, it's new as I had Halide make me a custom version with a .5 meter usb cable and a short set of output leads with a right angle stereo 3.5mm connector.  I did this so I could have a more manageable portable solution that simply straps on the back of one of my pocket size portable amps for mobile use.  Turns out we won't be travellin for the holidays this year so I won't miss it for a month or so.  You willl need a female 3.5mm to rca stereo cable to connect it to the s.e.x. and I don't have one of those at all.

Just email me and we can work it out.

Thanks,

Jim

[tdogzthmn]

I have a Halide DAC HD too, and fine it very satisfying.  My only other DAC was the HRT II+ which is also a great first DAC.  I really like how small and portable the Halide is, and its resolving and natural sound.  I think it will make a great secondary DAC once Bottlehead releases their own.

[Jim R.]

So, I've been listening all day to the MyDac using an unshielded twisted pair interconnect for the digital signal from the cd player, an Audioquest Big Sur RCA to stereo 3.5mm cable into my ALO National and the Q Audio silk headphone cable into my HD-800s and even at this early stage I can say this dac is really, really nice.  I did listen to the same system first direct from the CDP as a baseline and there is simply no comparison.  I'm not sure what the dac chip in the Piano CDP is, but I do know that it upsamples everything to 24/192 and has sounded decent in most of the systems I've tried it in, but the MyDac takes things soooooo much further.  Nicely balanced, not harsh at all, but not overly warm either; very nice soundstage (and I think you have to give credit to micromega for what appears to be a superb jitter reduction scheme as the CDP with an unshielded twisted pair is pretty much an acid test for jitter. Nicely balanced from top to bottom, very nice but not overdone dynamics -- all in all, even right out of the box this is a very impressive dac.

Can't wait to get this hooked up directly to one of the mac minis and play some high-res files through it.

Let's put it this way, if I paid $1500 for it I wouldn't be the slightest bit disappointed, so at $370, I have to think it's more or less a no brainer.

Of course things are bound to change as the National, cabling and hd-800s break-in more along with the dac, but even with nothing special in terms of cabling, power distribution, etc., this thing is performing like a champ.

-- Jim

 

[Jim R.]

Got more listening in this afternoon and I'm really liking what I'm hearing.

I still have yet to have this dac in a system where I can evaluate the overall tone, but tomorrow I'm going to try the same setup with another, much better rca to 3.5mm stereo cable, my Shure SE-425 IEMs and my ALO Continental -- all of which have had a lot of play time together and whose sound I know quite well.

If things keep going this way, this may well be the new price performance leader. I wish I still had my MSII+ to compare it to but regardless of that comparison, they are both great values and nothing to turn oe's nose up at.

If anybody is on the fence about trying this, I think I can say with reasonable confidence that you'll probably like it, but you still may want to buy from a place with a good return policy.

-- Jim

[earwaxxer]

These new DAC's are truly fantastic. Nothing like a major recession to wake up the industry!

[Natural Sound]

Thanks for the update, Jim. You mentioned that you may give an ALIX a try as well. I'd be interested in hearing how it does with higher resolution files. I understand that may take a while to test.

I might just have to pick one of these up. Right now it would be #3 in line. #1 is a set of Orca's and a sub. #2 is a set of upgrade iron for the Paramour 45's. After that a DAC upgrade could be in order. Who knows, the Bottlehead DAC may be available by then (wink, wink, nod, nod.)