Back in the 70’s, I studied to be an electrical engineer, specializing in radio and television, but for the life of me I have no idea what silver coating copper wire has anything to do with transformers. So @melm , I’ve been lost since the beginning of this thread. I was hoping it would have come up by now so I wouldn’t have to embarrass myself by asking.☹️
Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC
Some history: I was the OP on a four year old thread about the Chinese LKS MH-DA004 DAC. It achieved an underground buzz. The open architecture of its predecessor MH-DA003 made it the object of a lot of user mods, usually to its analog section, rolling op amps or replacing with discrete. The MH-DA004 with its new ESS chips and JFET analog section was called better then the modified older units. It has two ES9038pro DAC chips deliberately run warm, massive power supply, powered Amanero USB board, JFET section, 3 Crystek femtosecond clocks, Mundorf caps, Cardas connectors, etc., for about $1500. For this vinyl guy any reservation about ESS chips was resolved by the LKS implimentaion, but their revelation of detail was preserved, something that a listener to classic music especially appreciated. I made a list of DACs (many far more expensive) it was compared favorably to in forums. Modifications continued, now to clocks and caps. Components built to a price can be improved by costlier parts and the modifiers wrote glowingly of the SQ they achieved.
Meanwhile, during the 4 years after release of the MH-DA004, LKS (now Musetec) worked on the new MH-DA005 design, also with a pair of ES9038pro chips. This time he used more of the best components available. One torroidal transformer has silver plated copper. Also banks of super capacitors that act like batteries, solid silver hookup wire, 4 femtoclocks each costing multiples of the Crysteks, a revised Amanero board, more of the best European caps and a new partitioned case. I can't say cost NO object, but costs well beyond. A higher price, of course. Details at http://www.mu-sound.com/DA005-detail.html
The question, surely, is: How does it sound? I'm only going to answer indirectly for the moment. I thought that the MH-DA004 was to be my last DAC, or at least for a very long time. I was persuaded to part with my $$ by research, and by satisfaction with the MH-DA004. Frankly, I have been overwhelmed by the improvement; just didn't think it was possible. Fluidity, clarity, bass extension. A post to another board summed it up better than I can after listening to piano trios: "I have probably attended hundreds of classical concerts (both orchestral and chamber) in my life. I know what live sounds like in a good and bad seat and in a good and mediocre hall. All I can say is HOLY CRAP, this sounds like the real thing from a good seat in a good hall. Not an approximation of reality, but reality."
Meanwhile, during the 4 years after release of the MH-DA004, LKS (now Musetec) worked on the new MH-DA005 design, also with a pair of ES9038pro chips. This time he used more of the best components available. One torroidal transformer has silver plated copper. Also banks of super capacitors that act like batteries, solid silver hookup wire, 4 femtoclocks each costing multiples of the Crysteks, a revised Amanero board, more of the best European caps and a new partitioned case. I can't say cost NO object, but costs well beyond. A higher price, of course. Details at http://www.mu-sound.com/DA005-detail.html
The question, surely, is: How does it sound? I'm only going to answer indirectly for the moment. I thought that the MH-DA004 was to be my last DAC, or at least for a very long time. I was persuaded to part with my $$ by research, and by satisfaction with the MH-DA004. Frankly, I have been overwhelmed by the improvement; just didn't think it was possible. Fluidity, clarity, bass extension. A post to another board summed it up better than I can after listening to piano trios: "I have probably attended hundreds of classical concerts (both orchestral and chamber) in my life. I know what live sounds like in a good and bad seat and in a good and mediocre hall. All I can say is HOLY CRAP, this sounds like the real thing from a good seat in a good hall. Not an approximation of reality, but reality."
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I’ve never had a need for measurements or for blind testing to figure out if a component should stay. Does it sound like live, unamplified, music in real space, and more so than what it replaces? That’s all I want to know. I suspect that you won’t need a "blind test" to know what you have when you turn on the Musetec with a bit of warm-up, even though not really broken in. But I worry about the Supra USB cable. It is one of the few that I have tried and it is really opaque. When I try the Supra I have to raise the volume considerably to hear low level stuff. A low cost cable I have recommended is AudioQuest Pearl. It’s a simple solid core copper. You also won’t need a blind test to know it’s better. It’s not the best cable I’ve used but it’s pretty good and somewhere near the Supra price category, perhaps even less. However if you’ve been using the Supra for a while I suppose you should leave it on so that the difference will be the DACs and not the cable. You haven’t, though, told us what’s at the other end of your USB cable. Also, no preamplifier? Are you using digital volume on your DACs? |
@teo_audio Well said, I too am trying to get past arguing on certain threads here. If the work futility comes to mind, I need to stay away. If one knows changing minds isn't possible what's the point. While its nice to hear from others with similar open mindedness and curiosity, we already know where most stand here.
Also, imagination is a wonderful thing, demeaning it not only shame for the arts, but also science. I attended school of Literature, Science and the Arts, imagination integral to all, curiosity and imagination form the genesis of knowledge and progress. |
This is completely missing the point. If something measures poorly but has no audible problems, then maybe the problem is below the threshold of audibility. In other words, even though the Musetec has a jitter-prone digital interface, you can't detect it via listening.
This is why scientists and engineers measure. They attempt to correlate observable, quantifiable data with perception. This is the fundamental misunderstanding I see in audio today on this particular issue - the blind listening tests and the measurements are performed so we know what is an audible phenomena. If the phenomena happens to be a problem, then we can find ways to fix it to advance the state of the art.
This is why blind listening tests are important. It removes the bias that sighted listening introduces and makes our judgments about changes in sound quality more consistent and reliable.
Now that we have repeatable, verifiable measurements and reliable observations from blind listening, we can start to make connections between the two. We can understand how changes in frequency response affect subjective appraisals of sound quality. We can quantify at what level of distortion we can call an amp audibly 'transparent'.
This is not to say that measurements are the be all, end all. But in my experience, using measurements makes it much, much easier to obtain the sound that you want. It gives you a target to shoot for instead of wandering around in the dark. It helps you make better decisions about what gear to buy and how to use it instead of being whipsawed by the flavor of the month or contradictory audiophile 'wisdom'.
In any case, apologies for further derailing this thread. I highly encourage any audiophile halfway interested in learning more to visit the following:
Audio Check - Audio Tests - Blind Tests Let's Listen to Jitter Effects Objective Loudspeaker Measurements to Predict Subjective Preferences? |
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