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."

melm

@yage All very well and good but what happens if a poorly measuring DAC with off the charts jitter and every other negative factor performs with the voice of angels in blind listening tests? Would ASR then be recognized as the clown factory that it is?

I prefer to take my advice from discussions on forums from people I can trust. Thanks to melm, dbb and sns I took a chance on the 005 and it's paid off big time.

The 005 is unique like most Chinese DACs because you can't demo them, but you can return them if you don't like them.

Most of my other equipment I auditioned over periods of time at my dealer's studio. Having a great dealer is very important. Someone who can recommend and even give you gear on loan.

Page 20 & 21 of ASR is going completely against what you profess. No room for anything but tests. The tragedy is they are missing such beauty and refinement, but I guess their beauty lays in graphs and double blind tests.

Are any of ASR actually married? Their chicks must be right munters.

@batvac2

| This is a peculiarity of all ESS chips, which cannot be heard

At minimum the continued presence of the hump represents inadequate engineering skills and testing equipment. Audio companies using this chip - including Weiss - have engineered it completely away.

Well maybe engineering the hump away is what gives Weiss their colored house sound and virtually every Weiss DAC review will mention how Weiss compartmentalizes the music, but I guess you’ve got that covered because every DAC sounds the same regardless.

BTW I’ve auditioned every Weiss DAC from 301 to Medea

Well, I love my 005.  And my SIT-3, my joule LA 300, my benz ebony LP-s, my steelhead and my joule VZN 80,all of which likely measure poorly but sound divine.  My ears are more important than anyone's test bench.

I returned the singxer today.  After a lot of listening and AB ing the singxer versus straight USB versus the sonore ultradigital, I confirmed that my system with the singxer was somewhat strident, glarey, harsh, and not toe tapping.  Hence, back it went. 

I am still preferring the sonore with HDMI to straight usb by a fair margin.  But, I can't really get over that the little box costs $500; maybe I'd prefer the musetec usb-100, which I have not yet ordered.  My 30 day sonore return window is rapidly closing.   I haven't decided what I'm going to do, besides continuing to listen to and enjoy music.       

@car123 All I can say is I'm getting the best music I've ever heard in my system using the LKS 100. Maybe it has something to do with system matching because both the 005 and 100 are LKS products and  we are talking just milliamps mA for the I2s connections.

No cable conductor swaps required either.

The RJ45 came out best for me and if you read one of my earlier posts using WW Starlight was just impossible, but after using it as an Ethernet cable it broke-in and now it's fantastic as my I2s, getting Platinum soon. Guess it was due to the very low current on I2s.

The LKS is only $200 but I would suggest a really good 5vdc power supply but you can test it out with a phone charger first.

 

@melm 

I feel great with the supra cable, I have been using it for a year and I chose it because it is the only one with certification and specific technical data.

I don't use any preamplifier as I want to directly amplify the output signal from the DAC (without artifacts created by other devices, which, even if not measurable there are ...), I understand that the digital volume is not the maximum but I am aware of this .

upstream of the DAC I have a PC with ROON and I use ASIO