First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

@sns  When I bought the Phoenix my DAC (Musical Paradise MKIII Deluxe) at the time didnt have I²S which seemed to be the latest rave. I tried a few inexpensive USB decrapifiers, they all made a difference. The Phoenix was expensive, but I thought if I stick with USB, why not get one of the best USB optimizer solutions.

I have kind of always had the belief that instead of converting the digital signal, why cant they make USB sound as good. Now I wouldnt want to dispute anyones findings that prefered I²S. Maybe if my DAC had the I²S input I might have went the DDC route especially if it was cheaper than the Phoenix. There is another newish USB optimizer that is made by LHY called the UIP. It looks like a nice piece for the money. That is good to know about the USB input of the 006.

The volume thing with the 006 confused me. The 006 is essentially acting as a preamp without having to switch to preamp mode. I can understand people wanting to do away with a component. I have always felt there is no substitute for a good preamp so I would just use the 006 as a DAC only.

You said the 006 would fit into many systems. So the 006 doesnt favour SS or Tube preamps?? I guess that would be a preference synergy thing. I have a SS Classe CP800 and the Primaluna Evo 400 preamps. I like both, but tubes just have that special touch. I thought about selling my Evo 400 as my Classe monoblocks are the match to my CP800. Its just prying the tubes from my hands lol

@darcman I'd say without a doubt usb way to go with Musetec. I've heard I2S more likely to be superior for R2R dacs as separate timing leg of I2S cable is critical in getting best performance from these dacs. The issue is your adding another component with DDC, added complexity and voicing of DDC, may take as much or more than it gives.

I can't say if Musetec's prefer tubes or SS, I purchased a Pass XP-22 last year, while very nice, still preferred my Coincident pre, this may be a system thing or just my personal preference.

Also, 006 is not really acting as a preamp, yes it has volume control, but its digital and stripping bits. There are dacs with analog volume control, with these much better chance at not needing pre. However, the good ones are expensive, and I've seen where some still prefer stand alone pre.

Second listening session, now 125 hours.

In what I'd call transition period at this point. First session, impressive gains in resolution/transparency attracted vast majority of my attention. This area of performance is the calling card of 006, automatically increases involvement, and I'd expect this to remain long term.

So now we get to presentation, really the most important aspect of any audio component, this is the where I want to concentrate my attention going forward. As mentioned above, 006 in period of transition, I noticed a slight closed in sound quality early hours, just a bit veiled and uptight, this improved somewhat over listening session. Tonally, this gave it a sort of a dark quality, something I noticed last week, very slight tonal aberration here. More noticeable is lack of full expression with micro dynamics, something I also noticed at first listening session, 006 does not yet have what I call the 'breath of life', just a little flat here. Beyond that nothing really standing out in a negative way.

Nothing really unexpected here, typical of component burn in. I expect the 006 burn in to be a long one, this thing has lots of technology built into it, many boutique parts, large number of transformers, complex power supplies. I'm expecting perhaps up to 400 hours based on my modding experience with some of these parts.

So I'm doing survey type listening thus far, virtually all genres, all manner of recording quality, seeking out the warts to get fair estimation of 006. Thus far only a single recording which I thought inferior to previous listens, this was synth heavy recording which I formerly thought to be far more expansive dynamically than it turns out to be. I've likely played well over a thousand tracks, one track from each album, so many flavors already heard, for only one recording to sound inferior is pretty good in my book. So, in essence what I'm saying, still believe 006 is superior to 005 in ability to be both more resolute/transparent and musical or forgiving of all recordings.

Now, nice to have Laiv Harmony around in order to compare it's utterly natural, holistic presentation, although I still have more hours to listen. Laiv easier to simply relax into, not listen in analytical mode. Dacs like 006, because of their relatively high resolution really demand a different kind of attention, you can't help but hearing the SOUND,  I really get why some like the NOS R2R sound. And I'm not saying 006 not holistic or natural, at only 125 hours doubt it even close to final sound, guarantee this thing will 'bloom' in time. I'm going to burn in 006 in 25 hour increments going forward, want to hear the transitions. @dbb  perceptions of 006 very curious to me, perhaps I still haven't heard some persistent, long term anomaly in 006.

Just a brief word about DDCs.  The Phoenix was diacussed towards the end of the Musetec 005 thread where it was compared to the far less expensive Singxer UIP-1 PRO.  IIRC the Singxer has about the same clock, galvanic isolation and a simpler power supply.  Singxer has a very fine reputaion for its devices.  It is currently available at Amazon (US) and is returnable.  So one can try with zero cost.  These are USB-in/USB-out devices.

Other DDC devices that were mentiond are USB-in/I2S-out devices.  These units duplicate what each of the Musetec DACs does internally.  Some have reported that the device made by LKS actually outperforms the internal function in the DAC.  Others, me included, are sceptical.  Singxer makes a similar device.  

Finally, though not usually called DDCs, are Ethernet-in/USB-out devices, better known as streamers.  They avoid any use of USB at all.  There are those who swear by them.  Some such units also have coaxial SPDIF and/or AES/EBU outputs.  The jury is out on which of these outputs is preferred by owners of them.  However, the I2S can handle very much higher sampling rates than the others and even higher than USB.

@sns  My take on the 006 after maybe as much as 450 hours of break in is still evolving. I keep feeling that I may have made a mistake in reporting provisional and what I thought were final conclusions as it still, surprisingly,  may be breaking in. At first, I was ecstatic over everything I was hearing (dynamics, imaging, sound stage, resolution). Next I became frustrated with software hiccups where my streamers suddenly lost volume on three occasions. After that I started to hear some sporadic congestion usually involving high frequencies. Some of those anomalies were on favorite recordings. In a brief intemperate fit lasting a day, I decided to sell the 006 even though it was performing brilliantly on 90% of my recordings. I wanted 100%. After I heard sns’ first impressions, I changed my mind about selling it. Soon after that I thought that the fault was not in the equipment but in my own very limited but real high frequency hearing loss. (I’m 75 years old) After that, the anomalies I heard faded. All recordings were 100% listenable again. Maybe it wasn’t my hearing. It did seem to get darker for a while. Over the last three or four days the sound seems to have stabilized. I have not had any problems. It is the best DAC I have heard. But please do not take this latest report as my offering final conclusions. I have to put more time in to be sure. Sorry for the suspense.