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Six DAC Comparison

I am in the middle of comparing the sound of six different DACs in my system. I own them all (I know weird) but one of them is still within a trial/return timeframe.

Not to share specific comparisons today, but a couple of observations so far are that first, they all definitely sound different from each other. On one hand, they all sound pretty good and play what is fed to them without significant flaws but on the other hand there are definite sonic differences that make it easy to understand how a person might like the sound of some of them while not liking others.

Second, raises the observation that most of them must be doing something to shape the sound in the manner the designer intended since one of the DACs, a Benchmark DAC3 HGA, was described by John Atkinson of Stereophile as providing "state-of-the-art measured performance." In the review, JA closed the measurements section by writing, "All I can say is "Wow!" I have also owned the Tambaqui (not in my current comparison), which also measured well ("The Mola Mola Tambaqui offers state-of-the-digital-art measured performance." - JA). The Benchmark reminds me sonically of the Tambaqui, both of which are excellent sounding DACs.

My point is that if the Benchmark is providing "state-of-the-art measured performance," then one could reasonably presume that the other five DACs, which sound different from the Benchmark, do not share similar ’state-of-the-art" measurements and are doing something to subtly or not so subtly alter the sound. Whether a person likes what they hear is a different issue.

mitch2
fuzzbutt17's avatar
fuzzbutt17
97 posts
 

@tksteingraber

A customer/friend of mine told me about your issue and this post. 

Thank you Diane :^)

I just sent myself an email to [email protected] and Diane just sent us an email a few minutes ago and both came through as expected. 

So I can’t imagine what your issue might be @tksteingraber.

Modern problems :^P

In any event, it is rare that an email sits in our inbox for more than 24 hours without a response. So if you (or anyone else) has any issue getting a response from one of our email addresses I would recommend calling us.

To answer your questions @tksteingraber...

NC choke upgrades are $1,500 + return shipping and usually take 2-3 days from arrival to return shipping. We have the parts in stock. 

And we are offering $4,000 trade in on EVOs towards either our Mystique X’25 NC or our new Mystique Z NC. Either one would be a notable improvement over your existing EVO or an EVO with the NC choke upgrade.

Speaking of our new Mystique Z...

The chassis for our new Mystique Z are in their last stage of production and should be back from getting their baked on polymerized finish in about a week. 

We expect to start shipping our back orders the middle of October.

We expect Tim Mitchell to have a Mystique Z NC to review on this thread by the last week in October.

Estimated lead time on new orders is currently 2-3 weeks from payment to shipment.

We expect to have the Mystique Zs in stock for immediate shipment by the middle of November.

Reviewers from The Absolute Sound, Audiophilia, and Enjoy the Music are already lined up.

And we’re expecting reviews by Audiokey Reviews, Positive Feedback, The Sound Advocate, and Stereophile in 2026.

There will likely be a Mystique Z NC in the Volti Audio room at CAF and AXPONA.

And Mojo Audio will be in room #360 at AXPONA 2026.

tksteingraber's avatar
tksteingraber
784 posts
 

@fuzzbutt17 Many Thanks!…sounds good and that’s exactly the information I was pursuing.  Exciting times at Mojo Audio. 

mfisher702
49 posts
 

+1 on everything above 

no_regrets
573 posts
 

I was able to hear the Mystique in the Volti Audio room this past year in April while spending a few days at AXPONA and even after listening to several other dac's at the show (that cost many multiples of what the Mystique does) I still came away favorably impressed by the naturalness and richness of the Mystique :)

I am still very much pleased with my X-24AM dac, being driven by my Jay's Audio dedicated cd transport. Benjamin knows what he is doing with these dac's!

I'm looking forward to being able to meet him at this coming year's show!

Best wishes,

Don

benstelz
50 posts
 

Do we know for sure if the Mystique Z will have basically the same enclosure to the Mystique X series? I love the sound I get out of mine, though I'm not a big fan of the looks. My prior DACs were dCS, Aqua, and Weiss, all of them looked much nicer than the Mojo even though it beats them all in sound quality. I'll stick with it because of that but wish its looks better matched its beautiful presentation.

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