Six DAC Comparison

@ benstelz

LOL!

I have to agree with you that our DACs are an ugly black box. 

Of course we could do what most companies do and have fancy looking chassis that cost more than the parts inside of them.

We considered a fancy machined billet aluminum chassis. The only problem was that we would have to charge almost DOUBLE for our DACs and they wouldn't sound as good. 

Those ugly black chassis of ours are actually high-tech.

The narrow/deep orientation puts the noisy power supply in the front and the sensitive signal path in the rear.

That baked on polymerized powder coated finish is more anti-resonant than anodizing.

And we use an Alodine undercoating that not only makes it even more durable the Alodine is resistant to EMI...anodized aluminum can't have an Alodine undercoat. 

All the hardware in our chassis is non-magnetic stainless steel.

The inside of the chassis are dampened for mechanical resonance with a combination of Sorbothane sheeting and a material that was developed by the US Navy to soundproof submarines. 

Even the white lettering on the rear panel is considerably more durable because it is laser etched into the black polymer instead of being screen printed on the surface like most companies do. 

So we could double the price of our DACs and give them fancy looking chassis and fancy looking packaging. But they won't sound as good and won't be as durable. 

As for our Mystique Z it looks like a lower profile Mystqiue X (only 3" vs 4" high).

We did switch to a thicker darker black glossy polymerized finish that is even more durable and even more anti-resonant. 

But here's the best news...

Today we're shipping the first of our Mystique Zs!

After we ship out all of our backorders Tim Mitchell (mitch2 who started this thread) is getting one of the first demo units.

So in about a week Tim might be posting his first impressions of our Mystique Z.

Currently our lead time is about 2 weeks from payment to shipment.

@mitch2 Any first impressions on the MystiqueZ?  I am pretty excited to here how it sounds compared to the Helene.

@mfisher702 did you receive your Mystique Z NC?  Any insight on it’s performance and how it compares to the X NC?

No Z yet. I’m patient and imagine the mad scientist of Albuquerque is head down and busy on his bench making our magic black boxes. 

The Mystique Z arrived here earlier this week and I have had it connected and playing music most of the time but so far I haven't really had a chance to listen beyond casually.

My initial visual impressions are very good, starting with Mojo Audio's no nonsense packaging, which includes what appears to be a triple wall corrugated cardboard box (very sturdy) with formed foam end caps holding the Mystique Z unit in place and spaced away from the walls of the box. 

I really like the high-gloss, high-durability, polymerized finish Mojo is using on the new Mystique Z, which reminds me of the finish on the EVO Pro and seems more substantial than the anodized type finish used on my X SE.  I am also fine with the smaller size of the unit.  I really like the retro-industrial aesthetics, including the laser-etched badge on the front panel, and the entire look appeals to my preference for solid, understated designs.  The connectors are of a high quality and the perception is of a well-built, solid product.

So, how does it sound.  I will start doing more serious listening soon.  I will probably start with comparisons to my Mystique X SE NCZ DAC.  I have two of the exact same digital cables and can feed a signal to both DACs at the same time out of my Singxer SU-6 DDC.  Therefore, I can literally switch between Mojo Audio DACs on the fly (if I choose) by switching inputs on my volume control.  The issue with comparing to the Aries Cerat Helene is that the AC Helene inverts polarity (no idea why) so a comparison requires me to switch speaker cable leads coming out of my amplifiers.  I will wait just a bit before comparing to the AC Helene because next week I am scheduled to receive a fully upgraded SMc Audio VRE-1C preamp (which has just been upgraded at SMc this week) .  The VRE-1C has a polarity switch, which will make it much easier to compare the AC Helene with the Mojo Audio DACs.

One other thing that will be important in any comparisons is trying to match output levels as closely as possible.  The AC Helene is outputting a high'ish 5V while the Mojo Audio DACs are closer to 2.4V P-P single-ended and 4.8V P-P balanced.  Therefore, if I use the balanced outputs from the Mojo Audio DACs, the output is close to the AC Helene but from the single-ended outputs I will need to significantly boost the volume of the Mojo Audio DACs.  I typically use a SPL app on my phone to help me match outputs but it may not be quite perfect.