Millennia Media imersiv D1

@yyzsantabarbara I’m looking forward to your impression of the Imersiv and the Playback. I assume it will be an apples to apples setup and DACS will be warm and stable. I own and love the mpd-8 and find it renders an amazing blend of beautiful natural midrange presence and at the same time, stunning detail retrieval. I have yet to hear a DAC that has this type of presentation. My prior DAC was a Bricasti M21 and it was awesome, I really liked the R2R DAC and linear phase filter, but the MPD-8 edges ahead with more color, natural sounding resolution, and better bass response. Also, I’ve used both DACS extensively direct to amplifiers and both have excellent volume controls. In the case of the MPD-8 I’m now using an Accuphase C-2900 which brings out more soundstage width and seems to unlock more natural detail, but I could easily live with the mpd-8 DAC direct. Its vol ctrl and output drive is seriously good. I hate to recycle this cliche, but the MPD-8 really sounds more like a master analog tape than a digital conversion machine. A friend of mine has been gushing about the Imersive (as much as I rave about the mpd-8) and so I’m genuinely interested to hear one at some point. 

@dpac996 I doubt it will be an apples-to-apples comparison. I have purchased something so that I have great fibre optic streaming with the gear I will bring. I think everyone else will stream from an iPad or computer. 

The plan sometime back was to purchase the MPD-8. I even purchased the PBD STREAM-IF to motivate me to continue on a second job that I was doing to earn some audio funds. However, I get sidetracked by the Schitt Yggi+ OG and decided that that DAC was good enough and used the audio funds elsewhere.

The Allnic D-15000 Signature OTL/OCL is likely more like the mpd-8. Andreas has cooked up some great FPGA code on the digital side of the MPD-8. I used to own the Sony SCD-1 that he was involved with. I forgot the Allnic designers name, he seems to be equally an audio genius. The OTL/OCL analog is so good. 

I am just guessing here but I think the D-1 sounds different from the MPD-8 and the Allnic (which I know all about). I think I said it in an earlier post the D-1 is not really an audiophile sounding DAC. The Allnic definitely is. The MPD-8 is also described by many in these terms. My now sold R2R Schiit Yggi+ OG is also somewhat described in glowing audiophile language.

The D-1 is more of an analytical sound, but I do not mean that in a negative way. I think you hear everything in the source but without harshness. I can understand the glowing comments by the studio engineers (see Imersiv web site). My feelings on the sound of the DAC mirrors, those descriptions.  I am not audio person, but I know what sounds great to me. If I can only have 1 DAC it would be the D-1. 

User Comments - Imersiv

User Comments 2 - Imersiv

User Comments 3 - Imersiv

My friend Danny loves the Allnic DAC, and it is his fav. It was mine also until I burrowed the D-1. It just sounds correct to me.

My greatest compliment is that I am listening to music that I was just so--so about and finding that music now sounds great. Example, Lana Del Ray. I was never a huge fan but, on the D-1 I was listening to a couple of her albums from start to finish and loving it.

Another album I liked even more on the D-1 was "Capriconia" by Midnight Oil. In the past I liked the first 4 or 5 tracks but, on the D-1, the whole album was great. The Oils are great musicians, and I could really appreciate that in the D-1. Same goes for Jeff Beck, never been a huge fan but on the D-1 I am very impressed. I could go on about many more instances. Actually, more fun to talk about the music.

I am going to ask Danny to do a comparison of the MPD-8 and the Allnic D15000 using his RAAL 1995 Immanis phones. The headphone amp will likely be the top-of-the-line Allnic.

His hearing is crazy good. So good that I sometimes tell him not to tell me his opinion of music that I like. :) 

He will include the D-1 in the comparision.

BTW - someone may do a write up on TAS about the meet. 

@yyzsantabarbara “Actually, more fun to talk about the music”

awesome place to be!

I now have my most difficult system sounding the best I ever heard. It is the RAAL SR1a earphones. There are bright phones but are my all-time fav headphones. I sold them once thinking I would buy the 4x more expensive RAAL 1995 Immanis but after doing a home demo I was drawn back to the 2-channel sound of the SR1a, and I repurchased it. The Immanis is right at the top of the headphone space, but I like the SR1a the best.

I have done 2-channel amp rolling with the SR1a along with DAC rolling. A lot more painful $$ wise than simple tube rolling, but at one time the SR1a needed 100 watts of 2-channel amp power (not anymore with a new adapter). These potentially could be my second-best system but were not until today. 

The D-1 seems to have nicely broken-in, and I have now set the Harmonic Distortion filter to B and Level 2. Just a tiny bit of distortion that I use the same on all 3 systems.

In the past I used the following warm DACs to tame the top end of the SR1a,

- Musetec 005

- Audio Mirror Tubadour

- Schiit Yggi+ LIM

- Schiit Yggi+ MIB

- Gustard X26 Pro

- ROON Convolution filters by Mitch Barnett of AccurateSounds.ca. Specifically designed for the SR1a and I used occasionally but not with the D-1.

With the best being the Schiit Yggi+ MIB. The Schitt Yggi+ OG, my second fav DAC of all-time, while good with the SR1a, there was still a bit of unwanted energy on top with the OG.

Today, the "analytical" D-1 is the very best DAC on the SR1a. The highs are tamed nicely, and the uber resolution of the D-1 comes across in this uber resolving earphone. No fatigue whatsoever.

I am using the Schiit Mjolnir v3 headphone amp as my amp. I think the Schitt Aegir v1 2-channel amp (20-watt Class A) is even better, but I can only use RCA with the single stereo amp, and the D-1 has RCA, but I do not think it works. The manual says to not use RCA. I am waiting on the development of the passive switch box to get my tuners and Aegir v1 into the mix.

I sold the $7k RAAL VM-1a a few days ago, this tube headphone amp is universally considered the best amp on the SR1a. I liked the used $400 Aegir more with the D-1. With all other DACs the VM-1a was the king of the hill.

Maybe I need to stop the tunes on the SR1a and go to sleep. Only thing bad about the SR1a is that it does not work well with your head on a pillow.