Bricasti MDX upgrade


I have a Bricasti M3 DAC with the 1.08 MDX board.  I see they have come up with an upgraded MDX board ( now 1.09 ).  I believe its a hardware upgrade at a significant cost rather than a downloadable firmware upgrade.

Has anyone upgraded their DAC?

Is there an audible difference?  If so, in what way?

And last, is it worth the cost?

rivinyl

The MDX board was introduced in 2020. 
I’m running the latest firmware on my M1- prefer and I prefer w

the wide setting 

Did a brief comparison and I think the Fine setting results in a slightly more focused presentation. It is very close though. I left it in Fine for few days to get used to it. Will switch back to Wide soon. 

Cool. I’ll compare. Been using Wide this whole time and never bothered since it sounds pretty awesome. 

audphile1, I switched back and forth between the 2 settings. I thought the wide setting sounded better (Wide / Fine). I suggest you do the same comparison.

I thought the wide setting was more natural and Musical. Hope thus helps.

@hgeifman are you able to hear a difference between fine and wide clock settings? I haven’t done the comparison yet on my M3. 

 

I also ordered the Bricasti V1.11 MDx Upgrade for my Bricasti M21 DAC (also M1SE, M3) and installed it

In addition to the improved in performance that the MDx offers, there 2 new features in V1.11 for all products upgraded from early MDx versions:

CLK Wide / Fine: On all products is the ability to change the Master clock sync from a fine very accurate setting to a more forgiving wide one, yielding a more relaxed sound and to allow for fine tuning of this change. Both settings yield very low jitter results.

Filter 1: For the M3, M12 and M21 products, the addition of 2 new filters, one for each type linear and minimum phase. These filters are currently found in the M1 and were found to be customer favorites and we feel would be welcome addition to the current simple 2 filters approach in those products.

As per Bricasti’s SIM Chip instructions, I removed the cover of my M21 DAC and inserted the SIM CHIP in the marked slot. The SIM chip was very easy to align and insert. I had no issues and it works perfectly. I also changed the setting to wide.

After reading their instructions, I was concerned about finding the slot and inserting the SIM chip. However, when I removed the cover, finding the slot was obvious and I had no issues. The location of where the chip needs to be inserted is clearly marked. YES, you have to be CAREFUL inserting the SIM Chip and I used a flashlight to help me.

Once you power up the DAC, please WATCH the screen for a progress report (it goes fast) and the words PROG OK. Any questions, please ask. cheers.

I also installed the Bricasti MDx upgrade board in my Bricasti M21. My system sounds clearer, smoother, more engaging with more musical details. I like it very much and also recommend the MDx board upgrade.

Please read the instructions carefully since it requires you disconnect some cables, remove the old board and install the new board. I had someone help me and the job took about 45 minutes (we moved very slowly).  
 

Yes, I have the board and yes you are correct.

I checked with Bricasti.

The upgrade is firmware!

Easy to do.  Brian thought it would add two more filters and that is about all.

They are such a pleasure to deal with

Wait… if you already have the MDX board, then the next numerical upgrade is a firmware upgrade. Right? There has not been a second MDX, right? 

Search the forum here, as the MDX board upgrade is many years old now so there are lots of comments within a few threads and other conversations.
I’ll be interested to know if you find any negative comments at all. Bricasti does solid R&D for upgrades and the price is always good compared to others.