Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

After having owned this product a solid 3 weeks, I fail the see the hype. I see what it does to the audio and how it does clean it up a bit, but I don't see it leaps and bounds ahead of what other 1k$ priced dacs offer. In fact, ive had nothing but problems and misery since I've bought this dam thing. Glitches in audio, random disconnects, random desyncs and other problems that don't fix themselves until unplugging the usb. There are times when I watch a video, hit pause, and the audio buffer decides to keep playing on a loop non stop. Super annoying. I think there's something wrong with these Amanero drivers. I'm tempted to return this dam thing. For 3k$ it was supposed to make my life so much easier, but instead its been nothing but troublesome. Furthermore, the Amanero board does NOT remotely come close to removing all the noise from a PC. I still have some mild background static. Its  better than my previous dacs, but its built in galvanic isolation is really mediocre at best. I was really expecting much better filtering out of it, but I guess theres no avoiding having to buy a 3rd party isolator. Oh well. So yeah, who else has usb driver problems with this thing?

I'm trying to find a good dac that galvanically isolates usb well. Anybody know how well this does without a reclocker/isolator? I'm also curious how this unit compares to a Singxer SDA-6 Pro. I'm going with one of these two, as they're the only two units I'm aware of with some level of usb isolation. I almost purchased a x26 pro, but found out it has virtually 0 isolation.

Dam, what I'm hearing is that the galvanic isolation in the 005 is great, but not entirely perfect. I dont think i could justify spending 1k+ on an opticalrendu or similar device on the already expensive 005. I was initially considering something along the lines of an igalvanic 3.0. I think the Singxer can be had for roughly a third of the 005's price. Its still a tough call for me if I just wanna save some cash and call it a day. Even though there's over 10 pounds of upgraded electronics in the 005 over the singxer like you said, do you think 3x the price gets you a huge leap in performance?

Fair enough. Sadly I know myself better and I know ill be out shopping for new parts in no time, no matter what i buy : P The singxer crossed off everything off my list I wanted in a dac. Seeing as I'm a far cry from being an electrical engineer, I have little clue as to how the more expensive components in the 005 will affect the sound.

I just splurged and bought an HSA-1B amp recently and i feel like I spent way more than I should have already. Buying the 005 just exacerbates that feeling. But you're right, I'm probably gonna end up picking it up anyway...

Hi, thanks so much for the debugging help.

My current and most problematic issue is the intermittent audio micro stutters I keep hearing. Once they start, they don't stop until I do something to address that.

The 005 is currently plugged into a HEDT worth a bit more than the dac itself. No i do not use a laptop or a streaming device because I dumped all of my funds into this device. I use it for both work and gaming, and, as such, it does contain a fairly high end gpu that is usually the cause of such background noise. This desktop has had more than one high end motherboard and multitudes of other parts swapped out to determine the root cause of the noise, but there was no single one component to blame. It seems its just the way PCs and power supplies are built these days - which really terrible noise isolation... Also, I don't have a free hdmi port to spare, so I'm plugging this directly into the usb input of the dac, which is why i wanted one with an amanero board to begin with.

I am a software engineer and I've already flashed the device and tried the latest drivers to no avail. I do strongly believe its a software issue, as its quite intermittent and random. I think flashing the dac last week and changing some settings alleviated some problems, but some remain. I think im still in the return window, so if I fail to resolve it I'm just gonna pick up something else.

If you want to know the amp im feeing into, its the HSA1B, but for sure its not to blame here.

Hi, thank you for the help. Unfortunately I need a high end desktop for work, and having built this one myself, I can guarantee its got the best processor, gpu, and motherboard I can afford. Adding a usb card will just add to the total cost of this chain and won't likely fix this issue. I have plenty other DACs at my place, including the old one this unit replaced, the VMV D1se. The VMV DAC is all in all a mediocre dac in comparison, however, it has never once failed me in the many months I've owned it. The 005 DAC is a constant source of disappointment for me. Once again I recorded another video of it just pumping out high pitched ringing sound and barely any music. I sent the video the shenzenaudio to hear what they would say. Every few minutes/hour I have to unplug it to reset it. Super annoying. It begs the question why a 3k$ DAC requires constant reseting and a < 1k$ DAC does not. The sad part is I'm going to have to spend an arm and a leg shipping this back to china. Im trying so hard to fall in love with the 005, but I just can't.