Has anyone noticed a difference between the AES and the coaxial inputs on the dac?
Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC
Some history: I was the OP on a four year old thread about the Chinese LKS MH-DA004 DAC. It achieved an underground buzz. The open architecture of its predecessor MH-DA003 made it the object of a lot of user mods, usually to its analog section, rolling op amps or replacing with discrete. The MH-DA004 with its new ESS chips and JFET analog section was called better then the modified older units. It has two ES9038pro DAC chips deliberately run warm, massive power supply, powered Amanero USB board, JFET section, 3 Crystek femtosecond clocks, Mundorf caps, Cardas connectors, etc., for about $1500. For this vinyl guy any reservation about ESS chips was resolved by the LKS implimentaion, but their revelation of detail was preserved, something that a listener to classic music especially appreciated. I made a list of DACs (many far more expensive) it was compared favorably to in forums. Modifications continued, now to clocks and caps. Components built to a price can be improved by costlier parts and the modifiers wrote glowingly of the SQ they achieved.
Meanwhile, during the 4 years after release of the MH-DA004, LKS (now Musetec) worked on the new MH-DA005 design, also with a pair of ES9038pro chips. This time he used more of the best components available. One torroidal transformer has silver plated copper. Also banks of super capacitors that act like batteries, solid silver hookup wire, 4 femtoclocks each costing multiples of the Crysteks, a revised Amanero board, more of the best European caps and a new partitioned case. I can't say cost NO object, but costs well beyond. A higher price, of course. Details at http://www.mu-sound.com/DA005-detail.html
The question, surely, is: How does it sound? I'm only going to answer indirectly for the moment. I thought that the MH-DA004 was to be my last DAC, or at least for a very long time. I was persuaded to part with my $$ by research, and by satisfaction with the MH-DA004. Frankly, I have been overwhelmed by the improvement; just didn't think it was possible. Fluidity, clarity, bass extension. A post to another board summed it up better than I can after listening to piano trios: "I have probably attended hundreds of classical concerts (both orchestral and chamber) in my life. I know what live sounds like in a good and bad seat and in a good and mediocre hall. All I can say is HOLY CRAP, this sounds like the real thing from a good seat in a good hall. Not an approximation of reality, but reality."
Meanwhile, during the 4 years after release of the MH-DA004, LKS (now Musetec) worked on the new MH-DA005 design, also with a pair of ES9038pro chips. This time he used more of the best components available. One torroidal transformer has silver plated copper. Also banks of super capacitors that act like batteries, solid silver hookup wire, 4 femtoclocks each costing multiples of the Crysteks, a revised Amanero board, more of the best European caps and a new partitioned case. I can't say cost NO object, but costs well beyond. A higher price, of course. Details at http://www.mu-sound.com/DA005-detail.html
The question, surely, is: How does it sound? I'm only going to answer indirectly for the moment. I thought that the MH-DA004 was to be my last DAC, or at least for a very long time. I was persuaded to part with my $$ by research, and by satisfaction with the MH-DA004. Frankly, I have been overwhelmed by the improvement; just didn't think it was possible. Fluidity, clarity, bass extension. A post to another board summed it up better than I can after listening to piano trios: "I have probably attended hundreds of classical concerts (both orchestral and chamber) in my life. I know what live sounds like in a good and bad seat and in a good and mediocre hall. All I can say is HOLY CRAP, this sounds like the real thing from a good seat in a good hall. Not an approximation of reality, but reality."
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Well just in case anyone is interested, I have SR Purple fuses in all my gear and recently put a SR Masterfuse in my power conditioner. The sound in unbelievable, like a huge component upgrade, like I upgraded everything. A single fuse upgrade isn't going to be earth shattering, very noticeable nevertheless, but multiple Purples increase the effect. The Masterfuse multiplies everything exponentially. You have a 30 day money back guarantee so I don't know why anyone should be hesitant about trying these fuses. |
Just this morning in our Saturday audio club meet we demoed 4 dacs (all Chinese designed and manufactured), the Denafrips Venus, Musetec mh005, Gustard r26 and the Martix aAudio X Sabre. There were a total of 8 people in attendance , all assigning scores from 1-4 to each dac after a 3 minute sampler of various music styles including female vocals, electronica, rock , classical and r&b. The scroes were tabulated and the winner was more of a surprise to me given that 6 out of the 8, me included , all selected the same dac ast the top performer. Before we get to the final breakdown , it must be noted in attendance were some very seasoned audiophiles. owning reference dacs from the likes of DCS, MSB, Vermeer , TotalDac and Esoteric to make but a few. Onto the final results 1. Gustard r26, again 6 out the 8 voted it the winner. Legitimately, sounds to me more like a $5k dac and even beyond. Fast and resolving , accurate and transparent sound .......a r2r dac performing more like a delta sigma all for $1600 .....boggles the mind how they got this dac just so right in all the ways that matter. 2. Denafrips Venus, the other 2 people both voted number one for this dac. It was my choice for second best dac on the day. Trademark Denafrips sound , while more daring and forward focused in presentation. Midrange is where this dac really shines. 3. Musetec mh005, just one point in all separated the Musetec from the last place Matrix X Sabre. While perfectly adequate in most every aspect, nothing really stands out as exceptional with this dac. Seems like a dated design. One other attendee stated "a throwback design in not just aesthetics but also sonics. Fair to say the least aesthetically appealing of all 4 dacs. 4. Matrix X Sabre, the guys at Matrix need to refine this D/S dac further. Most in attendance agreed to tiring faster of the most digital sounding dac of the bunch.
It is important to add nobody in attendance has/had an affiliation or shared any financial interests or vested interests of any manner with any of the dac manufacturers whose products were featured in this shootout.
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interesting result you are reporting... please tell more about how the digital feed was managed, what the rest of the system was etc etc... with dac testing and comparisons, how the streamed music input is handled matters alot fwiw, i bought a nice used r26 just to try it, see what the fuss is about, and i would agree that for the $ it is absurdly good... particularly from the lan input (i am a roon user) - i have confidently poo-pooed the chifi brands since i started my dac journey at the start of covid, especially those from the guangzhou/shenzhen factory alley (smsl, gustard, topping, singxer, matrix and so on...) but this r26 is pretty amazing... with an effective built in streamer too... |
@jjss49 Correct on the Gustard r26. One takeaway from today"s audio meet up was the discussion we had on the shockingly good QPR with the r26. Credit goes where it is due in that respect. Currently, now with Chifi (as you call it) confidence at its highest, we may be seeing Chinese designed and made audio products to genuinely rival their Western counterparts. Easily seen in the lower to mid price tiers , although not as of yet, if ever, who really knows, in the high end and ultra high end brackets. In terms of the audio setup used in the test : Magico A5 speakers , Innous Zen mk3 server, Pass labs xp 22 pre amp , Classe Delta monos , AQ Robin Hood speaker cable and Earth interconnects (balanced) |
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