Musical Fidelity's USB Ready V DAC

There are a few comments about PRaT on the Head-Fi thread but there are many more comments praising the musicality. There are also some comparisons in that thread between the V Dac and the CA DACMagic 2 and my read is that the majority prefer the V Dac. I have not heard the V Dac, but I do not think my MF A3.24 has "bleached tonality". I think it really depends on what type of sound you like.

Dudley's review was for an integrated amp and this quote deals with how it matches with a particular high efficient speaker. He likes the integrated better with other speakers. But clearly this is not Dudley's favorite integrated. On the other hand, if you read his review of the kW DM25 Transport and D/A, he raves about the sound -

"The Musical Fidelity DM25 combination is among the most dramatic home audio components I've heard in any product category: "Like a Miyabi 47 cartridge with a laser and a remote," according to the notes I made one clearheaded night. Small dynamic surges that had otherwise escaped my attention now commanded it—as in violist Yuri Bashmet's own arrangement, for chamber orchestra and viola, of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in b (CD, Sony Classical SK 60550)."

I think Fremer's review of the TriVista SACD player may point to your issue with MF.

"Whether it's because of the different sonic character of the "trivistor" tube or the Tri-Vista player's lower claimed jitter or distortion, the Tri-Vista sounded slightly richer, warmer, and darker than the Nu-Vista 3D. At first I was disappointed, but I eventually came to appreciate the Tri-Vista's smoother sound and greater resolution of low-level detail and spatial information. It was like listening to a speaker with a flatter HF response: At first it can sound dull and lacking in resolution, because the ear can confuse edgy peaks with "resolution.""

In the comparisons between the V-DAC and the CA DACMagic 2 the people who like V-DAC like its musicality whereas the people who like the DacMagic 2 like its detail. I listened to the CA 840C and as first liked the detail and PRaT, but found it fatiging over time with a disjointed analytic sound. My MF, but comparison, has a rich smoothness that I can listen to for hours. It sounds a lot like my Classe CDP 10. My guess is you would like the DACmagic 2 over the V-DAC, whereas I would go the other way. Different people like different sounds - part of what makes this hobby fun.

I think one problem is that Musical Fidelity has the reputation of having some great products and also having some that do not hit the mark very well. They seem to experiment more than many and sometimes they miss. Makes it hard to generalize about their sound. And sometimes their sound is just not for everyone. I am very interested in greeni's report on the V-DAC. If he likes it it is probably really worth a look. As much as I think USB is not the right direction for passing audio, it seems like it will be with us for a while. I am also interested in HDMI output from PCs, as they seem to be coming more common. Apogee has a HMDI to S/PDIF converter box which may be an option. Have not seem much about that approach but it is worth watching. I may get one of the Apogee boxes just to try it.