Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

@americanspirit

When I wrote my last post I thought that the reputations of the Schiit and Rogue preamps were sufficiently well established that I failed to say the following. Remember that my personal judgments are, as best as I can, against live unamplified music. The inexpensive Schiit preamp with tubes was a very clear improvement over the fine transistor one. It was then that I discovered that I MUST have a balance control, which has gone out of favor on many excellent preamps. So I went to the far more expensive Rogue--I needed balanced outputs as well. It proved to be an even greater improvement than was the first change. A testament perhaps to the value of the Rogue’s extremely strong power supply (LPS, of course) in delivering sound quality. I am very happy with the Rogue listening to all recorded music. That should answer question 2.

No doubt you are focusing on the THD number. First I would refer you to all the discussion here (and elsewhere) about the uselessness of the industry type of specification next to the experience of actually listening. One of the problems with the published THD number is that harmonic distortion may take on different shapes--all hidden in the industry-standard number. Generally in units with tubes, the major factor here is that the THD is principally in the second harmonic.

It has long been a controversy in audio. Does the slight bit of second harmonic that is ordinarily introduced by tubes "distort" the sound so as to make it less like the real thing, live music? Or does it restore an element of the sound that is ordinarily diminished slightly in the recording and reproducing process with the result of sounding more like the real thing? And so one can choose solid state or tubes conforming to your answers here, and I chose a tube preamp that is know for having that fine attribute of tubes, but mildly so. I believe that answers your first question. We touched upon a similar issue a while back when discussing feedback in solid state components.

To answer the third question directly. I don’t spend much time on the kind of comparison you ask about. But for a short while when I was experimenting with streaming I was receiving Tidal and Amazon Music at the same time and testing the streams with MusicScope. A series of Shostakovitch symphonic recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Nelsons was the being released. Tidal had them at 16/44 and Amazon had them at 24/48. While the differences were subtle, they were sufficiently distinct.

@melm 

dear
my questions weren't provocative, just sincere curiosity.

I asked you because before choosing the preamp I performed several tests using the components made available to me by various passionate friends like us.

the most trivial was the comparison between DA005 + MC152 vs DA005 + M8sPRe + MC152 and obviously there was no comparison.

the second was between Lumin U2 MINI + DA005 + MC152 vs DA005 + M8sPRe + MC152 and also in this case the level of details, the three-dimensionality, the dynamic range were in favor of the configuration with preamplifier (the LEEDH control was active)

the third was between DA005 + C22 mkV + MC152 vs DA005 + M8sPRe + MC152
and it is in this case (with the tube preamp) that I no longer distinguished the difference in listening to the same track at 16 bit 44 kHz and 24 bit 192 kHz

@americanspirit If you're still looking for a preamp, you might want to try a Hegel P20. I use it with the 005 and the McIntosh MC152. I found it was better than the McIntosh C47, more dynamic, detailed, and timbrely accurate.

@dbb 

thanks for the advice, I had considered buying the Hegel P30A but then the choice fell on the Musical Fidelity M8sPRE.

@americanspirit  I have a P30 which I use with a McIntosh MC402.  It's  very nice, especially with natural timbre. I hear the P30A won't be in the US until November or December. How does the M8sPre sound with the Mac?