Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

I have to admit this Mystique V3 is growing on me. It’s stupid good for the money! It has a sense of natural presentation, texture and harmonics while still attaining accuracy and clarity that is hard to achieve. It’s intimate when it needs to be, and big and voluptuous when asked to be. I’d put it comfortably in the “if it were twice as expensive I wouldn’t think twice” category.

Anyone looking in this price range would be doing themselves a great disservice to not consider the Mystique. It’s REALLY good!

Hi Everyone.

Benjamin from Mojo Audio here.

I love the concept of this thread.

Something like over 80% of all the recorded music that is commercially available is only available in 16-bit 44.1KHz. So IMO the most important thing for a DAC to do well is to decode Red Book CDs.

Matt's most recent comments about our DAC having "natural presentation, texture and harmonics" is spot on. That is specifically what my goal is when engineering a DAC.

In my experience, the most important character in a source is "harmonic coherency." Harmonic structure is what makes acoustic instruments sound correct. Once the harmonic structure is messed up it can never be regained with other cables and components later in the signal chain.

There were a few comments Matt made that I wanted to address...

He mentions our chassis. Our unique 2-piece chassis is the product of nearly a decade of R&D. Our chassis is constructed from an extremely thick polymerized aluminum composite with 100% non-magnetic stainless steel hardware. From our tests the polymerized aluminum composite we use has about 11% lower mechanical resonance than the identical chassis with an anodized aluminum finish.

But that is only the beginning. We use a thick EMI/RFI ferrous shield to isolate the power supply from the signal board. Fact is that aluminum is a very poor EMI shield which is why we are not such big fans of these all aluminum "billet" chassis.

And both the signal board and the power supply boards mount to Sorbothane standoffs for ever better anti-resonant isolation. In order to use Sorbothane mounts on the PCBs all the connectors on the rear of the chassis have to "float." This is why our USB input is recessed and why it appears to be lose - it is mounted on Sorbothane.

Our chassis also comes standard with high-performance mass-loaded  Sorbothane feet. Of course I agree with Matt that there are several aftermarket feet that perform better. For example, we offer Stillpoints Ultra Minis or Ultra SS feet as an upgrade option. The Stillpoints thread right into the same 6-32 threaded holes as our stock Sorbothane feet.

But I have to say that my personal favorite anti-resonance feet are the Herbie's Audio Labs Iso-Cups with their Moss Quartz balls (too bad they're discontinued).

I also recommend two of the Herbie's Sonic Stabilizer "pucks" on top of our DAC to reduce mechanical resonance even more. It actually blew our minds that even with all the anti-resonant technologies we incorporate into our chassis how much of an improvement stabilizing weights on top of the chassis actually make.

Another very unique feature on our Mystique v3 DAC is the five independent choke input power supplies. Input chokes are rarely used these days in anything but the best-of-the-best of tube amps. I've never seen them used in any other low-current solid state power supply aside from our Mystique v3 DAC. The input chokes account for about 20% of the size and weight of our DAC.

Most audiophiles have no idea what the difference is between a power supply with just capacitance filtering, capacitance and a choke Pi filtering, or an input choke with capacitance filtering. Below is a short explanation of how an input choke works.

Choke input power supplies were engineered roughly 90-years ago by Western Electric. By adding a choke between the rectifier and first capacitor of a power supply the crest factor, heat, and parts wear are reduced by literally 50%. The choke also acts as a reservoir for power and pre-regulates the DC doubling the efficiency and effectiveness of each consecutive stage of filtering.

Our power supply concept combines the best of old-school heavy iron choke input regulation with modern ultralow-noise ultrahigh-dynamic regulators resulting in a power supply with significantly lower noise and faster dynamic response that runs significantly cooler and lasts significantly longer.

It is the choke input power supplies that account for much of the natural character and harmonic coherency in our Mystique v3 DAC. We've found that no matter what else you do, you can't get that same natural character and musical flow with any other type of power supply.

Something else I thought I would mention is my blogs. Two of the most popular are "The 24-Bit Delusion" and "DSD vs PCM: Myth vs Truth."

https://www.mojo-audio.com/blog/the-24bit-delusion/

https://www.mojo-audio.com/blog/dsd-vs-pcm-myth-vs-truth/

Some people have commented over the years that I wrote these blogs to promote my DACs, but it was actually the other way around. After researching the different types of digital topologies and learning about what the math and science actually means, I came to the conclusion that a 20-bit R-2R ladder DAC has the purest form of PCM decoding.

Combine that with the fact that over 80% of all the recorded music commercially available is only available in 16-bit 44.1KHz PCM, and you now know why I chose to engineer my Mystique DACs the way I do ;-)

...After researching the different types of digital topologies and learning about what the math and science actually means, I came to the conclusion that a 20-bit R-2R ladder DAC has the purest form of PCM decoding....

And so I understand from other sources as well. Thanks for your confirmation!

mattnshilp OP
I have to admit this Mystique V3 is growing on me. It’s stupid good for the money! It has a sense of natural presentation, texture and harmonics while still attaining accuracy and clarity that is hard to achieve. It’s intimate when it needs to be, and big and voluptuous when asked to be. I’d put it comfortably in the “if it were twice as expensive I wouldn’t think twice” category.

Anyone looking in this price range would be doing themselvesto not consider the Mystique. It’s REALLY

Who would have thought, "Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD",   with R2R Ladder Multibit dac

I came to the conclusion that a 20-bit R-2R ladder DAC has the purest form of PCM decoding.

Combine that with the fact that over 80% of all the recorded music commercially available is only available in 16-bit 44.1KHz PCM, and you now know why I chose to engineer my Mystique DACs the way I do ;-)

 
Tried to explain this year or so ago Benjamin for PCM redbook replay, but they were so caught up in the Delta Sigma dsd storm, they couldn't see the forest through the trees.

Cheers George