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Has Anyone Auditioned an LKS MH-DA004 DAC?

Seems like a lot of DAC for the money.  ($1450-$1600)
melm
hfaddict's avatar
hfaddict
97 posts
 
@smodtactical Great gear! I’m sure you get a lot of enjoyment there.

As for the LKS 004 besting your current set up, it’s hard to say without knowing your own sound preferences, the characteristics of your phones/speakers and what you hope to gain. I would venture to say you would get a performance upgrade using the LKS as an external DAC but the price vs performance ratio may not be worth it at this point?  And of course, the more revealing your gear, the more changes you'll notice. 

I currently run the LKS 004 using the USB input and it sounds great, absolutely no qualms from me vs the co axial route in my system. I’m using an Audioquest Cinnamon cable with a Curious cable on the way. I’m excited to see what this cable swap brings as there are a lot of positive reviews kicking around.

I’m sure you’ve looked at the 81 page thread about this DAC over on Head-Fi. I’ve read the whole thing and the one reviewer did mention the Chord Dave bested the LKS 004 in musicality and dynamics I believe. I can’t even afford to be in the same room as the Dave but it sounds like this DAC can hold its own, although I’m speculative of it besting some $10k + DACs. But stranger things have happened!

I did found the 2Qute to have a bouncier sound vs the LKS. Generally there will be some give and take with any gear swaps of course. But ultimate synergy is my goal.

I also read that thread on Super Best Audio Forum. Very arrogant and stand offish, turned me right off.


smodtactical
981 posts
 
@hfaddict Thanks for the reply. I did read that thread and was impressed that the lks was considered to be in the same league than the Dave.

I'm also impressed by claims it beats yggy 1 ! And as a ds dac u wouldnt have to warm it up which is very appealing.

In terms of my setup I enjoy it immensely it just sounds fantastic but I wonder if I can sound even better with an external dac.

I may also buy a custom made tube amp so this dac will serve as a source that also.
melm OP
1,082 posts
 
@smodtactical

It is rare that a do-all component can excel at all of its functions over separate, well chosen components. A couple of the commercial reviews of the hdv820 suggest that its DAC section is outperformed by separate DACs which themselves have been said by users to have been outperformed by the LKS 004. I have tried in vain to obtain technical information about the DAC section of the hdv820 other than that it probably uses an ESS 9018.  They don't seem to give out a lot of information about what else is inside.

One of the problems in considering purchase of the LKS is that there are no domestic dealers and almost no opportunity to try one out at home or even to hear one. It is generally decided upon on the basis of a lot of reading and research. It may not be the very best, but it certainly seems to compete with the best--and has a huge price advantage

As for USB mode, I can report better performance after ripping CDs and playing through a laptop to the LKS than playing the CDs through an Oppo 105 and out to the LKS. Of course I can now rip SACDs and play them through the LKS as well. No comparison to playing the SACDs through the Oppo DAC which is far inferior.

Finally, I didn't know what sbaf is, but after reading the @hfaddict post I took a look. It seems the guys over there simply reject the whole class of delta-sigma DACs notwithstanding that some of the best DAC implementations on the planet do very well with them, and taking note of different tastes.  Much too much concentration on the chip rather than on the implementation and no talk at all of the music used for any comparisons.  Frankly, they seem like a bunch of jerks with a kind of political point of view, and who want to sound like they know more than they do.  It's their way or the "sound like crap" way!  Interesting, but very odd.

auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Some additional comments here on the LKS (which I have been interested in for over 10 months). First of all, if I were to design a DAC architecture, the LKS actually does almost everything perfectly right. The only 2 things that I have concerns about are the FET based analog stage (I prefer bipolar circuits) and the use of silver-mica compensation capacitors in the analog stages.

FET devices have a warm texture to them that many people love, but I feel detracts from the realness and accuracy of the music.

In my testing and experience, silver-mica capacitors are like super high frequency boosters, but can make the sound somewhat artificial and they do have microphonic problems. However, in this situation, the combination of silver-mica and a FET analog stage could result in great sound. In all my testing, I prefer true film-on-foil polypropylene caps. The Kemet PFR series are the smallest true "film-on-foil" caps that would work in this situation. They are much smoother and more realistic sounding than silver-mica.


Finally, there has been much discussion on the LKS vs Denafrips Terminator. Saying that Denfrips is generally the better DAC. I think it is totally in the eye of the beholder. The Denafrips does have true resists R-to-R circuits. However, two things. 1. I see op amps on the board at the bottom of the resister array circuits. I don’t know if these op amps are the "analog output stage" or if they are doing something else. I’d rather have a discrete bipolar analog stage than op amps any day. 2. They have an excellently designed power supply with massive amounts of small capacitors (for low ESR). However, they chose to use all Elna Silmic and Elna Cerafine capicators here. In my testing, the Elna’s have a very nice smooth sound, but they are just too laid back in the midrange and high frequency attack. It makes the DAC sound softer, milder and laid back / smooth. For many, this can be a desired sound, but I would rather have the resolution of a highly detailed DAC.  If it were me, I would load that Denafrips power supply with Nichicon Muse KZ caps instead of the Elna's they have.

In comparing the LKS with Denafrips, best I can do is youtube videos of both (some of them are actually using the same system). The Denafrips, while nice, is going to be too laid back and subdued for my tastes. The LKS appears to do everything right as it does sound very analog and real, but I can’t tell if it has enough attack/resolution until I finally decide to pull the trigger and get one in my system.

In my case, the two possible options are the LKS MH-DA004 or the Krell Vanguard DAC (I totally love the Krell discrete Class A bipolar audio stages). Krell only supports RCA coax input. LKS has RCA and BNC coax, as well as i2s (Pink Faun PCI i2s card in my future?!?).

melm OP
1,082 posts
 
@hfaddict wrote "I’m quite happy with my purchase and can only hope it is as reliable as my Chord has been!"

I think I've read just about everything written about this DAC, and with the help of Google in 3 languages.  I have not yet read of anything going wrong with the DAC.  There were some issues of possible overheating in the analog area.  Early adopters addressed the problem in a few different ways.  The factory has since resolved the issue.

One thing I think that makes the LKS easy to assemble without issues and even keep running well is the large amount of real estate that you get with the unit.  It is large and laid out very simply with plenty of space around components.  You have put up a lot of pictures, but my favorite is of the insides: https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/9938884.jpg  Your unit, if of recent manufacture, differs from this picture in that the 8 FETs in the analog section are now on the underside of the board.

In fact, should anything go wrong, and as you can see, it would be fairly simple to disconnect a few plugs, remove a few screws and the Amanero board and lift out the circuit board to send in for repair if necessary.  
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