@yysantababara
I am shipping from Mich. You may be shipping from the west. Just to get the Dac to Cali. Is 75.00.
Wish I would have known you wanted black I would have ordered it that way😀
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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I posted a month or so ago that I had ordered a L.K.S. USB to I2s converter. Well Shenzhen Audio said I had to wait because they were out of stock but at only $206.00 it wasn't worth complaining. It was just a curious experiment to finally find out what I2s sounded like and at 200 bucks, well? I had previously almost bought the GD-Audio version which is more expensive at around $1200 plus shipping and custom cable and weighs 5kgs, it's serious kit. Additionally there's the Sonore ultraDigital at $499.00 plus shipping but it is universal, so no custom I2s cable required. So I wasn't expecting any great shakes for 200 bucks. Received it last week but was in no hurry to set it up. Borrowed about $1500 worth of 5v LPS and power cable from my dealer and fired it up 5hrs ago with a recently purchased Furutech 8k HDMI cable. BTW you can run it from a USB charger with the included 2.1mm USB DC cable. Man was I WRONG! This thing is amazing, it puts you at front row centre. I know it's not broken in yet and neither is my HDMI input on the 005 but it sounds huge. Detail by the boatload and I was getting plenty before. I can just switch between HDMI and Digital XLR on the fly and it just destroys XLR. Once it's fully broken in I'll test the difference between HDMI and RJ45 inputs. The 005 has brought us an amazing product at a fraction of what it's really worth. Honestly this unit takes it to another level. No it doesn't sound analogue or like vinyl. It sounds REAL! As it should. |
Great that @benzman settled in with a DAC he really prefers and that seems to integrate well with the rest of his system. And kudos to him for getting that fine DAC at an advantageous price. No one has ever claimed the Musetec was the best DAC ever and in all situations. That being said, the Musetec used was not broken in fully and not used through its most advantageous input, USB. But his money, his choice. Now just to relax with the music. Just a final word putting the return cost in some context. Return privileges are all over the place. The cost to return a Schiit Yggdrasil to California, for example, can be $148 plus transportation both ways. The cost of returning a Wyred 4 Sound DAC within 30 days could be $675 plus shipping to California. @sns uses a tube system that he says creates even number harmonic distortion that may account for differences in perception of a DAC as compared to benzman's solid state one. Mine is also a tube based system, Rogue, but it is definitely known for NOT being "tubey" while still providing tube benefits. As some of us, committed to the sound of acoustic instruments in real space have noted, our search is NOT for our taste in musical reproduction. We do not seek a DAC that sounds good. A DAC is not a musical instrument. Neither is an amplifier or a speaker. We look for components that recreate our experience with unamplified music as closely as possible. There are well known components DESIGNED to sound inaccurate and euphonic, certain British speakers being notable examples. @lordmelton, Very interesting. If I understand you correctly, you're comparing the AES/EBU input port on the Musetec to the the spdif input and hdmi output of the USB to I2s converter into the hdmi input of the Musetec. Is that right? If so, what is the source that is outputting either the AES/EBU or the spdif? Also, have you considered the LKS power supply made for the unit? It costs a lot less than $1500 as would an excellent SBooster, for example. |
I had just sold my Rogue RP7 with NOS tubes prior to getting the 005 I miss it already. My Dac was my only source so it didn’t make sense to me to use a 5k linestage for one source. Maybe a tube buffer down the road I have a bunch of higher end cables coming in this week to hopefully fine tune the system
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- 1537 posts total