Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

+1

i am interested to find out too... always fun and exciting to see if there is a true giant killer out there... (same for kinki exm1 int amp i got, but alas it arrived malfunctioning, needs repair...)

if a 3 grand musetec can hold its own against 7-8-9-10 grand well established alternatives, then it is indeed a real find and a boon to music lovers like us... other purported ones i have tried (morpheus, doge, tubador, yggy, terminator, w4s...), to my ears in my system, did not compare favorably, quite good as they are in their own price class

the direct sales model (from china makers and others) obviously has its advantages for end use purchasers when all goes right...

I thought I’d share some cable experiences with the 005. Just a caution that all of this is usually very system specific. Another caution, I was a "follower" of a recently deceased cable guru on another site. He was a master of identifying all sorts of cables and terminations available from a variety of places at very reasonable prices. He was actually about to launch a line of his own when we all learned the bad news. His basic advice for digital was was to go solid core. Of course, whether the 004 or the 005 we have the advantage of not being concerned with any interaction of the signal and 5V lines.

Beginning with the 004 I replaced a Supra USB cable with a Monoprice cable. Before you laugh at its price, scroll down to see exactly how it’s made. This was certainly an improvement over the Supra in every way. Still with the 004 I then tried AudioQuest Pearl USB cable. The differences between the two were very clear. The AQ made the soundstage open up considerably, but it lacked the sparkle of the Monoprice. It was just slightly dull.

I then happened upon an ebay listing for solid core silver cables at a very reasonable price. I wrote the maker and asked if he could make up a cable for me with 2 18ga solid silver, Teflon wrapped lines for pins 2 & 3 and a copper cable for pin 4. It turned out to be remarkably inexpensive. He did and when it arrived I was stunned by the improvement it made in every way, other than it did not extend the sound stage as had the AudioQuest. What it did do was give instruments the depth, liquidity and body the other cables did not. It was my end-game cable for the 004

Enter the 005. As much as the 004 had extended the high and low extremes, the 005 did even better. I started with the ebay USB cable. It was a mixed bag depending on the recording and even, perhaps the time of day or day of week. Sometimes perfect, sometimes a bit too much in the highs. I wrote earlier about substituting really terrific Viborg power cables for the Supras I was using. In my system these cables seem to act sort of like what I would expect from a slightly better power conditioner. So the time of day issues diminished. The AudioQuest still gave me the soundstage and the high end was better than with the 004, but it still sounded a bit duller than the silver cable. However some of the advantages that the silver cable on the 004, the depth and liquidity and body of instruments, came through on the AudioQuest when used with the 005, as the 005 has these qualities in spades.

I was encouraged by what I had read to try AudioQuest Diamond USB. These are solid core silver. I picked one up used and gave it a lot of time. It didn’t work for me. Audio was thin, lacking body. My observation of what was lost was something like that described here. This is a very useful article on USB cables. Over time I began to realize that the AQ Pearl treble with the 005 was more true to real instrumental sound on more and more of my music and I’ve been happy with that choice in my system, for now. But I love to experiment with cables--so I’m not done. I could use a touch more sparkle maybe, just a touch.

Anyone else here been fooling with cables on the Musetec?

Hello melm, please clarify what exactly did you buy on ebay.. I never heard of “ebay” brand! We can buy everything' manufactured on this planet these days on ebay, good and bad! Since I was involved in design of USB interfaces it is really “interesting" to read your description of “brightness” of USB cable sound! USB cable must be certified and comply with USB international standard requirements. After market not certified cables could create EMI problems, affect your mobile phone and other RF devices performance. Is "AudioQuest Diamond USB” certified by USB committee? 

Making generalizations about usb cables, as you mentioned is system specific. I experimented with usb cables prior to 005, the one generalization I could make is, the more silver content the better for me. All my ethernet cables silver clad copper, AQ Diamond usb,pure silver wire. I find silver content in  streaming system cables superior to pure copper, with many of the sound properties you speak of. Pure copper always dull and less involving in my streaming setups.

I do think the usb rendering device is far more important than the usb cable, and imparts far more of it's signature than the cable. So, for me, key is get best usb rendering device one can afford, I'll reiterate for the umpteenth time, forget about usb direct out of vast majority of music servers, dedicated or general service computers. If usb is not optimized within server, must get nice streamer/usb renderer, various usb cleaners alone won't result in optimized usb. Once you get usb feed in order, which usb cable to purchase becomes most salient.

I presume non-optimized usb solutions would sound best with pure copper or mostly copper usb wire, silver or silver clad copper far better chance with optimized usb. Silver in cables, in general,  will expose every single mid high to high freq. anomaly in one's system, bass can also be somewhat thin compared to copper. Get your system right and the mid highs to highs will sparkle in a most natural non fatiguing manner. Point is, get the noise out streaming chain, silver is wonderful, noise is silver's worst friend.