@jjss49 - Thanks for the response in regard to PS for the ifi streamer. I've been pleased with the upgrade to SQ when switching from the stock PS as well. Currently using a Nuprime 12V LPS.
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 am looking forward to @jjss49 Weiss listening assessment . If it’s cut from that cloth of sonic presentation, for my taste I’d lean toward the 005. We’ll soon see.If I’m reading jj correctly the 005 seems a very good combination of tonal fullness/truth and high resolution. Charles |
I am without my Musetec 005 for the past few weeks and likely for a few more weeks. I lent it out to someone. I ran into some really messed up streaming issues on ROON the past week with my Benchmark DAC3B. I was getting some smearing of the sound. This was with TIDAL, Qobuz, and my FLAC library. Anyways, I solved it by enabling the following on ROON (all other DSP is removed)
I am not sure if I needed both but the sound is correct now so that is good enough for me. Did anyone need to do this with the Musetec or notice any degradation of the ROON streaming? There are new versions of ROON that I automatically install, so I am wondering if that was the culprit. I also removed my Sonore OpticalModule from the streaming chain thinking that was the culprit. I now think it was not at fault and need to put it back in. Current streaming is fibre optical direct from a network switch to my OpricalRendu. I also have some suspicion on Qobuz. I have signed out of that service for now and need to test further.
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Roon can be strange at times, especially with complex network. I had issue some weeks ago after a Roon upgrade, library looked normal, would start streams from both Tidal, Qobuz, and rips on NAS in normal manner, but then go though all tracks within seconds, no sound output. I couldn't locate to any one thing, just did reboots on everything, problem solved. Reboots always go to solution for streaming or network issues IME.
Can't recall my exact settings with Roon, but I disable everything possible, less processing equals better sound quality. |
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