Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

Ok, didn't realize RAAl had preamp section.

good morning everyone

I just bought a Musical Fidelity M8sPRE (https://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/m8series/m8spre), after careful research it seemed to me the best preamp to match our beloved DAC.

tonight I'll plug it into my system and listen to MUSETEC...

I'll update you soon with photos and first impressions

As long as there’s so much talk about preamps I’ll add my $.02.

Within the last two or three years I’ve gone from a fine 2 piece Sim Audio to a Schiit Freya+ to a Rogue RP-7. I have found that what works for me is that the preamp is the perfect place to put some tubes into the system. And some tube rolling can help to tune things up a bit. I am very happy with the Rogue as it seems about as neutral as a tube preamp can be and it has great ergonomics. I discovered when I had the Schiit that I cannot live without a balance control.

@melm 

but this preamp does not degrade your signal?

how do you feel with listening to high resolution music?

in particular can you hear the difference between listening to a CD or a Flac 24 bit 192 kHz?

on the manufacturer's website the following values ​​are reported:

- Frequency response: 1Hz – 100KHz +/- 1 dB
- THD: <0.1%
- Gain line stage: 14 dB (20dB XLR)
- Rated output: 1V
- Maximum output: 30V
- Output impedance: <10 Ohms

@americanspirit

When I wrote my last post I thought that the reputations of the Schiit and Rogue preamps were sufficiently well established that I failed to say the following. Remember that my personal judgments are, as best as I can, against live unamplified music. The inexpensive Schiit preamp with tubes was a very clear improvement over the fine transistor one. It was then that I discovered that I MUST have a balance control, which has gone out of favor on many excellent preamps. So I went to the far more expensive Rogue--I needed balanced outputs as well. It proved to be an even greater improvement than was the first change. A testament perhaps to the value of the Rogue’s extremely strong power supply (LPS, of course) in delivering sound quality. I am very happy with the Rogue listening to all recorded music. That should answer question 2.

No doubt you are focusing on the THD number. First I would refer you to all the discussion here (and elsewhere) about the uselessness of the industry type of specification next to the experience of actually listening. One of the problems with the published THD number is that harmonic distortion may take on different shapes--all hidden in the industry-standard number. Generally in units with tubes, the major factor here is that the THD is principally in the second harmonic.

It has long been a controversy in audio. Does the slight bit of second harmonic that is ordinarily introduced by tubes "distort" the sound so as to make it less like the real thing, live music? Or does it restore an element of the sound that is ordinarily diminished slightly in the recording and reproducing process with the result of sounding more like the real thing? And so one can choose solid state or tubes conforming to your answers here, and I chose a tube preamp that is know for having that fine attribute of tubes, but mildly so. I believe that answers your first question. We touched upon a similar issue a while back when discussing feedback in solid state components.

To answer the third question directly. I don’t spend much time on the kind of comparison you ask about. But for a short while when I was experimenting with streaming I was receiving Tidal and Amazon Music at the same time and testing the streams with MusicScope. A series of Shostakovitch symphonic recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Nelsons was the being released. Tidal had them at 16/44 and Amazon had them at 24/48. While the differences were subtle, they were sufficiently distinct.