First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

@sns

My personal take on a bottom line difference between the sound of the r2r approach, as implemented in the Holo May, and the Sabre dac chip, as implemented in the 005, was that neither was inherently superior. But my preference was the Sabre dac aproach which prioritizes resolution.

The Holo May sounded to me like it took a picture of reality and then added some embellishment as an artist might use charcoal to add depth to a sketch or adjust the light to make the scene softer or more appealing. The background blackness in the May was appealing but, to me, not particularly realistic. In contrast the 005 delivered, in my opinion ,something closer to true resolution based on how the music would most likely sound in real life. For instance you can often hear an ambient noise floor in a hall before the music even starts. That sound is truly natural and is my preference.

I think Sandu Vitalie of Soundnews agrees on the paramount importance of resolution. He calls it “Biggity Big deal” in his comparison of the Gustard with the Harmony.

He said this in his comparison of the Gustard X30 to the Harmony DAC on his web page review: I can’t differentiate it [Gustard X30] from my $18.000 Wavedream Signature or $14.000 Chord DAVE in terms of how much nuance there is. Is it as resolving, clean, and transparent? Yes! And this is a Biggity Big deal. In this regard, X30 pulls ahead and outperforms both the X26 PRO and the Harmony DAC and as much as I like the LAiV for its particular skill set, it’s in the last place when it comes to resolution.

For instance you can often hear an ambient noise floor in a hall before the music even starts. That sound is truly natural and is my preference.

In its early days as a premier producer of great LPs, Reference Recordings used to record that ambience and fill the space between the tracks with it.  So you hear no dead silence there.

@melm 

Thank you for your comments

Both my Hegel H390 and Jay's transport are made in China and both can be repaired here in CA. 

@stuartk

My Subaru is made in Japan and can be repaired in the US. Subaru America is the importer and I bought from a Subaru deler.  That is how most foreign products work when purchased in the US. Hegel is like that, but But Musetec products are not.

The difference between Musetec and Hegel is that Hegel has an American company that does its distribution here. It is Hegel America Inc, in Fairfield Iowa. It’s a wholesaler. It imports the goods. It sells to dozens of dealers all over the country. Its American distributer/wholesaler and its dealers each tack on a profit to the price of the component. So like my Subaru, one can expect repairs to be made domestically. That’s what you’re paying for.

But when you buy a Musetec you are the importer of the goods directly from China either from the factory or from an "order-taker" like Schenzhen (which takes a relatively small mark-up). There is no profit increase as taken by American distributers and American dealers. Normally people, like those participating here, are willing to do that when they sense that they are getting a great deal more value for their money than by going the usual distributer-dealer profits mark-up route.

As ever, your money your choice.

I don’t know enough about Jay’s transport and how they do business and there is too little info on the ’net right now to figure it out.

@melm

I also happen to own a Suburu so your example is very apt.

I bought my Jay’s transport direct from Alvin Chee in Singapore. Repair work is provided by TEK Audio Specialties in Buda Texas. In fact, my remote needed repair and Todd at TEK fixed for me. I was grateful I didn’t have to ship it to Singapore but no doubt there are those for whom this is not a concern. Each to his/her own.