First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

As I wrote earlier I am also enjoying my 005. With a couple of new components in the system, I am finding it has yet more to give. Knowng the designer, and the reviewer here, as I do, I am certain the 006 is a good step up.

But I write now about the I2S into the 005, and possibly into the 006 (or other DACs). And it’s easier with the 006 as it has pin-out selectivity, not available in the 005.

I have been a sceptic of the DDC kind of approach taking the USB to I2S conversion out of the 005 (or 006) into a stand alone unit, For I think that implimentation is very well done internally by Musetec. I have always thought that a network player taking you from ethernet directly to I2S had to be the answer, bypassing any use of USB or SP/DIF for that matter. But for me an appropriate unit, without a Swiss Army Knife approach, was hard to find. But with a new device having pin-out selectivity from Iancanada I found that at a very reasonable price I’m achieving a performance level that I thought was far more expensive than I was willing to pay. And I’m only beginning--using what I would call the company’s mid-level combo and a $2 HDMI cable. I used to think this was the direction to go, and I have now proven it to myself. And there are actually several ways I can upgrade this initial set-up. And so on to a new adventure.

@melm  Can you explain in more detail what you are experimenting with. It sounds interesting. Are you building a network bridge/streamer that converts an ethernet signal to I2S?

What I wrote about is a duplication of what is demonstrated here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc_QfRTbb6U&t=1113s

But without the screen. This is very easily put together. I first built something far more modest to test the quality of the Iancanada stuff. These are very high quality boards and can run up in price. The more modest experiment had sp/dif (which is closely related to I2S) and was at least equal to my much more expensive ethernet in-USB out network player to which was attached an expensive power supply. It also had I2S out which I couldn’t use with the oo5.

One can go quite a bit further than the first video. Of course the boards are not pretty; some people build cases for them. I’ll probably build a wooden box to throw over it when I’m done.

Iancanada is Ian Jin. Word is that he is a designer of computer medical equipment and this is his hobby.

@dbb 

I might mention that before going the Iancanada route I wanted to try the Magna Mano Ultra mk3 Farad network bridge that has both I2S and sp/dif outputs.  It seems to be a very good unit (with a fine power supply) that doesn't break the bank.  The problem for me was that the I2S output on the Magna requires an HDMI cable with the PS Audio pin-outs and the 005 requires the Gustard pin-outs.  I looked far and wide for someone to make up a cable going from one to the other and came up empty.  Since the 006 has pin-out options you also have more options.

As I understand it, the sp/dif standard takes the 4 signals from the raspberry pi (or other similar mini-computer within the device-often a raspberry pi) and combines them into the one sp/dif signal.  Then the DAC internally separates them back to I2S within.  Thus I2S direct avoids these two conversions.  There are those who hear no difference; there are those who do.

@car123 Not really a complete review, rather more impressions, more thorough review earlier. Thread is under Laiv Harmony.

I agree an I2S directly out of streamer, avoiding usb altogether would be a simpler solution. Issue is the quality of that I2S in streamer, does it have FIFO buffer FPGA logic and dual OXCO clocks like Gaia?  I don't doubt you can diy build many streaming components, I've done and still do, just don't believe qualities of Gaia easily duplicated, I acknowledge there is steep price to pay with Gaia. I considered purchasing Pink Faun I2S card for my custom streamer (at present use only as server, Roon core), this would negate use of Sonore OpticalModule, OpticalRendu (this is my streamer/Roon endpoint) (optical conversion) and usb. The lesser quality implementation of I2S vs Gaia and loss of great benefits I hear from the optical conversion dissuaded me from going this route.

@melm I visited some cable site, somewhere in Asia, that builds I2S cables to spec, I'll try to recall site  later today. Both Gaia and 006 allow custom pin configuration, my Gaia is 12th generation.

I now have Gaia connected to 006 via I2S, plan listening session soon.