First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship
I have received the 006 almost a week ago and have been breaking it in. The price at Shenzhenaudio is $3,900.00 USD, $600 more than the 005. The ad copy states:
"DA006 is a new generation of flagship DAC developed by Musetec over three years and launched in 2024. During this period, it has undergone more than ten revisions and adjustments.
Compared to the previous DA005, the listening experience of DA006 has been improved in all aspects. DA006 has clearer and richer details, a stronger sense of texture, a more stable sound base, better detail control, a wider soundstage, fuller and more powerful, smoother and more natural. . ."
Some brief listening during break in has been very very positive. I will report back when it has run at least 300 hours.
@car123 Totally agree with last sentence.
Simply escaped me, too much on plate at the moment, but for those staying with 005 my ratings didn't take into account 005/Gaia combo. I haven't tried it since 005 boxed up and ready to go, but I'd bet on that being very, very nice. Hermes at lower price point as well. |
I believe Gaia is connected to 006 over i2s which has clock signals as part of the spec. However, its upto the receiver to take it or leave it. Many DAC's don't use the incoming clocks over i2s (one good example is PS Audio DirectStream) as most of them are riddled with jitter. I am not sure what 006 implements. If 006 sounds better over i2s than usb, it could be the i2s data itself, it could be a better clock signal or it could be a combination of both. If you notice a better timing and rhythm, it likely the clocks are at play. |
Both 006 and Gaia have eight modes for pin assignment via I2S. Certainly there are inherent advantages to I2S scheme vs usb in that I2S has isolated, dedicated lines for both data and clock + and - , L & R channels, with usb, dac has to extract clock from data.
As for clocks, either dac, ddc (or streamers for that matter) could have superior clocking. In the case of 006 vs Gaia, Gaia has the superior clock. On the other hand, lets say this particular dac has OXCO clock, you'd use local clock, ddc or streamer would only need provide the I2S interface. Other considerations for using ddc is isolation from upstream components, generally this is going to be usb optimization. The other consideration is quality of power supply for both the usb isolation and OXCO clock. Another consideration is there may not be enough real estate within a dac for equal quality power supply as to what Gaia offers, therefore, even for a dac with OXCO clock, quality ddc could still offer superior performance. The one downside of using ddc vs dac internal clock is theoretically having clock at end of I2S chain preferable to an external clock which has to travel down I2S cable. So, cable length, really no longer than 1/2M, matters. Cable quality also a consideration, I now have the crazy expensive Tubulus Ximius burning in, comparison to cheapo $70 copper wire cable coming. |
