First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

Excellent report, sns, appreciate the thoughts.  Enjoy!

@sns looks like you have put a lot of effort in your digital frontend. Bravo!

I would like to know how critical are upstream components to Gaia. I suspect better the upstream, the better Gaia performs. Would it be possible to use a laptop or some generic computer/pc connected to the Gaia and give us some feedback when you get a chance ?

I am finding that the USB sounds better and better as you optimize more and more on the networking side of things. My very recent mods has been to modify the Fiber network card with an aftermarket ocxo clock and the audio quality went up couple of notches without touching anything on the usb side. It’s still burning in but I am already hearing the benefits - their is a sense of tempo, timing, calmness, relaxed sound. My next mod will to do something similar on the switch side and maybe stack two of them together. I have a complete separate network for audio which has also helped to reduce home traffic polluting the audio network and hence improving SQ in the way.

Streaming is a very good word for this method of transmitting music in that one can make a very good analogy to a stream of water, any contamination upstream will affect water downstream.

I've found clocking extremely important for network, usb and I22, this affect mostly presentation. Jitter is the cause of what we hear as digititus. Jitter another good name for what we hear as nervousness, With each move towards quality clocking we should increasingly hear a more analog presentation. Analog presentations sound continuous and flowing, this is how I want my digital sources to sound.

@debjit_g While I haven't done a direct comparison pc to present setup, my initial foray into streaming was via laptop. I progressed from laptops to Mac Minis to modified Mac Minis to extensively modded Minis, every step up was easily heard. I doubt there's anything to learn from using Gaia with laptop vs my present setup. I'd suggest it silly to spend $1800 on ddc with laptop, use that $1800 to purchase a proper streamer. Also, I have experience with audiophile switch vs router, audiophile switch lost out to router, now this a single audiophile switch tested so I can't make overarching conclusions. My experience with networks is the following:

Moved modem (BroadCom chip only for these, powered with lps) close to stereo system, this means extending coax cable rather than running inexpensive ethernet cable from modem>router, this is gaming router with 1gb service, I can tweak this router with quality of service bias to audio system, wifi disabled, this router daisy chained to another router using it's wifi to service rest of house, ping test for fastest processing/low latency, again lps power>custom server/streamer, JCAT power> JCAT netcardXE, excellent clocking here, latest Netcard Evo has even better clocking, may get at some point>Sonore optical conversion, this end of network chain.

My contention is a fast processor/low latency gaming router powered by lps and wifi disabled is superior to adding audiophile switch post whole house router. In my estimation you've contaminated the entire downstream with that noisy upstream router. Point being you can never recover what has been lost upstream, start with clean at the source, and keep it clean until you reach streamer interface to dac. Clock and clean whatever interface used, voila, you have clean, pollution free streaming chain.

I’d suggest it silly to spend $1800 on ddc with laptop

The whole selling point of DDC is exactly that. You don’t need to spend on a better source and cheap laptop will work since the DDC will be shielding the nastiness and reclocking the signal anyway. What I wanted to find out is how much Gaia can shield from the upstream. I don’t think it’s 100% capable but wanted a confirmation. Anyway, I would think spending $1800 on a better source is more beneficial even though it doesn’t have i2s out. This is why we don’t see folks using or benefiting from DDC from better source, like PF Streamer, Taiko Extreme, Innous Statement.

I have no doubt the laptop streamer would sound better with ddc. I'm just questioning whether the $1800 would be better spent on better streamer. That based on my reasoning that stopping contamination upstream is preferable to downstream.

Hmm, not sure I agree that ddc could be of benefit for any streamer that no. 1 lacks I2S output, that is if we believe I2S is inherently better than any usb. Or no. 2, has I2S output, but not as well implemented as a ddc. You're now seeing streamers with proprietary interfaces, based on reviews I have no doubts those better than typical I2S setups. I'll continue to maintain optimized I2S superior to optimized usb.

Perhaps some of these proprietary interfaces will make it into more affordable equipment, until then we really only have usb and I2S to play with. Not expecting that anytime soon, sure these technologies patented, so reverse engineering would have to be diy thing.