First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

@car123 Obviously you can change or conform modes on either the Gaia or 006. At present I'm running mode 0 on Gaia which conforms to code M1-D, M2-A, M3-D, M4-A, M5 is for DSD. I believe Mode 0 on Gaia is the PS Audio standard which many products conform to. You can use any variety of codes pairing Gaia and 006 together, just make sure you have left and right clocks and data runs matched, easy to get this mixed up and still have sound.

I received the 006 several days ago, and the Gaia a day later.  Immediate impression of the 006 with the lks 100 was that the 006 provided a wider more distinct soundstage and more defined images than the 005 but was somewhat less involving and musical that the well broken in 005. I remember the same initial impression when the 005 was new in contrast with the internal DAC in my aurender A10, but that the 005 became more engaging and involving as time went on.  It;s really a stunning DAC.  As time went on and the 005 settled in, it far surpassed the aurender.  It also took hundreds of hours to fully settle in.  I have since passed the A10 on to a friend and bought an N200, which I love.

Inserting the Gaia definitely elevated the 006.  The Gaia really seems to be quite an exceptional DDC even though brand new.  Incidentally, I ran a $10 HDMI cable for a day until I finally found a Wireworld silver cable (2 meters long) I had buried in a cable box and that cable improved the presentation.  I will likely get a 1/2 meter tubulus.

I am, however, having a pin issue that has me stumped.  The default pin mode on the 006 is AAAAB.  This coincides with mode 5 on the Gaia.  However, when running these modes, the channels are inverted.  I tried sns's settings and again the channels are inverted.  I can correct the inversion by switching LRCK settings.  However, I am worried this may be introducing timing errors, which is one of the reasons to use a DDC.

I have checked my interconnects from the 006 into my preamp (and from preamp to amp) at least a dozen times and they are correctly configured.

Thoughts? 

@car123 Your pin settings are correct for both configurations, you should not  be inverting channels. Are you sure your pre doesn't invert channels, some do. In any case I doubt the inverted channels should be introducing any extra timing errors.

You need full burn in to properly evaluate which you seem to be aware of. 006 is easily more refined and musical vs 005 in my setup, I now consider 005 as slightly more on analytical side of neutral. Involvement with 006 was also slightly down on 005 for me until micro dynamics began to kick in sometime after 300 hours. Gaia kicked in nicely after around 200 hours, same with Tubulus cable. The 2M HDMI cable is likely producing needless timing errors, you're on right track with 1/2M, full silver wire I2S cable, no need to spend for the  extra silver wire in an HDMI cable.

Keep us posted as sound develops.

I have a joule electra marianne edition preamp and it does not invert channels. It does invert phase which requires reversing speaker cable polarity. But l-r channel orientation has always been correct and consistent for various inputs and the problem has only manifested since installing the 006/gaia combination.  

Running the correct pin settings indeed inverts channels compared to before putting the 006/gaia into the mix, and compared to my vinyl rig. I have corrected the inversion by reversing the setting on the LRCK wires; I’m concerned that is introducing timing errors. I could revert to "correct" pin settings and reverse l/r interconnects between the DAC and the pre but I’m trying to get to the bottom of the issue.

I will keep fiddling and burning everything in a I will keep puzzling over the inversion. It’s quite strange and unexpected.

If this messing with timing I'd expect you'd hear the difference when changing pin configuration.

Cool, running Joule Electra. I ran LA-100 MKIII some years ago, swapped all the stock Solen caps for Jantzen Z Superior coppers on signal board, Jantzen's really upped the game. RIP Judd.