Playback mpd3

I own an MPD3 and have occasionally noticed the problem you mentioned but only very intermittently - simply restarting the Mac fixes it.

To my ears this is a very noisy DAC anyway. I usually direct connect DAC's but this DAC is so noisy I found it needs a pre-amp to reduce the noise - using a pre-amp the noise is OK but without it is a bit annoying.

I wouldn't bother contacting Playback Designs. They provide the worse after sales service of any company I have ever come across. I lent my DAC to a friend who had trouble downloading drivers - it turned out there was a problem with the website but we didn't know that at the time. My friend contacted the Australian distributor. What was the reply - why do you want the drivers - is this your DAC - a litany of irrelevant questions and no answer - my friend felt like he was getting the third degree simply for wanting to listen to the DAC. Rather than simply giving the information they even contacted an acquaintance of both of us. My friend is well known in the industry here in Aus and they knew he was associated with our mutual acquaintance - the fact he had nothing to do with me lending it was irrelevant as far as they were concerned - it was more important to give both of them the third degree about why they wanted to get the drivers - pathetic. When I found out about it I personally contacted Playback Designs - not even a reply. The issue with the site was fixed in a week but that was too late for my friend who never was able hear the DAC. Considering the price of the product IMHO this is disgraceful and I will never get another product from this mob again.

Thanks
Bill

A couple of other things to check. Check with your amp/preamp what the maximum input voltage allowed for the input you are utilizing. While I have not measured the output of the MPD3, my Nagra has 3 inputs that allow up to 2v while the 4th input allows up to 4v. I am connected to input 4. In other words the MPD3 may be a bit hot for your input as I am almost certain that if your amp/pre have a hard 2v ceiling then you will clip often, unless you have the volume from the computer mitigating it. Unlikely but a possibility of your problem. Make sure you are getting good power and properly isolating your components from one another, where appropriate. Good cabling between the pc and the dac is important as well.

Bhobba - no offense intended but since the MPD3 has no volume control it comes as no surprise that when you connected it directly to an amplifier that it probably did sound bad. If you were using your computer as the volume control then I am further convinced that the noise you describe is elswhere in your system.

Grz you all for the answers.
So today Mr. Andreas Koch replied to me ... and was really very kind.

This and a part of the answer.

Buona sera Signor Scala,

My apologies for the poor response earlier on your question. Here is what is going on in our converters:
Every D/A converter requires an analog low-pass filter at its output. This is to get rid of high frequency noise that is not correlated with the music signal. There are many different ways for how to design this filter. Most manufacturer make this filter very steep or sharp to minimize the remaining noise and to achieve best measurements. However, there is a price to be paid: the steeper this filter is, the more the sonic performance (i.e. musicality) is impacted.
Since the noise is not correlated to the music signal, it is like listening to music with your window open when you might hear a little the wind outside. Uncorrelated noise does not distract from listening. Therefore, we have designed our filter not to minimize this noise, but rather to optimize the sonic performance with the lowest possible noise and without impacting the listening experience. So now if you stop playing music and turn the volume up you can hear more noise with our converter than with others. That is normal and was designed to optimize the sonic performance.

thank you again Mr. Andreas Koch me he replied in person.

Hi Chasely

No offense taken.

However it does come as a surprise to me direct connecting the DAC produces as much noise as it does. Every other DAC I have ever owned did not produce this level of noise - and I have owned a lot. And this is the only DAC that produced anywhere near this level of noise to the point where direct connecting and using the volume control in the computer was a degradation. Some DAC's sound better direct connected - others sound better with a pre-amp but this is the only DAC that sounded better with a pre-amp because of noise.

I am glad the OP got a reply. I was just chatting to a friend who owns an MPD5 yesterday and like me he had a lot of problems getting even a reply from Playback Designs - but did point out he finally managed to get a response by trying a different email.

Thanks
Bill

Bhobba,
I am a bit shocked to learn of this. But not entirely surprised because I read the legal proceedings between Jonathan Tinn and EMM on the Internet. The matter was decided in favor of EMM. You can Google the court documents if wish to read them. Let's put it this way -- I was not impressed by what I read about Jonathan Tinn.

Before I purchased my AMR DP-777 I was thinking seriously about the Playback Designs MPD-3. I'm glad I didn't make the move in that direction. I have had nothing but the very best relations with the folks at AMR. I can recommend their DP-77 very highly -- as well as their stellar service.