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Musical Fidelity A324 DAC as good as Tellig says?

I was wondering if anyone out there has purchased or heard the new Musical Fidelity A324 Upsampling DA Coververter yet? Sam Tellig raved about it in the April Recommended Components Issue of Stereophile. He placed it firmly in "Class A" saying it was about as good as any digital he's ever heard, at any price! And all for $1195. I have got to hear one of these units. I am currenly using a Arcam FMJ CD23 and I love it. I wonder how much of an improvement I might realize adding to the MF to my system. Any thoughts, comments, rants would be greatly appreciated.

cheers!

bobC

Arcam FMJCD23
Melos Maestro Preamp
Musical Fidelity A3cr PowerAmp
B&W Nautilus 803's
Rel Strata Sub
Kimber select 1021 IC's
Kimber Monocle XL & Select 3033 (bi-wire)
Kimber PK 10 Gold Power Cables
cbob
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Though I'm not familiar with the unit Warren is talking about, I will say concerning power conditiong that of all my source compenents, by far the most marked differences to be heard were realized with my digital separates. But an equally important aspect of that treatment to the filtering was running balanced AC. I have an API Power Wedge Ultra, which lets you switch on the fly between +120/-0 and +60/-60, and it really shows its worth on CD playback, even when I engage balanced on only the transport, the jitter-box, or the DAC individually, and the effects add right up when all three are fed the balanced AC together. (By contrast, I can tell no difference between balanced and regular filtered AC when supplying it to my tube preamp.)
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Well, history did not repeat itself...see my further thoughts, comments and rants in a new post titled "Upsampling Put To The Test", which they should throw up there today if they don't decide that it's inappropriate! (And bring a bag lunch and take the phone off the hook - it's a real mutha 4 ya!)
:-)
zug
41 posts
 
1) there do not seem to be MF dealers while I live, near Chicago. I would definitely audition first if at all possible, also I don't think MF or dealers offer free home trial??
2) Sam Tellig reminds me of some kind of slick used car salesman. I don't get a feeling of confidence from his recommendations, he doesn't usually go into much depth or subtlety in his reviews. It's just cute stuff like "this is great" or "yus got to try it...". I definitely would not buy without trying it first.
jkaway
93 posts
 
I listened to this unit at my dealer's with similar electronics to what I'm using ( MF A300 integrated and A3 cdp). The sound was different but I don't thnk it was any more real or involving--- it took a studio piano sound and turned it into a kind of badly recorded live date in a club sound, plenty of distortion and noise.For 1200. I'll pass. John
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