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Musical Fidelity A3 24 What R My Ears Telling Me?

I think that I have finally lost my mind from tweaking! I was very excited about this product when I bought it. I thought that it made a tremendous differnce with the players I was using (an Adcom & Pioneer). The Soundstage was enhanced, the music jumped from the speakers. This was indeed the Holy Grail of Upsampling DACS. The problem started when I bought a new player...the new Sony DVP-NS999ES. Now I can have SACD and pristine Redbook SACD like quality CD's through the MF DAC! The first problem is that when the Sony is turned on with the DAC on. a pop comes through the speakers which causes the DAC to downsample to nearly Real Audio quality! This is remidied by turning the DAC off, then on. The "downsampling" happens every so often when the draw is opend and closed. I thought it might be the interconnet, so I swapped out a Audio Quest for a Tara Lab and it continued to happen. OK, so I could probably live with this since the vendors from both retailers I bought these items from have never heard of this happening. I went to the MF website but there is no email address for support or questions. OK, I can live with this. Now here is the tricky part. I decided to play some CD's through the player bypassing the DAC and for Gods sake...they sound better without upsampling! The bass extension is better, the music has more "oomph" and clarity (how can that be??) and the sound is warmer. Can the DAC's be better in the Sony than the MF? Did I trick myself into believing that the MF worked to begin with? Have I completly tweaked myself out of my mind and ears? I have done countless A-B comparisons during the past 2-3 weeks and I must be honest, the CD's sound much better without the MF DAC. Any comments and opinions would be apprecitated.

-Joseph Benzola-
jbenzola
sea2
29 posts
 
I too have the MF dac. To be honest I'm using it with a Rotel 991 as a transport and it made a big difference. You have 2 options with this dac. upsample to 96 or to 192. The other day I was listening and thought that the MF was losing it's edge. Later on a looked and apparently I was using it at 96 vs 192. One push of the button and it opened up the sound in a big way.
I'm interested in the comments on a dedicated transport. Everyone on this site says my cd set up is weak. What would going to a dedicated transport do? Which one do you recommend? Is the MF dac up to the challenge?
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Based on my experiences with connecting both players (mass-market and mid-fi) and a dedicated transport (mid-level high end) to my DAC, it can make a big difference, though I can't speak for your particular player. It's just something you'll probably have to try for yourself to see what you'll get.
gmueller
19 posts
 
I have an MF A3 24 and found it made a welcome change with both players I tried it with. I'd have it checked out, if you can. If not, (since I have a science background rather than engineering background), maybe you should experiment a bit. Buy a decent known player (Rotel/Marantz/NAD) and try it with the MF. (Better yet borrow one if you can.) If the Sony still sounds better, then you can free up some cash for tweaks, software, etc. If the decent player + MF DAC sounds better you know the Sony simply is not interacting well with the DAC. You'll just end up a couple hundred bucks poorer and with a fuller equipment rack.
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