I just purchased a Musical Fidelity M1Dac and I’m very impressed with the sound quality. When I use my Pioneer Elite CD player through the M1’s coax input, the sonics are just right. When I use the USB input, the sound is about 90% of the CD. There is just a little less detail and some loss in dynamics. My question is, how can I bring the level of the USB to the level of my CD player? I asked the guy who sold me the DAC and he said that the implementation of the USB was just like the MF V-link. I’m wondering if any type of coax interface between the computer and the DAC would be better than USB. Let me give you some basics about my system and then some solutions I’m thinking of.

System:

Dell XPS 8300 desktop w/ integrated audio

Standard USB cable to a

Musical Fidelity M1Dac feeding a Woo Audio WA3 tube amp

Listening to Grado RS-1 headphones

My possible solutions:

*Halide bridge to the coax of my M1

*Wavelength Wavelink to the coax of my M1 (Yea, I know this is more expensive than my DAC, but I do what I gotta do)

*A better USB cable (Although I think there are diminishing returns on the interconnect front…in other words, I don’t want to spend $500 on a USB cable)

Please let me know if you endorse any of these solutions or have a different idea. I’d especially like to hear from any M1Dac owners.

Thanks,

Rob

By the way, I'm using J. River Media center for playback. Flac files, Wasapi-Event style plug-in.