Mola Mola Pre/dac review compared to DAVE dac

[presmara]

I enjoyed reading the write up on the Mola Mola DAC versus the competition, especially on the DAVE which I heard recently at a HiFi show and came away unimpressed (they were using the DAVE digital volume control).

 

After 2 years of listening comparing my Weiss DAC 202 to many in the market I bought a Mola Mola Makua/DAC & Antipodes DX 3 (replacing my Zuma) weeks ago. It was not until I heard the Mola Mola that I was listening to a significant upgrade. Below is quick summary of my listening impressions on DACs I compared in dealer stores to my Weiss with a score out of 10 (my scale).

 

 

· Mola Mola Makua 9.5/10 : The Mola Mola in my system is providing a lot more "body" to the music and it flows like liquid velvet. Sound stage is much deeper and the Weiss sounds grainy in comparison which I had not noticed before. Very "natural" sounding. voices appear to be in the same room as you, like you are listening at a live event.

· Playback Designs Merlot 7.5/10 : The Playback designs was very nice with very good PRAT. I didn't analyse the sound too much as I was not getting the Nirvana I had with the Makua. It did not connect with me as emotionally as the Makua, and did not seem quite as dynamic as the Weiss.

·  Weiss DAC202 7/10 : very dynamic with solid bottom end, good spatial placement of instruments, good tempo and stage width.  Grainy in comparison to the Makua, Playback designs and Moon.

·  Moon 750D DAC 6.5/10 : Very smooth , more controlled than the Weiss but tempo a little slow, not as dynamic and bottom end lacking. Dealer said the Weiss was better and I should keep the Weiss.

·  Metrum Acosutics Pavarni Flagship DAC 6/10 was similar tonally to the Weiss, but the Weiss had better bottom end and attack on leading edge. Still very interesting DAC and with fine tuning, cable matching etc, could be very good.

·  Vega DAC 6/10 As dynamic as the Weiss, but a little too edgy in sound emphasised presence made female voices a bit hard on the ear. With a better matched preamp presence may be acceptable.

·  Yggydrasil 3/10 very 1990s midfi sound , no toe tapping, no bottom end, no dynamics. I was surprised by this after what I had read about the Yggy. I really wanted it to be the winner as it would save me a lot of money. To be fair I have read this needs to be left on for a long time (1 month in a TAS review) before it reaches its premium sound . It maybe a very good unit went left on for a long time, but I don't want to have to wait for days or weeks if the power goes out at my home to be able to listen to music. The Mukua seems to reach steady state in sound quality only after an hour or so of being turned on.

 

Hope this helps my computer audiophile brothers and sisters. I find reading blogs nowadays more insightful than the magazines. 

 

 

[presmara]

I have had the same experience as yyz with digital volume controls. I had a Weiss DAC202 for a long time and eventually bought a Tortuga preamp to improve the sound quality particularly at low volume, it improved the transparency. When looking to upgrade from the Weiss DAC I found every digital volume control had a negative affect on the SQ even on the DAVE. Eventually I came across the Mola Mola Makua DAC and it blew me away at the level of transparency, PRAT and involvement and was a big step up from the Weiss/Tortuga. It simpflied my system got rid of the separate preamp and one set of interconnects. I am looking forward to hearing the Tambaqui to see if Bruno has done something 'magical' with its digital volume control. 

[presmara]

I have the apple remote and the iOS app with my Makua and much prefer the app to the apple remote which I run my from iPad along with controlling the music server through Roon. My wife uses the iPad and loves the iOS app and Roon, very easy to use. 

[presmara]

My Mola Mola Makua/DAC sounded great out of the box and but I did get further improvements after running continuously 24/7 for a month (500 hours). 

[presmara]

Ricka sorry to hear about this. I have found blogs like your intended purpose have been very useful to me in getting to understand how various components interface with one another.

 

I own a MakuaRemote/DAC and love it. My dealer has been burning in a Tambaqui and invited me to compare against the Makua and playback designs dream DAC. It is important for all of us to understand how various servers/cables/power amps/speakers etc interface with DACs and understand that a certain DAC may sound best in one system and not necessarily the best in another. 

 

Looking forward to constructive input as if we are one team all working towards a common goal - live beautiful engaging music in our living rooms. 

 

Cheers

mark

[presmara]

I own the Makua/DAC and feed it with an Antiopdes DX3 running roon. I had a friend with a Boulder 1010 preamp and we compared with the Makua and he has now sold the Boulder as it was no where as transparent the Makua, which gave a lot more excitement to music. 

[presmara]

I agree with Stereophilus on the difference between the Tambaqui and the Makua. I listened to these side by side a year ago using the USB input, but the Tambaqui was quite new and did not have a lot of hours on it. The Makua certainly to my ears sounded more "analogue" than the Tambaqui having a more relaxed fluid organic flow to the music that makes me forget about the equipment and arrive at the live music venue.

 

The Tambaqui did sound very nice, very dynamic, punchy, transparent, not aggressive and had the best implementation of a digital volume control that I have heard. Prior to buy the Makua I had listened to the DAVE and did not like its digital attenuation at all - I found this to be a very aggressive sounding DAC in the system it was playing - I was surprised after all the rave reviews. I had a friend who bought the DAVE new and sold it 12 months later for 40% less than he paid - why did he sell it- because it was too aggressive in his system. Another friend of mine was going to buy the DAVE and got both the DAVE and the Makua at his home along with the rest of his $100k system and bought the Makua for the same reasons as expressive above - the natural organic flow of the music.

 

I find I am rarely listening to tracks now. I want to listen to whole albums, as I forget about how accurate a piano note is and fall into a 3D holographic sound field that takes me to the concert. I am tempted by the Ethernet upgrade, but its a hard decision to part with the Makua for its journey to the Netherlands to get the upgrade and miss my music for several weeks or months depending on what plans Corona has for it. 

Cheers