New Musical Fidelity DAC - M1

[StateRadioFan]

Pulled this from a post at Head-Fi. Not a lot of info yet but it does look interesting and just above the price point for the new Arcam DAC. I do wish it had a BNC jack for one of the coax inputs though.

 

http://www.ecranlounge.com/produit-42522-1236-musical,fidelity,convertisseur,dac,hi,fi,m1,dac.htm

 

&

 

http://www.whathifi.com/News/Musical-Fidelity-introduces-upsampling-DAC-and-USB-input-headphone-amplifier/

 

[Audio_ELF]

Straight from the horses mouth comes ... http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/M1-Series/M1DAC/M1DAC.asp And its manual ... http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/M1-Series/M1DAC/M1DAC.pdf It has Co-ax and AES at upto 192k, TOSLink at upto 96k and USB - nothing to write home about with the USB, limited to 48k so (probably) just simple USB receiver chip.

 

Looks like the M1 series also includes a Headphone Amp which can also be used as a basic Pre-Amp.

 

Eloise

 

[StateRadioFan]

I didn't see the M1 series when I looked at their site. Nice catch!

 

[Raym87]

Mmmmm, very interesting, thanks for the heads up. Looks like I'll have to wait till July but I think I could just about manage that. I'm wondering how much of an improvement it will be on a VDAC. Connections are the same except for the addition of balanced I/O so whats the buzzzzz.............are we paying extra just for an inbuilt power supply and a front panel.

 

[Audio_ELF]

I've no idea - this is just guess work ... but I would suspect that the M1-DAC will probably have a discrete analogue section where as the V-DAC (possibly) has an analogue section based on Op-amps. This may lead to improvement in sound quality, but we wont know until they are actually available and tested.

 

Eloise

 

[Raym87]

Frustrating, isn't it. We know its going to be released but the manufacturers, in their infinate wisdom, choose not to tell us anything of any real interest. All we have is the sales blurb and a couple of specifications to get us salivating. If this does turn out to be a giant killer then I'm up for one. I already have a VDAC and like the house sound but until now there has been a huge gap in the price structure which this DAC will sit right in the middle. Lets hope it delivers what it promises, then I for one, will be a very happy chappy....

 

[jonmarsh]

Hi,

 

OK, I'm in cranky curmudgeon mode this morning, and I CERTAINLY don't want Eloise to think I'm picking on her, not with all the valuable contributions and advice she offers tirelessly here.

 

BUT, 'cmon folks, let's get real about this opamps versus discrete stuff. Now, I've designed a lot of discrete output stages, including ones using classical technologies with JFETs and cascodes and clever distortion canceling mechanisms and sophisticated current mirrors, etc. I've also designed some NOT so standard ones, including totally open loop designs, even with gain, also achieving very low distortion numbers and very good noise performance.

 

But you know what? The clever chaps at TI and other houses have some fairly smart guys there, too, and the next time you plan to lump Opamps together in one miserable bucket, perhaps first one should peruse a few current data sheets, like for the TI OPA1641 and OPA827, and think about just how you are going to do a discrete output stage design that beats these guys. (like 0.00005% distortion at 1 kHz, for example, 0.0003% at 20 kHz; 5 nV RMS input noise, full swing bandwidth of 200 kHz). and do it for a mid priced DAC budget?

 

OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming! ;^)

 

~Jon

 

[Audio_ELF]

Okay ... I will phrase it differently.

 

I would sspect that knowing the design will be sold for £400 rather than £170; Anthony Michelson and chaps at Musical Fidelity will have spend 36 hours designing the analogue output stage using components which cost more than 50p per chip on the M1, rather than taking 30minutes too look up a standard design for using 50p opamps.

 

Hope you get the idea of what I'm saying.

 

You are right that opamps are not the total enemy some people make out, but they can be used well or badly and I'm sure different products have more time and care paid to the design than others - that was the main meaning of my statement. In the same way as a Musical Fidelity M6PWR is closely related to the Musical Fidelity Titan ... but you wouldn't say they were the same.

 

Eloise

 

[all300b]

I think it's generally agreed that op-amps can have great THD numbers- I don't hear ANY distortion from my Benchmark DAC1.

This argument seems more related to the old discussion about whether measurements can fully describe sound quality. I am yet to hear any high feedback component- and this include all op-amps- that can make me really smile or keep me musically satisfied in the long term. Cheers,

 

 

 

 

 

[famoej]

might MF improve the performance of the USB input. Whats the point if your intention is to run this from a MAC Mini using usb when you can't take advantage of your hi-rez files???

 

[57gold]

No volume control, no remote and sub par USB input.

 

OK, it will be relatively cheap.

 

[famoej]

nice LP-

What to do...

I really don't think you need to spend 3k on a DAC. I know there will be some tradeoffs as at that price point they are using lesser components but I still believe that great sound with low jitter can be had. Someone need just point the way. Not using as a hp amp, so I don't want volume and the remote has little value to me.

 

Keep Listening