The Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC

[ted_b]

Has any Tambaqui owner or dealer found a particular "sweet spot" with this dac; meaning, if one uses an upsampling engine like HQPlayer or an offline upsampler (or even serendipitously found a 24/xxx recording) does the Tambaqui seem to like certain sampling rates over others?  If so, maybe Miska's comments (albeit a bit biased as the developer of HQP) about sending this dac the highest PCM you can has some merit?   Same goes for DSD files....thx

[ted_b]

22 minutes ago, galanakop said:

The mola mola Tambaqui together with the ATC SCA2 –Pre-Amplifier Will be my main sources for my new atc SCM100ASLT.
What is your opinion ???

IMHO it doesn't get much better than that.  There are other combos that would be equal, but hard to find something topping it.  And I've not heard the dac, but would love to.  I know Bruno to a very small extent (met through NativeDSD work at CES, etc) and respect almost anything he puts his mind to.  And I owned ATCs for awhile (older SCM150 pro models) and couldn't believe how good they were...just overwhelmed my room at the time (especially cuz I was contemplating a 5.1 ATC system).  Anyway....good luck, you have a solid foundation.

[ted_b]

Well, the Mola Mola Tambaqui arrived yesterday for a 4 day demo.  I plugged it in, downloaded the iphone app, got it set up to see the network, configured Roon to see it directly (it is a certified Roon endpoint) and voila.

 

I let it play music for a few hours before going down there last night and listening on night one (1).  The results?  Well, I'm trying to figure out how, eventually, I can afford this thing!!  I've never heard such impeccable timing, ease and tonality.  And in my LAN setup it doesn't require a fancy USB cable, doesn't require a hefty HQPlayer server (I have not tested it with HQP via USB yet, see below), nothing.  It makes Roon sound like the best source money can buy.  The lack of fatigue is palpable.  I wish all this weren't the case.  :)

 

So...just now I hooked it up in the same setup as my May, that is, via HQplayer (USB from Fitlet2 NAA with Mola Mola linux driver showing up in HQP settings, and max sample rate lowered, compared to May, to Tambaqui's max input spec of 384k, DSD256).  The source of the music is same, Roon core NUC.  I will also test with local HQP server files, too (NVME SSD drive), instead of from Roon core NUC.  It is easy to switch Tambaqui inputs from my iphone app.  I'll spend the late evening doing this comparison.

 

I will get over my giddiness and listen again tonight.  It's really quite something, in that it is not head and shoulders above the Holo May, it's just better at everything....and sounds like the last of any digital artifacts are just vanished.  As we've discussed before, I will probably be able to tell its impact best when I swap back out and listen to the Holo May.  I'm praying it hasn't ruined me.  :)

 

Stay tuned.

[ted_b]

My setting up HQPlayer and Tambaqui has more to do with USB than with HQPlayer, frankly.  But I will try and compare what the Mola Mola does with upsampled HQP files vs native Roon files.  Most report that the Tambaqui is somewhat agnostic in that it does its own thing internally with any file...not sure anyone has identified "sweet spots" to serve it. 

[ted_b]

Alex, thanks so much (as always) but I only have this dac through Monday.  It's a tour.

Thx

Ted

[ted_b]

Craig, I'd be glad to grab a few and listen.  I'll PM you about one or two on your list.

[ted_b]

6 hours ago, edwardsean said:

@ted_bWhere is the tour from and is it too late to get in on it?

Get a hold of Bill Parrish at GTT Audio, the US distributor.  He is orchestrating it; I got in through my dealer.

[ted_b]

Before I get to describing last night's listen (and before I delve into Craig's troublesome DXD files today) I simply need to say that, in my setup, the Tambaqui's LAN input is significantly clearer and yet just as musical (if not more so) than it's USB input.  That revelation took almost 10 seconds.  :)

 

Last night was another lost-in-music set of hours that went on much longer than I would have ever anticipated.   Simply lost in glorious sounds!  Wow.  It hasn't gotten old yet.  :)  The lack of effort, the lack of fatigue, combined with the most colorful midrange and tuneful lower registers (very tight and magical bass notes) that I've ever heard.  I put on several albums that were intended to get a short listen, and ended up sitting in front of my system for the complete performance.  Thom Yorke's Eraser (first solo album) is a difficult album to understand on first several listens, but with the Tambaqui and my new system it made all the sense in the world.  Every nuance and skewed tape loop made perfect music.  Taylors sound like Taylors, Martins sound like Martins.  !!   The ONLY somewhat negative surprise was that HQplayer's pre-upsampling did nothing to enhance or destroy the music, hence the agnostic nature of the Tambaqui.  However, as I said earlier, playing the same Roon-based music through the HQplayer server (ipsofacto USB via NAA) was not as musical as going LAN direct from Roon. 

 

So today I will see what Craig's problematic DXD files do, and I'll try and play them through the May to see if it is dac-related or source-related.   I'll also spend more time on DSD sources to see if these are rendered with the same care and precision of the May at DSD256 EC7V2.  Most of my DSD listening will be multichannel (although I have a lot of 2 channel DSD) so Tambaqui's resampling of DSD is not a deal breaker, assuming it is not the giant leap that PCM is.  It's clearly has less gain, so I have to pump up the volume, but I'm used to that with the May anyway,

 

Stay tuned.

 

 

[ted_b]

I can confirm that the DXD file list Craig supplied does indeed have issues when playing via the Tambaqui, and yet plays fine via my Holo May.  Mola Mola techs have confirmed it, too, and supposedly were creating a firmware update to solve it (seems some noise on the files that other dacs filter out the Mola Mola does not.....which leads me to want to investigate the noise source...and many of these we sold him).  This is DXD only, and a few selections (same label, same artist, same cycle...rest are fine).  Weird.

[ted_b]

1 minute ago, PYP said:

Very nice description, @ted_b.  Rings true to me.  Having had it for a while now, I can say that it hasn't gotten old and that whenever I think about weaknesses in my setup, I don't consider the Tambaqui at all.  

 

Since it took me some effort to clean up the ethernet that feeds the Tambaqui (I don't use a streamer), I'm curious if you are using a streamer before the DAC or if the Tambaqui is used as streamer and DAC functions.  

Thanks for the nice words.  The Tambaqui is on the LAN input and is being used as a Roon endpoint, with my Roon core NUC on the same network, connected to the same Mikrotik switch.  But I am using garden variety ethernet cabling to each box and am open to suggestions.  All my ethernet cable is unshielded (as per Jussi @ Signalyst) and it seems to make a difference, but other than that it is whatever length was in my drawer at the time.   The switch is merely 10 ft from the audio rack, so these are not long cables (should I be convinced to go something pricier).  Also, as stated before, I only get to keep this guy until Tues morn, so any upgrading would be for my whole system (and in anticipation of selling a LOT of stuff to afford the Mola Mola) :)

 

Wouldn't it be nice to have a Tambaqui with optical (SFP) LAN input?  :)

[ted_b]

On 2/8/2022 at 12:37 PM, ericuco said:

 
@ted_b Any decision yet?

Well, my decision to someday acquire this marvelous dac was made in the first several minutes with it.  🙂  There is no digital device I've ever heard that makes music like the Tambaqui.  The realism, life, meat-on-the-bones foundation that this dac extracts from all types of music is, frankly, awe inspiring...a piece of equipment that creates smiles and often a little laughter when sitting in a darkened room listening by myself...laughing and enjoying the sounds that emanate.  It's that good, it's that much of a game changer for me.  However, I have not heard a lot of $13k plus dacs, so maybe this is what that level sounds like.  But I cannot realistically imagine anything that "wipes the floor" over this sound. 

 

Although I was somewhat used to DSF files playing at a significantly lower level (6db?) in my Holo May I was, regardless, still unsure of cranking up my preamp to 2 o'clock levels (PCM plays nicely at 11 o'clock) to listen.  But after chatting with the SPL Elector folks I became confident that the ALPS pot is quite fine at that volume, so I spent one night listening to my fave DSD stuff....and boy does it sound great too.  Maybe not the gulf between it and the May that PCM provides, but very musical nonetheless.

 

My loaner timer has extended a bit, so I continue to allocate hours late in the evening to immersing myself in the color, texture and power of the music that spills from the Tambaqui.  Life is good.  😎

[ted_b]

6 hours ago, PYP said:

I need to get the gear into my own system and have a while to listen.  The exception is a reviewer who hears it the way you do.  If they review something you already own and what they write resonates with you, you might want to pay attention to their other reviews.  Same applies to non-professional reviewers (some posters on this site) or friends.    

+1    And the opposite can be true, that is, to find a reviewer who loves stuff that you've heard and can't believe anyone would like, regardless of price. 

 

I try not to tell readers what is best, or what they should choose, I only tell them what I think is best.  But this quest for musical enjoyment not only follows different roads, even the same roads offer different challenges to each of us.  So all I can do is compare what is in my own perspective.  And that's all I want from others' experiences, too.

 

Back on topic for a minute, the Tambaqui is a wonderful component if, for no other reason, than it never fails to impress night after night.  There seems to be no normalizing when one hears great music.  👍

[ted_b]

4 minutes ago, barrows said:

@craighartley, have you addressed this issue to Mola Mola?  Does this issue occur via USB and Ethernet inputs?  In either case, it is likely that Mola Mola could address this issue via a firmware update.  It is curious that it does not happen with all files at that rate, makes me suspect that something might be unusual in terms of file formatting with the files which do not play properly.

Although I am not Craig I confirmed this noise with a few of his files.  Craig says Mola Mola techs are aware, can replicate, see the noise and planned to do a firmware update, but it's been awhile.  I was not aware that it's anything close to 10% though. 

[ted_b]

24 minutes ago, ecwl said:

I am slightly confused by this comment. I thought the only DAC that has a similar architecture as Mola Mola is the new Linn Kilmax Organik.

??  You are referencing the SAME dac as Barrows (Klimax, not Kilmax, btw).  At least according to Chris, the Klimax DSM has the Organic dac as its foundation.   Continue to violently agree.  🙂

[ted_b]

According to Craig, the Mola Mola tech said that the DXD noise in question is something that most other dacs filter out but not (currently) the Tambaqui.  I hope that a firmware update to include that filter does not ruin the magic.  Maybe that lack of filtration is something special?

[ted_b]

When I demoed the Tambaqui I used its ethernet input and chose my Roon NUC as the source (since the Tambaqui seems agnostic to the source, and doesn't benefit from HQplayer upsampling, etc).  I tried USB from my NAA but found no difference, so I went K.I.S.S.  🙂