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The Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC


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3 minutes ago, LawrenceT said:

I've done a lot of reading about the current DACs out there.  I think there was a lot more discussion about the Bartok as a headphone amp and comparisons with TOTL dedicated headphone amps (esp in the headphone sites). 

Thanks for your comment back... I've had my Tambaqui for about a month now and you would have to pry it out of my cold dead hands to get it back. All the good things written by others about it are in fact true, it's just so musical. I've been making extensive use of the integrated headphone output. I can't say I've noted any shortcomings, but you know how paranoid we all can be. I also know of the one blogger's comments regarding the the Tambaqui's headphone amp maybe not quite being up to the standards of the Tambaqui's world-class line-level outputs. I'm left with the question, but running the actual comparisons, apples-to-apples, isn't exactly easy. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has documented the topology/implementation of the Tambaqui's headphone driver/amplifier.

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  • 2 years later...

I too want to share my experience of adding the Sablon AES-EBU cable to my MU1 / Tambaqui combo. But first, some foundational context is in order, or my opinion would arguably be rather meaningless for you.

 

I’ve been chasing the audio dream for about 4 decades now. I’m seriously closing in at long last, with most of the actual progress coming in the last few years. Suffice it to say mistakes have been made. The biggest one was mistaking brightness for detail. Don’t do it! Since you’re reading this topic in this forum, I’m pretty sure you’re a audiophile and we share many things in common. That said, I’ve come to what I believe are some pretty important guidelines for the hobby.

 

One of the most important is that when reading reviews, forums and researching what people are saying about any audiophile product, you often must consider them to be what I call, “uncalibrated.” You don’t know what they have heard, the conditions they heard it, and the surrounding combination of equipment. You don’t know what is, and isn’t, sonically important to them. How do they know good is, if they have never heard it (and heard it frequently). That’s what I mean by uncalibrated. Add that all up, and most opinions are actually quite meaningless. Unless you can change one component being evaluated for its sonic merit at a time, you have no idea of what the component under test is contributing (or failing to contribute). So how can anything anyone writes have much credibility? It occasionally can, but it’s a hard fought for and rare situation. The only hope is to read a person’s writings over time, hopefully with a few components here and there that you’ve heard and know. Did they agree with what you thought?  I know, even then, it’s is pretty weak proof statement. I say this because you should be applying this logic and critical thinking to what I’m going to say!

 

I’ve pretty much stopped dissecting and evaluating bass, midrange, treble line of thinking. Music isn’t about frequency bands. To me it’s become a thing about emotion, nuance, tamber and truth of the musical performance. The talent of the musicians. The fabric of the music, it’s texture. When it’s really right, it gives me goosebumps. Frequently occurring goosebumps mean it’s really, really good. Equally indicative… can you listen for hours on end, and yet still be ticked-off and disappointed when you have to stop? If so, that’s really, really good. When a system is really at the top of the heap, the music gains an amazing direct connection with you that is simply stunning. I have a theory… it goes like this. When a song starts, your brain spends about 2-10 seconds analyzing it to determine what’s going on. What right and what wrong with all the timing nuances, reverberation, frequencies, etc. It knows what’s real, what’s natural, is it naturally occuring. It knows when it hears things that don’t make sense or are unnatural. It’s like how do you know when you’re walking along the bars in Nashville, which bars have real music spilling out of them and which are being reproduced? Your brain just knows. Anything that assessed to be wrong, requires mental fixing. The more wrong, the more fixing is needed. When everything is right, there’s less to fix. When there no fixing required, you get that direct connection to the music, to the musician. Your brain accepts the music, with no pre-processing required. You can listen for hours without any fatigue. Your brain wants more!

 

The other, not-so-frequently discussed reality of our hobby, is that no matter how wonderfully musical and engaging your system is, it can be brought to its knees by a poor recording. It’s should be a crime that so much incredible music has been handicapped by poor recordings. I know, some would say, that the music supersedes the recording, perhaps for some. But for me, not so much. I wish it were different. No matter, it is what it is and there are a lot of wonderful recordings. Roon has been a godsend.

So now, with all that said, I can report with 100% certainty that the Sablon AES-EBU cable is an absolute winner, at least for the MU-1 / Tambaqui combination. It’s simply pure magic. I already had a very good AES-EBU cable, that cost a few hundred dollars less. I kind of thought I was out of my mind for taking the gamble with the Sablon. But several of the forum posters that I had qualified as being fully “calibrated” were all using Sablon cables. So, you don’t know until you know. I went for it. It turns out to have been a wonderful decision. The Sablon cable delivered considerable gains in nuance, musicality and that direct connection to the music that we all crave. I’ve now had the cable for over a month. In that time, I’ve tried going back-and-forth repeatedly on a given song, and listening to one cable for several days, then the other for several days. In every case, the Sablon won hands down. Not just different; but way better. You can tell immediately.

 

So here's my bottom line (finally), IMHO. If you are lucky (smart?) enough to own the Grimm MU-1 and the Tambaqui, I would go out on a limb and suggest that you may have likely not heard just how good they are. That’s how good Mark’s cable really and truly is. Very, very highly recommended. You don’t know, until you know. Perhaps it’s time for a new high-water mark in your audio “calibration” journey, just as it was for me.

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  • 4 months later...
26 minutes ago, Low325 said:

I too, went with a Sablon AES.  I demoed the AES and SPDIF RCA, and to my ears, the music was just more engaging by presenting a wider and more transparent-ness into the sound stage.  It was also a livelier presentation over my Belden cables prior.  I have to admit, they dont look the price compared to other jeweled performing cables, but the Sablon cables did leave an impression on me obviously.  Btw, the tambaqui made it so easy to make the inputs active while sitting at your listening position.

At the risk of coming off as a fan-boy and I know it's difficult to believe, but I would add that the Sablon Prince power cord takes the Tambaqui to an even higher gear. If you have a Tambaqui, you owe it to yourself to try a demo cable from Mark. You don't know, until you know.

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3 minutes ago, PYP said:

I also found that upgrading the power cord for the Tambaqui was worthwhile (but, I should add that was before adding the Grimm MU1, so cannot say how much the power cord changes the combo, only that the combination sounds great).  

Interesting! I'm the opposite. I've only heard the Prince PC with the Tambaqui and MU1 combo. I can say with authority that the Prince PC made a much bigger ans  worthwhile difference on the Tambaqui, then it did with the MU1.

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16 minutes ago, PYP said:

I wasn't clear.  I upgraded the PC when I only had the Tambaqui.  It was a noticeable change.  Later, when I added the MU1, I only tried the PC that previously sounded very good with the Tambaqui but that was replaced with the upgraded PC now on the Tambaqui.  So, I really don't know how big a difference upgrading the PC on DAC would make to the sound of the combination.  

 

Are you saying that you listened to the Tambaqui/MU1 combination using the Prince on the Tambaqui and then switching it with the PC that was on the MU1 to determine your preference?

Hi PYP....  Yes, that's correct. I had what I believed to be a "very good" power cord on both the Tambaqui and "good" power cord on the MU1. Then I got the demo Prince from Sablon/Mark. So then I experiemented with all the combinations of my best PC and the Prince demo PC on the Tambaqui and the MU1. The Prince significantly elevated the performance of the Tambaqui. It also helped the MU1, but to a lesser degree. So I bought the Prince and doubt that it will ever leave my Tambaqui. Very highly recommended. It's end-game stuff for sure. The more I learn, the more I realize how important the source truely is.

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  • 1 month later...
5 hours ago, dirk koning said:

Hi PYP,

Thank you for your help.

The Tambaqui is a demo so does not need to burn in for a month.

I paid for a 10 day try out so do I stay free and do not feel guilty if it does not fit.

I use Avalon Eidolons since 2001 Audio Research since 1990 the ref 210 since 2007.I love that sound.

I do not like to change to much but I think there must be an upgrade to my old dCS.

Maybe is the input impedance the problem I did send a mail to the distributor.

Let us see what he can do,I keep you informed.

Have a nice day,

Dirk

Hi Dirk. Just a quick thought for your consideration. I never thought my Tambaqui lacked in soundstage at all. Soundstage is my most charrished characteristic of true high-end audio systems. That said, I found a signifiant increase in soundstage when I upgraded the Tambaqui's stock power cord to a serious high-end power cords; specifically the Sablon Audio Prince. 

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