Bricasti Model 3 DAC

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Great review of the Bricasti M3 on Stereo Times website - Click here

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Anybody upgraded their Bricasti M3 to have the new MDx upgrade?  This upgrade give you the ability to play DSD256 and sound improvements.  

 

From Bricasti:

"The MDx processor is our latest enhancement to the product line, this upgrade will provide for DSD256 with USB, and overall improvement over the previous revisions of the processors used in our products for digital timing.  The MDx processor is used in all new production so upgrading to it will bring the product up to current production spec.  In particular with the MDx there is a noted improvement when using the network interface over the previous type processors, this change is for better sync to the incoming master clock.  The M3 has had the improved Master clock timing,  as about a year ago at the time we introduced the M3 we made changes in all product with the previous versions of the processor ( Rev 8 )  to yield better performance.  But the MDx provides even better performance than the first processor the M3 was shipped with, so there will be an overall improvement with the M3 running the MDx on all inputs.  The Rev8  processor board used in the first generation M3 has excellent performance, the MDx is just a bit better in all aspects and especially when using the interface for the network.

 

Whether or not this is worthwhile is up to the listener.   Users report that it is,  but of course this becomes subjective opinion of the listener.  One might describe the sound effect is of greater accuracy of transients and presentation of the imaging to be more accurate.  This can be perceived as slight or profound, depends on the playback chain and source.  This is like changing the sync setting in the M3 from fine ( most accurate timing ) to wide ( less accurate).  With the MDX we go to super fine mode."

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On 6/7/2020 at 12:43 PM, barrows said:

So you are confirming native DSD 256 from Lumin U1 to the Bricasti M3, via USB right?  That is excellent news.

How is it sounding for you?

Duplicate

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4 hours ago, matthias said:

 

Thanks,

 

do you have a link to this announcement from Bricasti?

 

Matt

Before paying $700.00 for the upgrade I asked Bricasti via email what the MDx board offered and their response is in my posting.

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This is what my M3 shows.  Don’t see anything about the input board but I know I don’t have the MDx hardware.

 

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4 hours ago, KLH007 said:

All Bricasti DACs have the MDx board starting around March 2020, contact Bricasti directly if you question whether or not your has the new board. Barrows is correct, when I scroll the "Status" menu on my M3, MDx 1.01 appears, so try scrolling through the Status menu and see if you get an MDx.

Interesting , I don’t have a “Status” menu.

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18 hours ago, barrows said:

Yes you do.  On the front panel of the Bricasti M3 DAC there are a series of 6 buttons, one is marked "status" it allows you to scroll through he menu options.  Press the Status button to scroll through your various settings.  One of the screens you will see shows the board rev. and the software version.  If you have the Mdx board it say: MDx followed by a software version number.

 

Mine says this:  MDx  1.02

Yes, sorry.  I was referring to the webpage, not the Status on the M3 display.  In any event I have ordered the MDx upgrade kit and will install it when it arrives next week.

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5 hours ago, matthias said:

 

Do you know for sure if this reviewed M3 had the MDx upgrade?

Thanks

 

Matt

How would anyone know that?  Not mentioned in the article anywhere.

[sfseay]

As mentioned previously, I bought a new MDx upgrade board for my Bricasti M3.  The new MDx and old MDx boards are shown below.  Installation was a very straightforward procedure to swap out the old board with the new.  You can see the new chips on the board.  Took maybe 20 minutes.  Also, took my time to make sure all connections were good and all screws went back into the right places.  Will let it play overnight to break it in.

 

New MDx board below:

 

Old M3 non-MDx board below:

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To me, in my system it make quite a substantial difference.  Worth the $720.00!

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I prefer the USB currently over Ethernet.  I use USB because the Antipodes Server is said to work best with USB vs. Ethernet.  I haven’t done any comparisons over time but I did compare them a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t hear any difference. 

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23 hours ago, barrows said:

This is one of those cases where the source matters.  @sfseay is using an Innuous Server as the source, and it probably has much cleaner USB output than a normal commercial computer.  The VP of Sonore far prefers the USB input on his Bricasti M21 over the Ethernet input, but his USB source is a Sonore Signature RednuSEoptical and has a super clean USB output.  Sonore's VP found even better performance when he removed the ethernet board from the DAC completely.

Versus USB via a standard commercial computer, I would not be surprised if the Ethernet input on the Bricasti DACs was better. 

Just to clarify, I use an Antipodes server, not Innuous as my source.  Big improvement over using a Synology NAS.  The Antipodes runs Roon Core and also functions as my Roon Ready player.