m2 Tech Young Dac Review.

[drewster]

I have been in the market for a new Dac to replace my C/A Dac Magic since March this year and over the last 3 months or so I have done my best to listen to as many as I can, both within my own system and in shops around the country, I am just putting down the findings I made that bought me to what I believe to be one of the best (For sensible money) Dac currently available in the UK today, The m2 Tech Young Dac.

 

In March I decided to take a different route with my HiFi and looking in to using my Mac Pro Desk Top as my source and get rid of some boxes. I went out and bought a C/A Dac Magic which for the money has been great with lots of inputs and pretty good sound quality and Pure Music interface. But as my system has changed I have started to notice its short comings so the decision was made to upgrade.

 

After much reading and surfing of the net I narrowed it down to the Rega Dac and the Musical Fidelity M1 Dac with a V-Link, so I visited my local HiFi shop and arranged a demo of both back to back. The first thing I noticed about both was the build quality was very high; the Rega in particular was built like a small silver tank.

I began listening to the Rega using my standard demo play list, the one thing I was slightly concerned with was the fact the shop insisted in using Naim! I must admit I was very impressed with the sound it produced very open midband, smooth top end and very tight punchy bass, all in all for the money very good indeed, when it came to the M/F M1 Dac it was more of the same albeit with a slightly more relaxed presentation but none the less very good. I made to decision to borrow the Rega Dac to listen to at home. All became clear why they wanted to use Naim gear for the demo.

After plugging it all in to my Meridian Equipment and leaving it over night to warm up, I started playing the same demo play list, and instantly thought there was something wrong, it sounded as if there was a duvet hanging over the speakers, and this was compared to the Dac Magic I had been using the night before using the same cables. After playing with the various (Useless/Unnecessary) Filters, I decided the reason they used Naim is that it has so little in the way of dynamics and punch it needed to Naim to make up for it, so it went back I the box and back to the shop.

 

After the Rega debacle I started to think how much would I have to spend to get something “much” better than the Dac Magic, so away I went and borrowed a friends Naim Dac while he was on holiday for couple of weeks, Oh dear this answered my question, I was going to have to spend £2100.00. The best was to describe how much better the Naim is, is visually, it is like looking at a photo of a valley in the Lake District taken on a Mobile photo camera, and then driving to the valley and seeing it in front of you, that is how big the difference is. I am not going to go in to the finer points of the music as I will save that for the Young but it is safe to say my credit card was going to take a beating.

 

 

Just before I purchased to Naim I joined another American site for people that were interested in becoming “Computer Audiophiles” and they had reviewed the Bel Canto Dac 1.5e very well as did a lot of there readers so I thought for £1400.00 I would give it a demo. This lasted 9 minutes before boxing it up. Enough said.

 

Then reading on this site there seemed to be a lot of fuss about this Young Dac that no seemed to be able to get hold of but was supposed to be very good and significantly cheaper than is competitors in sound quality, so I figured I needed to hear it.

 

I contacted Purite Audio on the Wednesday and spoke to a chap call Keith, who it must be said is one of the nicest most knowledgeable people I have come across in my years of working and consuming with in HiFi industry. I asked him about the illusive m2 Tech Young Dac and he told me he had just taken delivery of a batch and had one spare that he could send me, Wow this was the best customer service I had had in ages and ever from the HiFi trade, it arrived on the Friday.

That night I plugged it all in and went to the pub. Saturday morning I pushed play on my play list and waiting to see what would happen. The first thing I noticed was that 384 popped up on the display? It was telling me it was sampling 384 kHz via USB.

I don’t know of any other Dac in this price range that goes any where near that.

The sound that came from it out of the box was the real surprise it from cold was equal to the Naim or so I thought so I plugged the Naim back in via optical as it doesn’t have the rear USB and did some A>B comparisons to my horror/delight the Young was every bit a detailed but the top end was smoother and the mid/bass had more drive and punch to it the over all sound was much easier to listen to over longer periods. I couldn’t believe it so I got the owner of the Naim to have a blind listen to it when he came round to pick his Dac up, on almost every track we listened to he picked out the Young, picking the same issues as me each time i.e. transparency, timing, focus pretty much across the board the Young betters the Naim and not by a small amount!

 

In summery if you take in to account the Young retails in Europe for 1100 Euros, and you can call Keith at Purite Audio and get one for £750.00 delivered within 48 hours, the build quality is not that of the Rega or Naim but it is very well made and really looks the part IMO, and the sound quality is quite frankly astonishing irrelevant of price this has to be one of the best Dacs on the market. Add to this when the additional power supply is released in the coming months to sound can only improve.

I called Keith and told him what I thought and he just said we have had to drop the mid priced Weiss Dac at £2500.00 is they could find any noticeable difference between it and the Young, he then went on to offer me the loan of a Weiss DAC202 at £4500.00 but said the Young is that good you would have to have a very very high end system to hear any really quality improvement. All in all The m2 Tech Young Dac will be spending quite some time in my system even as I up grade around it I really can’t see where I could go to improve this Dac.

 

I hope this helps anyone looking at spending £750.00+ on a Dac you really need to listen to this.

 

All the best

 

Drew

 

 

[jnantoine]

Very interesting reading. I'm myself interested in both the Rega and the M2Tech Young. However I don't understand what is so wrong with the Rega that makes you call it a "debacle". I am surprised to read there could be such a big difference between both DAC's. Looks like I'll have to make a listening test for myself. Thanks for your post.

JN

 

[Vade_Forrester]

Drew, what was on your playlist? As far as I can tell, there's NO commercially available recordings at that sampling rate.

 

Vade Forrester

 

[drewster]

Hi Vade

 

You are correct in your assumption that the original recording was not the higher sample rate but listening through Channel D’s Pure Music you can up sample a 24/96 track to the higher rates with great success.

I am currently looking in to upgrading my speakers and I am hoping to really hear what the rest of the system is capable of, I will keep you guys informed.

 

All the best

 

Drew

 

 

[chrille]

There are in fact a handful of titles from 2L. Morten has made some of his DXD masters available for sale, both on his own site and via the German site Highresaudio. Whether anyone would hear any difference between them and the already excellent 24/192 files is of course another matter.

 

And once again! a review without any mention whatsoever of what music and recordings where actually used for evaluation is as ridiculous as one that only uses pop crap for evaluation.

 

 

 

[Vade_Forrester]

Chrille, I don't see any complete 384 kHz recordings for sale on the 2L web site. I see some fragments recorded at 352.8 kHz available for free download. The files are huge, with commensurately long download times. Sadly, I can't download files from Highresaudio.com in the USA.

 

I completely concur with your comment on the need to cite musical examples in reviews. I always do that when I review an item for SoundStage! Hi-Fi magazine. Incidentally, I'm currently reviewing an M2Tech Young DAC, which is why I was interested in a source of very high resolution material.

 

Vade Forrester

 

[chrille]

Sorry Vade,

Yes they are only available for sale via HIGHRESAUDIO so far.It seems you are in the same stupid situation on the "worldwide web" regarding them as I and many others are here in Europe with HD TRACKS,anyway it would be interesting to read your review here if you include some RELEVANT acoustic music in your review of the Young.

Personally I am currently quite impressed with how well my Hegel HD 20 plays really demanding high res files from labels like 2L, Channel Classics, Chandos,BIS and Acousense to name some labels that actually record music worthy of HI RES treatment in the first place!

And since a couple of days even some Pentatone recordings are available as 24/192 "masterfiles" converted from "downsampled" from DSD.

In plain stereo many of these files are every "bit" as good as their SACD counterparts. And in some cases even better, at least via my system Mh1pa class A Headphone amp from Musical Fidelity and the already quoted Hegel HD20 DAC,and the superb HD 800 headphones from Sennheiser.

HI FI in plain stereo doesn't get much better than this,but it would of course be interesting to hear if more money spent actually provides better quality or just more technophilia and more hype?

The Rolling Stones in high res will surely sound like heavily distorted, horrible,hard rock to me on any equipment anyway! What a waste! LOL!

 

By the way the Hegel sells for more dollars here in Europe than the Young DAC.Not that I put to much belief in its being any better than the Young until I have heard both side by side on REAL HI RES ACOUSTIC MATERIAL.

Take Mahler's 5th or 6th on Acousence as 24/192 masterfiles, now those two recordings will separate the wheat from the chaff better than any electronic pop recording ever made will have even a chance to approach!

If we are talking HI RES let's use material that has at least got a chance to do it real justice!

 

[Vade_Forrester]

I use a combination of pop and classical music as examples when I do a review. Although I could use only classical music, I try to use some music familiar to a wide variety of readers.

 

Vade Forrester

 

[jcpom]

Do you have any additional thoughts other than "when it came to the M/F M1 Dac it was more of the same albeit with a slightly more relaxed presentation"?

 

[oldson]

looking forward to a home trial and comparing to my stagedac!

not heard anything bad about the young anywhere yet.

 

[Jeff_N]

I was buying a Plinius 9200 integrated amp from a dealer in Jersey City, NJ last weekend. By coincidence I also have a DAC Magic.

 

After demoing the Plinius the dealer said "Want to compare a new DAC I have to your DAC Magic?" The first time he played a jazz voice piece I said "Well, I can tell there's a difference, but I couldn't really quantify it." He said "Listen to it a few more times" and he played it again on my DAC, then again on the M2. By the third or fourth time the difference was glaringly obvious. With my DAC the music was flat against the wall where the speakers (Gallo Reference) were, like it was behind a pane of glass. With the M2 the singer's voice came right up to you, filling the room.

 

With the M2 I heard every nuance in the singer's voice. Piano notes hung in the air longer, and the bass felt much fuller.

 

I haven't posted here in a while, and I was Googling the M2 and stumbled across drewster's post, so I thought I'd add my two cents. For the $1,500 the dealer quoted me, the M2 is the next component I'll be buying after I finish paying off the Plinius.

 

And sorry for not specifying what the song was, I don't even know.

 

[theabbot]

I've had both the Young and the Hegel HD20 playing in my system. I found that the Young varied on playback, some tracks sounded better, some the same and some worse, whereas with the HD20 all tracks sounded better. On the tracks that the Young sounded good it was excellent the only aspect that put me off was that it wasn't consistent across all tracks, and it is recognised that to get the best out of the Young you need to invest in a better power supply and throw the wall wart in the bin.The HD20 on the other hand was very consistent across all tracks. The HD20 is now a permanent part of my system and I have no regrets even though it cost more money.

I was not using Hi-Rez just FLAC rips of CD's I own and know very well.

Regards

Mike

 

[coot]

"it is recognised that to get the best out of the Young you need to invest in a better power supply and throw the wall wart in the bin."

 

I'm all ears. Can anyone suggest a good ps for my Young?

 

[earflappin]

Could it be that the Young was the more transparent and accurate of the two DAC's and that's why it sounded different from track to track? I would expect that actually as recordings do sound different. Some are downright bad. DAC's which impart their own signature tend to make all recordings sound consistent. Somewhat akin to putting sugar on everything.

 

[barrows]

Know the power supply requirements of the Young, but some of the best power supplies available are made by Paul Hynes. I am sure he could provide a custom built supply which would elevate the performance of the Young significantly.

 

[theabbot]

In response to earflappin.

 

Your comments you make are very valid and I would have great difficulty in proving then wrong, all I can say is that when I played the original CD's the difference in sound from one to another was not as great as the difference as when played via the Young, perhaps the CD player had a sound all of it's own?

 

 

[firedog]

I was just at a dealer who is local dealer for both M2Tech and PS Audio. I compared the Young, PWD (also via bridge), and brought along my MF X-DACV3 for comparison.

 

A big thing for me, as not a lot of hi-end DACs to hear locally, and dealers here don't do home auditions.

We also used a laptop playing files with an M2Tech HiFace as the source.

 

Didn't write down the details, but the system used had a massive Class A amp, and HECO "The Statement" speakers. These are full rangers with quite deep bass.

 

Observations/Conclusions:

 

1) Both the DACs I auditioned sounded better than the "old" MF-X-DACV3. The difference was noticeable, but NOT night and day. A little more detail, a little more of the tone of "live" instruments. But not a huge difference, and not the kind of things audiophiles often gush about as "music sounding like I'd never heard it before". Although I think some audiophiles would have heard exactly this level of improvement and called it a that kind of dramatic one.

 

This may be more proof of the idea that once you have a highly competent DAC, the quality of the digital source is the most important factor in the resulting sound, and not the DAC itself.

 

2)I didn't hear a big difference between the PWD and the Young. I think the Young had a little more upfront and "live" sounding presentation. But not by much. And I'm not sure this is always a good thing. But again, not a lot to choose from between the 2 units, in terms of SQ - as far as I could hear. I think I could happily live with both.

 

3) So for me it is a difficult choice: Questions:

 

a) is the SQ improvement with the new DAC worth the minimum of $1800 it would cost to move up?

 

b) I don't really need the Bridge in my present setup, but even without it the price difference between the 2 devices is about $1200 - quite a lot when you consider the Young sells for about $1800.

 

The big advantage of the PWD (besides the ability to add the bridge at a later date, and if I bought the PWD, I would eventually do that)is that it is designed to be upgradable through software for many years to come. So it should sound better as the next few years go by.

 

With the Young, you are stuck with the box as it is, and you can upgrade it by buying a different DAC later on. Still, I thought the SQ of the 2 devices at present was comparable, and the Young is a lot cheaper.

 

At present I'm also looking into upgrading my amplifier as well as the DAC. So I may just concentrate on the amplifier area (probably pre and power separates) and then revisit the DAC issue later on. I'm not in a rush. I'm willing to spend money, but want to get something that's a good value, no matter how much I spend.

 

And of course by then there will probably be more DACs for me to hear locally, or maybe even something less expensive than these two that's considered to perform at least as well as these.

 

[earflappin]

Theabbot, based on your comments it might be that the Young was the more sonically neutral or accurate of the two. Recordings should and do sound differently. Yes, certain DAC's do impose their own sonic signature onto a recording. I felt the Berkeley Alpha DAC had a high frequency signature which was manifest on all recordings (note: this was when used through an AES interface and not the new USB/AES interface box). Ultimately, however, it is only important that you like what you hear. Enjoy!