Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 4173 times.

xander1929

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 9
Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« on: 7 Nov 2016, 11:59 am »
Just got this last Saturday

Sounds awesome right out of the box. Been running now for 40 hours. Very good details, lively dynamic and big sound stage. Very happy. Cant stop smiling listening to any music i throw into it. It replaced my TEAC UD-501 with Sound Affairs MOD.

The aluminum finish is very elegant. OLED Display is very classy, when you look at it from the listening position, you would think the display is a white sticker on a black background. Cool. Remote is very solid and has some weight to it even with it's small size, has aluminum finish as well instead of plastic. Solid buttons and very responsive.

Feature packed DAC with Filters and stuff. You can also mute the sound from the dac instead of the source. It also receives track information when playing a CD player, you can disable this of course. The display also has the option to display the actual resolution, so sometimes you will see 44.099kHZ instead of the normal 44.1. You can disable this of course to display normally.

So far i'm very very happy with what i'm hearing. Big Soundstage, Airy, Clean Sounding and very Lively dynamic. I was choosing between NuPrime DAC10, W4S DAC-1 LE w/ Femto and MDAC. I never compared any of them but i chose the MDAC because it's readily available at the store. The other two dacs will have a waiting period of 2-3 weeks. So far, NO REGRETS. Music keeps flowing, and i'm all smile...

Using JRiver running in highly modified for Audio Windows 7

My other DAC experiences are:

Rega DAC
Marantz NA7004 Audiostreamer/DAC
TEAC UD-501 w/ Sound Affairs MOD
Marantz SA8005 SACD/DSD DAC(This is now connected to the M-DAC+)










xander1929

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 9
Re: Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« Reply #1 on: 7 Nov 2016, 12:01 pm »
 :D

JLM

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 10653
  • The elephant normally IS the room
Re: Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« Reply #2 on: 7 Nov 2016, 12:13 pm »
Thanks for the review and congrats on having this great DAC/preamp/headphone amp.

This piece scores well on many counts: performance; flexibility; features; price. 

Thanks again for reminding me of this wonder from across the pond.

xander1929

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 9
Re: Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« Reply #3 on: 7 Nov 2016, 12:32 pm »
Thanks for the review and congrats on having this great DAC/preamp/headphone amp.

This piece scores well on many counts: performance; flexibility; features; price. 

Thanks again for reminding me of this wonder from across the pond.

Thanks JLM :)

Cheese-burger

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 31
Re: Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« Reply #4 on: 19 Dec 2016, 09:50 am »
Wow, the M-DAC+ is quite the looker. I remember the days when I had the previous version, the M-DAC. It was already quite the buy then, with multiple functions.

mresseguie

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 4697
  • SW1X DAC+ D Sachs 300b + Daedalus Apollos = Heaven
Re: Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« Reply #5 on: 19 Dec 2016, 10:57 am »
Thanks for posting this. I somehow missed it till now.

What DAC chip is used in it?

Enjoy!


Cheese-burger

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 31
Re: Audiolab M-DAC+ first impression...
« Reply #6 on: 19 Dec 2016, 02:28 pm »
I believe it should be Sabre 9018