[mresseguie]

I’m sitting in a mountain top coffee shop in Taiwan with a top notch audio system — Luxman M900u power amp, Electrocompanient preamp, Hyperspace Nottingham TT, Eversolo DMP A-8, and a Playback Designs DAC, and a pair of LALS two-way floorstanding speakers with 15” woofers and JBL tweeters (102dB).

Wow!

[Doublej]

Mike Powell owner of 11Stereo, aka OCD Hi-Fi Guy on YouTube, constantly raves about the Playback Designs MPD-8 and seemingly has taken the brand from obscurity to global fame in some audiophile circles.

[mresseguie]

Photos:

This is the above described system. These speakers house a single 15" midwoofer and (if I remember correctly) a 100mm JBL compression driver. The retail price for a pair (in Taiwan) is $800,000 NTD or ~$26,000 USD. It was suggested that one could purchase a pair for less than that, but I didn't pursue this line of discussion for fear my wife would sever my appendages. And, yes, she was there today, and thinks they sound amazing.


I snapped this photo to give you perspective. The smaller speaker off to the left is a 12" midwoofer model. It appears kinda scrawny, doesn't it?

[mresseguie]

Mike Powell owner of 11Stereo, aka OCD Hi-Fi Guy on YouTube, constantly raves about the Playback Designs MPD-8 and seemingly has taken the brand from obscurity to global fame in some audiophile circles.

Well, I'll be damned. Everything in this system was new to me, so I cannot know what impact the DAC had on the sound. I did notice that the music coming out of the TT was better/more 3-dimensional than the music played on the Eversolo, but it was not a huge difference. [The Eversolo's DAC was bypassed.] Interestingly, the phono preamp is one of only two in existence. It was a hand built special order project by an audio engineer in Taiwan. The other one is in the engineer's home. [No label/no name]

[aldcoll]

But  could you Karaoki with the Eversolo Michael?
Alan

[mresseguie]

LOL!

I'm afraid Kareoke is not one of my strengths, so the question never came up. However, I'm pretty certain it's not one of the functions. 

[Nick B]

Good looking setup, Michael, and having a favorable opinion from your dear wife is a plus! I have been following Mike Powell, OCD Mikey, since he had 3,000 subscribers and imo he really knows his stuff and is a straight shooter. I think he had an APL dac as a reference for a while and a dac from overseas, a Rockna, as well. I think the MPD 8 is the real deal and I much prefer OCD Mikey's musical tastes over Jay's Audio Lab's uber expensive systems....

[JackD]

The MPD-8 would be a definite end game DAC for me except for the fact that it is $25k and according to someone on another forum who contacted a dealer about one has up to a six month waiting list.  An alternative top end FPGA DAC alternative would be the Aqua Forumula xHD at about half the price.