Audiolabs M-DAC

[firedog]

Before mods, my Touch was measured:

"P-P Jitter below 1MHz was 300psec", which seems quite different than what's being talked about here.

[Mnyb]

Before mods, my Touch was measured:

"P-P Jitter below 1MHz was 300psec", which seems quite different than what's being talked about here.

God info .
That was what I meant (in to many words ) the result are very different suggesting

a measurement error

b faulty sample

c incomparable measurement methods (apples and oranges all over again )

Or any combination of the above .

C is a good guess ,The issue here is measuring jitter on the spdiff reciever and other places internal in the dac makes it impossible to asses compared to other measurements ? But nevertheless interesting, But how does other sources fare using this method ? and what are the ballpark expected figures for decent performance .
And how would it measure inside another DAC with different design ?

And does it matter, if the DAC can fix it it's ok anyway ?

It is an interesting piece of equipment , in my case I don't need a dac , but it would be on my shortlist to try out if needed one .
Price/performance seems sane not the typical overpricing.

[Pete91]

God info .
That was what I meant (in to many words ) the result are very different suggesting

a measurement error

b faulty sample

c incomparable measurement methods (apples and oranges all over again )

Or any combination of the above .

C is a good guess ,The issue here is measuring jitter on the spdiff reciever and other places internal in the dac makes it impossible to asses compared to other measurements ? But nevertheless interesting, But how does other sources fare using this method ? and what are the ballpark expected figures for decent performance .
And how would it measure inside another DAC with different design ?

And does it matter, if the DAC can fix it it's ok anyway ?

It is an interesting piece of equipment , in my case I don't need a dac , but it would be on my shortlist to try out if needed one .
Price/performance seems sane not the typical overpricing.

"C" makes sense to me. Most likely the answer is buried in the definition of jitter.

The Anedio measurement (for example) is using FFT which will sum the terms against a specific carrier frequency, which is a form of peak-peak jitter at the test tone. Looking at the tester used by John W - the R&S UPD - it *seems* capable of measuring phase error (vs. internal reference) at the sampling clock frequency. And as long as it can sample over a long time period, it's much more harsh test than cycle-cyle jitter at (say) 11kHz.

Although I confess I've not pored over the spec in detail, from my past experience of using a ~similar piece of equipment (HP 5372A) I *would* expect a much worse jitter number from the UPD, and more relevant to the audio performance that we're interested in.

Happy to be corrected if my understanding of the peak-peak measurements is mistaken.

[JezA]

JohnW has confirmed on the pinkfishmedia forum that he will be modifying SB Touches to take a clock signal from his M-DAC and so lock to it.

See here

[gw43]

As the MDAC has a built in pre-amp and I've since discovered I can switch my Arcam a85 into power amp mode would this be the best set up ?

I'm thinking of getting the M-Dac, and I also have an Arcam A85. Did you try it in power-amp mode, and if so where there any benefits over using the A85 as an integrated amp?

[tank121]

I'm thinking of getting the M-Dac, and I also have an Arcam A85. Did you try it in power-amp mode, and if so where there any benefits over using the A85 as an integrated amp?

Either way sounds great. I'm personally using it in Power mode once you've purchased it you can then Install
Triodes plug in and experiment with Usb v Coaxial. I'm still undecided as currently there is very limited amounts of 192 material.

Coxial can handle it but usb cant

[phycomp]

I use an Arcam A18 amp with my new Audiolab M-DAC and am very pleased with the combination, lots more detail emerging from CD's and streamed music files than previously when I used just my PC.

[Stratmangler]

Either way sounds great. I'm personally using it in Power mode once you've purchased it you can then Install
Triodes plug in and experiment with Usb v Coaxial. I'm still undecided as currently there is very limited amounts of 192 material.

Coaxial can handle it but usb can't

Not strictly true - if you hang a M2Tech Hiface 2 out of the USB port then it's quite happy sending 24/192.
The next logical step of enquiry goes along the lines of "I wonder if the M2Tech Young DAC can handle 24/192 over USB"?
I think the answer to the question is that it's more than likely.
The M2Tech stuff doesn't require the use of proprietary drivers for Linux devices, and as the Touch is running on Linux.....

[firedog]

Not strictly true - if you hang a M2Tech Hiface 2 out of the USB port then it's quite happy sending 24/192.
The next logical step of enquiry goes along the lines of "I wonder if the M2Tech Young DAC can handle 24/192 over USB"?
I think the answer to the question is that it's more than likely.
The M2Tech stuff doesn't require the use of proprietary drivers for Linux devices, and as the Touch is running on Linux.....

that is true only for the new generation of M2tech stuff that came out this year; the older stuff needs proprietary drivers and doesn't work with linux

[Stratmangler]

that is true only for the new generation of M2tech stuff that came out this year; the older stuff needs proprietary drivers and doesn't work with linux

I've only played with current generation M2Tech stuff