Any Recommendation for Micro Hifi $400-$800

[photobum]

I had an old 1994 Pioneer DAC to play CD.

I never know a DAC can 'play' CDs.

 

[lsisaxon]

How do you find your Musical Fidelity DAC?

It's the X-DAC. Pretty comparable with my Rotel RCD-971 CD Player after I replaced the output opamps with BB OPA2228. (My RCD-971 opamps are also replaced with OPA2228, originally was OPA2604.)

 

[lsisaxon]

Wow, how much did this setup cost you? Musical Fidelity products are quite ex.

KRK Rokit 5 is under $500 a pair. The Akai player is under $60. Can't remember how much I got the X-DAC for but it's already quite old, since it's just lying around, I thought I'd use it. Many DVD players have decent DACs, so in actual fact you could just hook the DVD player directly to the speaker and still get something decent.

In fact, I have another cheapo Akira DVD-2102SE which sounds very beautiful after I changed the output opamps to BB OPA2228. Could hardly tell the difference when I A/Bed the outputs vs the MF X-DAC with normal CDs. Difference only becomes evident when I played HDCD content. ;p

 

[photobum]

It's the X-DAC. Pretty comparable with my Rotel RCD-971 CD Player

To be very frank, I do not have much liking for Musical Fidelity products, especially their amps. To me, they sound harsh and unrefined. That is why I ask you about their DAC, if it is any better.

 

[lsisaxon]

To be very frank, I do not have much like for Musical Fidelity products, especially their amps. To me, they sound harsh and unrefined. That is why I ask you about their DAC, if it is any better.

I didn't like it stock, yes it was a little harsh and coloured if I recall correctly. I think they used TL072 or NE5532 (can't quite remember) for the output opamps. I started to love it after I changed them. So I guess it isn't really MF anymore. ;p

 

[photobum]

I didn't like it stock, yes it was a little harsh and coloured if I recall correctly.

That is what I have suspected all along.

Musical Fidelity products are neither musical nor high-fidelity.

 

[kelccm]

That is what I have suspected all along.

Musical Fidelity products are neither musical nor high-fidelity.

:bsmilie::bsmilie:

Perhaps it is non-Musical low-Fidelity

 

[lsisaxon]

That is what I have suspected all along.

Musical Fidelity products are neither musical nor high-fidelity.

Well.. I didn't realy audition them first when I bought it because I trust the HDCD chip and the Burr-Brown DACs used. Unfortunately; it was marred by the lousy output opamps. The PCB routing is horrible though.. I'm pretty sure I did a better job with an amplifier project in my undergrad days. The traces for each channel wasn't as symmetrical as I would hope for.. but good thing they sounded decent after the opamp change. Only thing nice is the housing..

 

[lsisaxon]

:bsmilie::bsmilie:

Perhaps it is non-Musical low-Fidelity

Hmmm.. must have missed out the fine prints..