musical fidelity X-dac v3
W WALDECKER
Posts: 900
i am considering pulling the trigger on the mf x-dac v3. i already have the x-10 v3 tube buffer and i will probably get a channel islands audio or monolithic sound power supply for both of them and get rid of the wallwarts. the sick thing is that i own a outstanding redbook cd player. a symphonic line vibrato it weighs thirtyfive pounds and is a handmade work of art that sounds as smooth as silk. but i am obsessed with the fact that it does not do 24 bit upsampling and i feel i am missing something. if any of you guys were in my shoes what would you do?
Rogue Audio stereo 100 tube amplifier - Lector Zoe preamplifier with 6H30 pi's
.Audience AU24SE speaker and ic cables- Chord Qutest DAC - Black Cat Silverstar II 75ohm digital cable-Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Signature system with large bass cabinets to accommodate 10" Seas magnesium woofers.
.Audience AU24SE speaker and ic cables- Chord Qutest DAC - Black Cat Silverstar II 75ohm digital cable-Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Signature system with large bass cabinets to accommodate 10" Seas magnesium woofers.
Post edited by W WALDECKER on
Comments
-
I don't know how much of a quality bump you will get with a separate DAC with your rig, but if I were replacing mine, I would only go Benchmark DAC1. Nothing else really compares at nearly any pricepoint right now.
The MFs are cute, but a great tube pre is where its at with your Extremes IMO.HT Optoma HD25 LV on 80" DIY Screen, Anthem MRX 300 Receiver, Pioneer Elite BDP 51FD Polk CS350LS, Polk SDA1C, Polk FX300, Polk RT55, Dual EBS Adire Shiva 320watt tuned to 17hz, ICs-DIY Twisted Prs, Speaker-Raymond Cable
2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable -
I'd suggest trying to do this in increments. Since you already have the tube buffer, try the dedicated power supply and get rid of the wall wart. You should notice an improvement there with the more stable power supply. Then try the tube buffer between your current CD player and your preamp. That was its real design purpose, to bring out harmonic details in digital PCM audio. The Musical Fidelity DAC may or may not be an improvement over what you already have. But, if you buy one used you can sell it again for about the same price since it's still fairly new on the market. I haven't played around with mine enough yet to form a definite opinion, but my purpose in getting the X components was to get close to the performance of the Musical Fidelity A5 CD player for half the price while retaining flexibility with the three box design and possibly adding the tubed headphone amp at a later date.
-
Emlyn,
I am curious about the PSU improvement. Did you try both the Ac-DC power adapter and PSU? Could you please describe the improvement? Thanks. -
haimoc wrote:Emlyn,
I am curious about the PSU improvement. Did you try both the Ac-DC power adapter and PSU? Could you please describe the improvement? Thanks.
I should have a better idea in a couple of weeks concerning the differences. The units are too new to establish a fair judgement yet, plus I just got an MIT digital cable for this set-up. Once things have settled in I'll post more.
