Museatex Bitstream DAC (black gate caps) review
LuSh
Posts: 887
Hello all, I've recently had my DAC upgraded with black gates caps along with a few other tweaks here and there. I only write this review, not to gloat about how good this dac is, but for other Polk members that really appreciate value.
A little history:
Museatex was a company created in the 90's (www.museatex.com ) by digital guru Ed Meitner. His right hand man at the time was a gentleman by the name of John Wright. Together they created some wonderfull products, including many reference DAC's...the iDat, BiDat and Bitstream. During their time these were reference componants. Sam Telig, of Stereophile fame, had used a Bidat as his reference for a number of years. Towards the end of the 90's Museatex eventually fell apart. Ed Meitner went on to help create SACD and DSD encoding for Sony. He eventually created a new reference company called Emmlabs (http://www.emmlabs.com/). Without doubt this company is now considered reference of SACD playback, and at $12k they should be!
John Wright on the other hand stayed under most peoples radar and continued to service and upgrade many previously bought Museatex DACs. John continues this tradition today. Mr Wrights results speak for themself. John's full mods of Bitstream and Bidat dacs are considered reference standards among all things digital and have challenged the mightly dCs stacks, and EMM Labs Dac for redbook playback among many users that have actually layed down the paper to own all of the mentioned dacs. Search audiogon.com and audioaslyum.com for discussions.
My Review:
My little musatex DAC had broken 2months ago. My left channel was no longer working. I had this DAC for a year, there were mods done to it when I first bought it but there was room for improvement. These things run HOT and have complete class A circuitry. No left channel - Weird!?!?! I sent it back to John who resides in Calgary Alberta to have a look. Sure enough it was the DAC and it was a cap. John said he'd fix it, and upgrade what he could. A couple weeks later he emailed telling me he had added Black Gate caps to my DAC and upgraded a few other things. The only downfall is that the Black Gate caps take quite a long time to burn in. Most customers of John's suggest 3 weeks before total burn in complete. I write this review with 2 weeks under my belt. This should indicate how pleased I am.
I'd like to first state, that when hooking this thing up to your system, this thing sounds horrid. It is bright, has much edge, and detailed to the EXTREME. This DAC was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY brighter then when I had it without Black Gates. So much so I emailed Bwhite from audiogon ( a person with seemingly unlimited resources and time for audio) and pondered aloud what he had previously expressed when he once had his BiDat modded. He assured me that it would take time but it was all worth it. I had Emailed John about burn in, should I hook it up to a crappy DVD player and let it spin for a few days? He suggested no, citing that it was running full burn all the time when plugged in. Bwhite had a different answer, saying he found it to be best when actually spinning discs with the volume set to 0. I opted for the latter and it paid off after 1 week (of periodic play) + 24hrs of constant spinning.
The Bitstream has now had 2 weeks to burn in, the character has darkened, while the music has blossomed. The first thing you'll notice is how un-digital this thing sounds. Glare is gone. Many have considered it to be the most analogue sounding DAC avaliable to the public both on the used and new market. I have not heard the Reimyo 777 CDP or Linn Sondek CD-12 but I can say that this little thing is insane when it comes to making music sound "right".
People wanting to compare this to higher end stuff over $10k you're more then welcome to search around the net, the threads exist. What I can compare this unit to is a Musical Fidelity 3.2 and Linn Genki. To summarize, no contest. A close relative who knows John actually sold this thing to me with the deepest regret. He opted to sell me this unit in the hopes he could achieve better sound via an ES Sony SACD player. Even though he had compared this DAC to a SimAudio Nova and had thought at that time the Museatex had bested it. After a listening session this summer (without) Black Gates he had thought alot of what the Bitstream did was better then what his Sony did with SACD's!
I can say at this point the Black Gates made a difference, this much I know. It is however hard to judge how much of a difference. At this stage, I'd say 10% over and beyond what the DATA II upgrade that John offers. There is little to no grain, at all whatsoever. The changes from day 1 to week 2 are quite striking. I do hope by week 3 the detail is improved ever so slightly. If this doesn't change I could easily live with it. If it does improve I won't be looking to upgrade my speakers as quickly. I guess the best 2 words I could use to describe this DAC is "natural bloom". Those are the only two words I can think of when listening to my setup. After the first track of a cd, you stop thinking like an audiophile and just listen...every so often (usually after a track) you almost say aloud HO#! SH%@ I love you. Of course width and depth of soundstage are improved and overall bass is increased. But it is the natural bloom of every note that makes the system come alive and really make the speakers perform as a musical driving force as opposed to just a Hifi system.
Needless to say I wrote this mini Novel to share with people here. If you ever see one of these things on sale from Ebay, Audiogon, BUY it...send it to Calgary for John to upgrade. And let it run for a couple weeks. If you don't like it you can always turn around and sell it. I can assure you, you'll get your money back.
A little history:
Museatex was a company created in the 90's (www.museatex.com ) by digital guru Ed Meitner. His right hand man at the time was a gentleman by the name of John Wright. Together they created some wonderfull products, including many reference DAC's...the iDat, BiDat and Bitstream. During their time these were reference componants. Sam Telig, of Stereophile fame, had used a Bidat as his reference for a number of years. Towards the end of the 90's Museatex eventually fell apart. Ed Meitner went on to help create SACD and DSD encoding for Sony. He eventually created a new reference company called Emmlabs (http://www.emmlabs.com/). Without doubt this company is now considered reference of SACD playback, and at $12k they should be!
John Wright on the other hand stayed under most peoples radar and continued to service and upgrade many previously bought Museatex DACs. John continues this tradition today. Mr Wrights results speak for themself. John's full mods of Bitstream and Bidat dacs are considered reference standards among all things digital and have challenged the mightly dCs stacks, and EMM Labs Dac for redbook playback among many users that have actually layed down the paper to own all of the mentioned dacs. Search audiogon.com and audioaslyum.com for discussions.
My Review:
My little musatex DAC had broken 2months ago. My left channel was no longer working. I had this DAC for a year, there were mods done to it when I first bought it but there was room for improvement. These things run HOT and have complete class A circuitry. No left channel - Weird!?!?! I sent it back to John who resides in Calgary Alberta to have a look. Sure enough it was the DAC and it was a cap. John said he'd fix it, and upgrade what he could. A couple weeks later he emailed telling me he had added Black Gate caps to my DAC and upgraded a few other things. The only downfall is that the Black Gate caps take quite a long time to burn in. Most customers of John's suggest 3 weeks before total burn in complete. I write this review with 2 weeks under my belt. This should indicate how pleased I am.
I'd like to first state, that when hooking this thing up to your system, this thing sounds horrid. It is bright, has much edge, and detailed to the EXTREME. This DAC was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY brighter then when I had it without Black Gates. So much so I emailed Bwhite from audiogon ( a person with seemingly unlimited resources and time for audio) and pondered aloud what he had previously expressed when he once had his BiDat modded. He assured me that it would take time but it was all worth it. I had Emailed John about burn in, should I hook it up to a crappy DVD player and let it spin for a few days? He suggested no, citing that it was running full burn all the time when plugged in. Bwhite had a different answer, saying he found it to be best when actually spinning discs with the volume set to 0. I opted for the latter and it paid off after 1 week (of periodic play) + 24hrs of constant spinning.
The Bitstream has now had 2 weeks to burn in, the character has darkened, while the music has blossomed. The first thing you'll notice is how un-digital this thing sounds. Glare is gone. Many have considered it to be the most analogue sounding DAC avaliable to the public both on the used and new market. I have not heard the Reimyo 777 CDP or Linn Sondek CD-12 but I can say that this little thing is insane when it comes to making music sound "right".
People wanting to compare this to higher end stuff over $10k you're more then welcome to search around the net, the threads exist. What I can compare this unit to is a Musical Fidelity 3.2 and Linn Genki. To summarize, no contest. A close relative who knows John actually sold this thing to me with the deepest regret. He opted to sell me this unit in the hopes he could achieve better sound via an ES Sony SACD player. Even though he had compared this DAC to a SimAudio Nova and had thought at that time the Museatex had bested it. After a listening session this summer (without) Black Gates he had thought alot of what the Bitstream did was better then what his Sony did with SACD's!
I can say at this point the Black Gates made a difference, this much I know. It is however hard to judge how much of a difference. At this stage, I'd say 10% over and beyond what the DATA II upgrade that John offers. There is little to no grain, at all whatsoever. The changes from day 1 to week 2 are quite striking. I do hope by week 3 the detail is improved ever so slightly. If this doesn't change I could easily live with it. If it does improve I won't be looking to upgrade my speakers as quickly. I guess the best 2 words I could use to describe this DAC is "natural bloom". Those are the only two words I can think of when listening to my setup. After the first track of a cd, you stop thinking like an audiophile and just listen...every so often (usually after a track) you almost say aloud HO#! SH%@ I love you. Of course width and depth of soundstage are improved and overall bass is increased. But it is the natural bloom of every note that makes the system come alive and really make the speakers perform as a musical driving force as opposed to just a Hifi system.
Needless to say I wrote this mini Novel to share with people here. If you ever see one of these things on sale from Ebay, Audiogon, BUY it...send it to Calgary for John to upgrade. And let it run for a couple weeks. If you don't like it you can always turn around and sell it. I can assure you, you'll get your money back.
Post edited by LuSh on
Comments
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Nice review Lush, good to see you back.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Sadly nobody seems to care F1nut lol...but that's ok. Keep your eyes open on Gon, I'm telling you you wont be disappointed. Also check out those Oritek cables I emailed you about. Bwhite sold his NBS statement cables for em! Those wre $2k interconnects!!
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I already checked into the Oritek's, I'm picking up a pair to try.
As for nobody here caring.....well, that looks like the case this time, but I don't think that's the usual case. I can think of another forum where high end apathy runs rampant on a daily basis.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I always enjoy your reviews, though I don't always say so. I usually don't have enough/any experience to comment.
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F1nut, LET ME KNOW HOW THOSE TURN OUT!!! I wanted to buy a pair to compare to what I'm using now but I don't have the coin.
Zero - I dunno about the $299 LP...again I haven't done a direct A/B comparison but an inmate at Audioaslyum did with an SME20, and thought the John Wright DAC was at least its equal. Bwhite did a comparison with his Linn Sondek LP and felt the bidat was just a shade below. If I was into vinyl or had the coin I'd try myself. My Uncle uses a Rega LP player and liked the Museatex better, but again it was close.
Fireshoes - Thanks. -
Lush,
You mentioned the Oriteks in my thread the other day. I can't seem to find anything but a few reviews in other boards about them. Could you provide a link to somewhere they can be purchased please.
Thanks
Noel"SOME PEOPLE CALL ME MAURICE,
CAUSE I SPEAK OF THE POMPITIOUS OF LOVE" -
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
You can say that for just about any format and any comparision.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
No, not uncaring just catchin' up. Believe me the info is being assimilated by some of us.
The problem is now you've made it more difficult to decide on the next CDP or transport/dac combo.
I feel myself considering ,more and more, a decent transport and a seriously good Dac setup. I absolutely enjoy the Jolida as my main CDP at present but if you can get the same or nearly the same dimensionality(the sound that i'm accustomed to now) out of a premium dac, then i'm game to do some serious research. Thanks for the info/review Lush. -
DAGLJAM6 wrote:No, not uncaring just catchin' up. Believe me the info is being assimilated by some of us.
The problem is now you've made it more difficult to decide on the next CDP or transport/dac combo.
Thanks for the info/review Lush.
Yep yep!! Dave +1
Thanks Jesse
"SOME PEOPLE CALL ME MAURICE,
CAUSE I SPEAK OF THE POMPITIOUS OF LOVE" -
Dave, did you get my email? Clear out your PM box.
Have you tried the Ei's yet?Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Nice review..... I just found it. Unlike some people i enjoy reading detailed reveiws.. i hope you'll post more about your Museatex Bitsteam DAC as burn in wraps up.. i look forward to reading more about it.
if you can.. please post a pic of the DAC.
we go nuts over pictures of gear. PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin: -
BTW, http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1131921068
Looks like one up with no offers and unmodded.
Jesse, hit me again i didn't receive anything that night. 2nd question: Oh yeah! -
Lush....what Jesse and Dave said.
Not to rehash the whole vinyl/digital thing but to get vinyl to sound better than good digital...a lot of work and money.
BDTI plan for the future. - F1Nut -
Yep, I read (the day you posted it) and throughly enjoyed the review as well, great job! Always interested in DAC's and the reviewers impressions. Insightful and objective, thanks.Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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Ima disagree to the extent that I have *decent* turntable (Music Hall MMF5) and an entry level ARXA (the limiting factor on the AR is the arm and cart. With good recordings, the MM5 will give digital a run for it's money. Now, I've heard F1's setup and while I have a few albums that are quite good, on the average, I'll take Jesse's rig every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Problem is, without a clean stylus (which means cleaning it after every album side), proper handling of the LP (I use cotton gloves) and clean records (which is no small task that I would argue REQUIRES a wet vac cleaner).....you are just wasting your time. If you throw down an unclean copy of any sort on a cheapie direct drive table with an unclean stylus.....it's an exercise in futility. You are just enamored of the nostalgia of vinyl.
There are those who will expound on the superiority of analog, IMO, analog is THEORETICALLY superior in that there are a lot of 'if's' in the equation. If you can't retrieve the detail (which for 299, sorry, it ain't happening) it's all academic.
BDTI plan for the future. - F1Nut -
No worries, I agree that there are SOME things that all vinyl does better than digital...but my view is of the whole audio experience on the average.
Err..sorry for the derail.
BDTI plan for the future. - F1Nut -
I really don't want to derail this thread, so I'm jumping in before a debate happens. This post was about a good value in audio, and I love good values believe me. I don't have the dough yet to play around with everything (if you only knew what I really wanted to play around with, oh my!). Ask F1nut, I usually email somebody if I find something that is affordable (some might not find $300 interconnects affordable, but in comparison to $1k I do!) and pass it along.
Zero, you have to remember one thing. The people that have hyped the Museatex stuff came from Vinyl. Most have spent over $10K on their LP setups. They REALLY don't care to have a rather unknown DAC rival their reference analogue. MOST people concur that the Bidat and Bitstream DAC's can't beat the very best in vinyl most suggest that its closer then it has any right too. Remember in the world of digital its always been backwards. Highenders have spent thousands upon thousands to make digital sound like vinyl. Not the other way around.
To anybody that seeks this DAC out, PLEASE let it play after mods for a month, then switch and talk to me. DONT do direct A/B comparisions within the hour, day or week. Let that thing just play music and sing along for a week. Then put in your old source, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Also, anybody interested in a Tube pre check out Supratek!! It sucks being poor, I wish somebody gave me $10k just to buy and sell used all the time. At any rate that is another hifi toy I'd love to get my hands on!
Oh, I don't have a digital camera but I can link you to some pics that are up of another...
http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1121663643.jpg
DAC
http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1123176960.jpg
Transport
Both have a mirror finish, you don't see it show up on the DAC as much, in that photo.
F1nut, I will pay for shipping both ways and send you love letters if you ever let me listen to those cables! -
One Bitstream with full mods coming home sometime soon.
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Noice, remember, let is burn in for a long time, and a Moray James digital cable is best mated with those DAC's, John Wright uses all Moray stuff to voice his mods. Regardless, let it play for awhile, don't JUMP to conclusions after 1 night. And most of all enjoy, I know you will.
