Musical Fidelity V-Dac

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Anyone used one of these, have any opinions of it? The question is halt moot as I've already ordered one and will be receiving it today, but curious if there are any other owners out there, have not seen it discussed much.

I read good reviews online, but those were mostly from retarded Amazon shoppers who can barely write an intelligible sentence sometimes.

One thing I will say, its ugly as well. It'll likely be the ugliest piece of gear I've ever owned. I have to wonder if that's on purpose, if you want something from them that looks decent you'll need to spend more money.

I guess that's it, I'll share my thoughts when I've had some time with it, but wanted to see if anyone else has any comments.

[Erik Tracy]

Anyone used one of these, have any opinions of it? The question is halt moot as I've already ordered one and will be receiving it today, but curious if there are any other owners out there, have not seen it discussed much.

I read good reviews online, but those were mostly from retarded Amazon shoppers who can barely write an intelligible sentence sometimes.

One thing I will say, its ugly as well. It'll likely be the ugliest piece of gear I've ever owned. I have to wonder if that's on purpose, if you want something from them that looks decent you'll need to spend more money.

I guess that's it, I'll share my thoughts when I've had some time with it, but wanted to see if anyone else has any comments.

I'd be interested in your review.

It is kinda fugly looking - maybe it should be outta sight outta mind?

Get some zip ties and secure down in the back of the rack.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Oh it's not 'kinda' fugly, like I said it'll be the ugliest piece of gear I've ever owned. It's not even the enclosure, it's the hidious writing and makings on the case, they could have just left it all black and it would have been just fine, maybe a project in the making if I like it enough.

[falconcry72]

Everything in Musical Fidelity's V-series looks like that; it keeps things cheap.

I have not used the V-DAC, but I am currently using a M1-DAC, which should be sonically very similar to the V-DAC. The M1 has a few upgraded parts and features like a balanced digital input, balanced outputs, a better power supply and some indicator lights on the front. I think it sounds great! I'm going back and forth between it and a Bennchmark DAC-1 right now, and I don't think either sounds better. The M1 is a little smoother, and I would expect the same from the V-DAC.

I am also using a V-Link, which is an asynchronous USB to SPDIF converter. It is a great little piece, and it would be a good match for your V-DAC if you want an asynchronous PC-based solution.

I think you'll be happy with your purchase; great bang for the buck.

[Erik Tracy]

Oh it's not 'kinda' fugly, like I said it'll be the ugliest piece of gear I've ever owned. It's not even the enclosure, it's the hidious writing and makings on the case, they could have just left it all black and it would have been just fine, maybe a project in the making if I like it enough.

Were you wearing 'beer goggles' then when you let her into the house?

[falconcry72]

...it's the hidious writing and markings on the case, they could have just left it all black and it would have been just fine....

yea, no sh!t! All the V-series stuff has that writing. Most of the writing of on my vlink is fine, in a normal font, and then you get the huge V-LINK text that makes it look like it came from Party City USA. wtf.

[Big Dawg]

There are lots of very positive reviews online, not just on Amazon. I've never owned one myself, but I've never read of anyone who found it to perform below its price point.

Here's Stereophile's review: http://www.stereophile.com/digitalpr...sor/index.html

Please let us know what you think after you've had it for a while.

[punk-roc]

I nearly got one myself a while back.. but need amplification too.. I've never heard a negative review of it.. its obviously not supposed to be competing with the more expensive USB DACs, but should work for a PC or secondary rig just fine

Jason

[unc2701]

IIRC, it's got pretty much the same guts as the X-Dac, but without the nice chassis. Not bad at all for the price- but you're going to want some cable ties.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I've read something about the performance or upsampling being diferent on the USB port than the other digital inputs, but don't really know what that means

[Big Dawg]

I've read something about the performance or upsampling being diferent on the USB port than the other digital inputs, but don't really know what that means

I hadn't heard that about the VDAC, although I have about the DACMagic.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I think there's something about the DAC not doing the Hi Rez formats over USB or something to that effect, can't find it now. Information on this thing is hard to find...

[PSOVLSK]

I run one between my PS3 and pre- in the game room. I'm happy with it, but I would think you'd see better results using it in a computer system rather than in the setup I'm using.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Now I'm looking at the V-Link, which is something about asynchronous USB, wonder if putting that in the chain would improve performance or if whatever technology that's in that is already incorporated into the V-Dac.

Look at me, I'm already trying to figure out how to increase performance before I get the damn thing.

[falconcry72]

I think there's something about the DAC not doing the Hi Rez formats over USB or something to that effect, can't find it now. Information on this thing is hard to find...

The USB input probably only supports up to 24bit 96khz, which is true of most USB DACs, whereas as the SPDIF inputs will support up to 24/192.

Also, the fact that it's not asynchronous may give the USB input an inherently lower level of performance than the SPDIF inputs.

Whether your ear can hear the difference or not is another story...

I did read one review on the M1; however, where the reviewer noted a performance increase when usinng the V-Link to the M1 instead of going directly to the M1's USB input.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Actually what I'm reading says I only get regular 16bit/44 performance when using the USB port...but again none of this is discussed in the manual so I don't know.

[falconcry72]

Now I'm looking at the V-Link, which is something about asynchronous USB, wonder if putting that in the chain would improve performance or if whatever technology that's in that is already incorporated into the V-Dac....

Neither the V-DAC or M1 incorporate asynchronous USB, so the V-LINK is an upgrade to both of them.

I may be selling my v-link soon. It works great, but I have my eye on a more expensive USB to SPDIF converter from Audio GD.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

If you decide to part with it let me know, if I haven't already bought one by then I'll probably take it off your hands.

[falconcry72]

Actually what I'm reading says I only get regular 16bit/44 performance when using the USB port...but again none of this is discussed in the manual so I don't know.

Well you won't have to worry about it if you get a V-LINK. The V-Link lets up to 24/96 files pass through natively so your DAC can do whatever it wants with them.

[falconcry72]

If you decide to part with it let me know, if I haven't already bought one by then I'll probably take it off your hands.

Will do. I should make a decision within the next week or two.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

So are 'asynchronous USB' and the ability to handle higher resolution files like 24/96 the same thing, or are they different the the V-Link just happens to have both?

[falconcry72]

So are 'asynchronous USB' and the ability to handle higher resolution files like 24/96 the same thing, or are they different the the V-Link just happens to have both?

Different and vlink has both.

Asynchronous has to do with not letting the computer control the outputting data rate via its own clock, and thus eliminating, or at least significantly reducing, jitter.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Got the V-Dac today, sounds good out of the box, should be better after a day or two of burn in.

I'm running AudioNirvana on the Mac, and I can see it downsampling the hi rez files to the 16/48 rate when outputting to the DAC. I want my hi rez files, so I believe the v-link will definitely be in order.

[falconcry72]

...I'm running AudioNirvana on the Mac, and I can see it downsampling the hi rez files to the 16/48 rate when outputting to the DAC. ...

How do you see it down sampling? I would think that if you were outputting a resloution that the DAC couldn't handle it just wouldn't lock on and no sound would come out, but it wouldn't force your Mac to change its sampling rate.

[falconcry72]

Just found this in the measurements section of the Stereophile review:

"The USB input feeds the ubiquitous Burr-Brown PCM2706 receiver chip, which is limited to 16-bit data and sample rates of up to 48kHz. The USB receiver operates in "adaptive" mode, where control of the data flow is subcontracted to the PC; it feeds the recovered audio data to a Burr-Brown SRC4392 sample-rate-converter chip, which also handles data up to 24-bit resolution and sample rates up to 96kHz from the TosLink and coaxial S/PDIF ports. Using this chip to upsample incoming data to 192kHz reduces the effect of datastream jitter."

http://www.stereophile.com/content/m...r-measurements

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I'm using Audio Nirvana on OSX, and I believe the info at the bottom is telling me what's actually happening.

I was confused at first because I was expecting no sound when I played a 24/96 file, but there's definitely sound.

I'm attaching two screenshots, one playing a redbook CD and one playing a hi rez file. On the audio player, you can see at the bottom of the application window where the hi rez file says something like 16/48 downsampling converter.

I don't know if the downsampling is being done by the software or the DAC. So, I have no idea what's happening with my music...

[falconcry72]

That Gaucho SACD or HDtracks is great! Love that album, and it's a great mix to boot.

Maybe Audio Nirvana is helping you out by down sampling? I have no idea.

I use a PC and foobar 2000. When I play hi res files to a DAC that can't take'em no sound comes out.

[dhart86]

The v-dac was my 1st dac. Great for the $$$$$$$. sounds better after 50-100hrs break in. If you want a PC rig w/ hi rez playback, get the v-link from falconcry. The regular usb on v-dac to computer connection doesn't sound very good. I liked the v-dac but am now loving my w4s dac2,

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I have it on both sacd and hi rez from hdtracks and I agree it's great.

I can tell you for sure something is downsampling, because I know what the hi rez version sounds like and this isn't.

I guess my question is what's downsampling, the DAC or the software? I assume it's the software, but don't know for sure. What's weird is that Songbird, another application entirely, had the same result.

[falconcry72]

..my question is what's downsampling, the DAC or the software? ...

Good question. I'm not sure, but I would imagine that the DAC wouldn't have the ability to.