Modérateurs : Bush Tucker Man, rémipaseul, Eric62, Rico le Montais
Ironically, unboxing the MyDAC doesn’t burn you with homefire confidence. The ABS plastic shell of the MyDAC connotes shades of Ikea and – to a much lesser extent – Apple. Playing heavy on the latter for marketing purposes will likely lead to end user disappointment. A Jonathon Ive designed DAC would definitely feel more substantial than the lightweight Micromega. In the hands of the consumer, the MyDAC looks and feels closer to Mattel or Fisher-Price: rudimentary, basic, and functional. You wouldn’t blink twice if you saw this DAC on display at ToysRUs.
The USB receiver section deploys the ubiquitous XMOS chip and the S/PDIF receiver is a Wolfson WM8804. A surprise drops in for coffee when you compare a direct USB feed (from MacMini) to a signal S/PDIF re-routed via M2Tech’s Hiface Two – they sound pretty much identical, the direct USB connection being free of the over-etched treble that sometimes troubles the Italian convertor. Credit is due to Micromega here for such an excellent USB implementation.
Each of the “low jitter” master clocks are fed by individual “low noise” power supplies. Want specifics? 22.5792 MHz for the 44.1/88.2/176.4 family and 24.5760 MHz for the 48/96/192 neighbours.
Processing the digital feed is a Cirrus Logic CS4351. Much like ESS’s 9023 Sabre chip, the CS4351 DAC chip exhales 2V so no gain is required from the output stage, itself a buffer consisting of an OPA1642 from Texas Instruments.
With most budget DACs one must choose where to accept compromise. Separation or body? Pick one. Designers usually achieve the latter by sacrificing some of the former. It’s a natural consequence of designing to a price.
A furious blast through The Hold Steady’s Stay Positive and the MyDAC pitches its tent closer to camp separation. There’s nothing thin or reedy about its presentation though. Overall acoustic mass is good. Points are awarded for it not sounding edgy or metallic in the upper-most frequencies. It’s reassuringly smooth. Not a common personality trait at this price point.
Bass impact or reach isn’t as good as the Metrum Hex (€2185). Neither are tonal colours as indelibly inked. For peer group assimilation we must push the Micromega further down field.
Your eyes do not deceive you: the Emotiva nails the Frenchman to the floor when it comes to functionality and connectivity: show-pony casework, balanced outputs, volume attenuation. However, the tables get turned in listening tests. Listening to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, the Micromega is more lit-up (but without suggestion of upper-mid glare), energetic and s p a c i o u s. It’s closer to a performance under house lights than the shadier, more veiled American. Moreover, when giving room to a 24/88.2 copy of Aftermath, the Emotiva USB’s input tops out at 16/48.
In DACville, qualitative differences are more often than not only hair’s widths apart. Not so with this A vs. B. When decoded by the MyDAC, a FLAC of New Order’s “Blue Monday” is loaded with more fringe-dwelling information; the edge of that relentless kick drum more crisply cookie cut. Want more air in your digital playback chain? Again, the MyDAC goes further than the Emotiva. Case in point: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”. Micromega peel the song’s roof back to allow the listener a better view of the players housed within. Those guitar steps get built a few stories higher.
J ai placé le Mydac dans mon système de référence et j ai été choqué par la qualité su son pour le prix. Le micromega dispose de qualités sonores généralement présentes sur des DAC bien plus chers. Des qualités telle que la présence spatiale des intruments, une sensation tridimensionnelle, une sensation d'aisance. A travers le micromega les intruments ne sonnent pas comme des ??? (choses plates ??) mais son des images tridimensionelle incarnéesI dropped the MyDAC into my reference system and was shocked by how good it sounded for the price. The Micromega gives you some sonic attributes usually reserved for much more expensive DACs—qualities like air around instruments, a sense of three-dimensional space, and a laid-back sense of ease. Through the Micromega, instruments don’t sound like flat cardboard cutouts; they are instead fully fleshed out three-dimensional images surrounded by a wonderful bloom. In these qualities, the Micromega’s sound would not be out of place in a $2000 DAC. Timbres are remarkably smooth and free from grain. The bass is solid and tight, although the very lowest bass lacks ultimate authority.
On a écouté mon macbook en utilisant la sortie numérique (jack= > to slink) et c'etait assez superbe et bien suffisant pour mes oreilles ;-)Eric62 a écrit :Peut-être aussi ta source PC ?