DAC Shootout Part Deux: Ayre, AMR, Luxman, McIntosh

[Jerome W]

Thanks a lot Emile !
Once again a very informative shoot out.
From what I read, I may keep my 777 standard and forget the SE version. Although some more sparkle in the treble could be a plus, I really love the analog character of the 777.

[Alki]

Emile, thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with the forum. It was an interesting read and may offer some guidance to fellow members.

[Jerome W]

And BTW E., thanks again for pointing me towards the 777 DAC with your first shootout.
I still have my MDA1000 but the 777 is truly a fabulous source.

[jdandy]

E.......Interesting shootout. My prediction was correct before I read the results. Thanks for performing the head to head comparisons. Always insightful and entertaining.

[chessman]

E, great write up. Thank you!!

[Vintage Pete]

Originally Posted by -E-

Second Place:

McIntosh MDA1000



I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: HOW THE HELL CAN THIS EIGHT YEAR OLD DAC COMPETE STILL?!

The McIntosh MDA1000 and its dual parallel Burr Browns with the 768k upsampling still somehow produce some serious magic.

No USB. No DSD. No incoming signal higher than 96khz.

Yet.

It.

Still.

Rocks.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Out of the entire group, The McDAC had the most three dimensional presentation – by a country mile. No brightness. No lack of emotionality. Solid, clean bass.

Toe-tapping and involvement became instantly apparent with the group when the MDA was played. Gasps were heard from other reviewers whom, coming into this review thought “Mc… meh” when they realized what was being played.

Pros:
- Competes with and outpaces far newer counterparts
- Soundstaging that defies digital
- Three dimensionality creates mind=blown experience
- Built like a tank
- Can get a good used specimen for a hell of a price

Cons:
- No USB
- No DSD
- No input higher than 96khz
- No longer in production
- No successor that can get near the SQ of this unit
o Seriously, McIntosh… all you had to do was tweak this box by adding a USB receiver, a 192 receiver and forget about DSD for an epic win here

E....thanks for doing a follow up of this shootout, which I find highly interesting. While I can't speak to the other models in the lineup, I can certainly say I'm not particularly surprised at how the MDA1000 stacks up.
Every accolade you've assigned it rings true. I've only had mine a few months, but I can tell you it isn't going anywhere. It just really sounds musical and three-dimensional as you say. To expand on the pros just a bit,
I might add too that, aside from being built like a tank, it is really a beautiful piece of gear.





No USB connectivity? No problem! The Bryston BUC-1 is a sweet little unit and performs flawlessly.




No input higher than 96kHz? For me, a non-issue. My W4s DAC-2DSDse had 192 kHz and DSD capability, but since I replaced it with the MDA1000 I haven't missed the 192kHz for a minute. I simply set my JRiver media center
to output everything at 96kHz and forgot about it. I'm really not so sure I could tell the difference between a 96kHZ recording and a 192kHz equivalent. I could, however, tell the difference in terms of cost and drive space.

I agree with your comments that all McIntosh needed to do was tweak the MDA a bit, and they'd have hit the ball out of the park for a long, long time. But as far as I'm concerned, with a few minor workarounds, it's an out of the
park winner just the same. I love it.

[bart]

Emile, thank you for sharing these most interesting findings.
Very good review.
Entertainingly written too.

[scirica]

-E-:

I enjoyed both shootouts immensely. Over the past year you've had me thinking more and more about the 777. With digital music being my primary source it makes sense to invest in the right DAC. For me, that might be coming down to a DSD race between Bryston and AMR, both of which are taking their sweet time.

So what are your thoughts on DSD as the next upgrade for AMR and that it should be coming this summer? I think we are still 60-90 days away from a Bryston BDA-3. I'm thinking one of those two may be my next DAC.

Thanks to everyone that participated.

[-E-]

Originally Posted by Vintage Pete

E....thanks for doing a follow up of this shootout, which I find highly interesting. While I can't speak to the other models in the lineup, I can certainly say I'm not particularly surprised at how the MDA1000 stacks up.
Every accolade you've assigned it rings true. I've only had mine a few months, but I can tell you it isn't going anywhere. It just really sounds musical and three-dimensional as you say. To expand on the pros just a bit,
I might add too that, aside from being built like a tank, it is really a beautiful piece of gear.

No USB connectivity? No problem! The Bryston BUC-1 is a sweet little unit and performs flawlessly.

No input higher than 96kHz? For me, a non-issue. My W4s DAC-2DSDse had 192 kHz and DSD capability, but since I replaced it with the MDA1000 I haven't missed the 192kHz for a minute. I simply set my JRiver media center
to output everything at 96kHz and forgot about it. I'm really not so sure I could tell the difference between a 96kHZ recording and a 192kHz equivalent. I could, however, tell the difference in terms of cost and drive space.

I agree with your comments that all McIntosh needed to do was tweak the MDA a bit, and they'd have hit the ball out of the park for a long, long time. But as far as I'm concerned, with a few minor workarounds, it's an out of the
park winner just the same. I love it.

I'll certainly agree it is a stunner of a chassis.

I'll also agree with you about the BUC-1. However, a quality USB input makes life a whole lot easier, not to mention sounds better.

And I'll also double-down on your 96khz statement by adding that if I were to take a 192 pull and do a proper transcode to 96khz nobody, and I do mean nobody, would be able to hear a difference between the two.

So basically, yeah, I agree with you.

[-E-]

Originally Posted by scirica

-E-:

I enjoyed both shootouts immensely. Over the past year you've had me thinking more and more about the 777. With digital music being my primary source it makes sense to invest in the right DAC. For me, that might be coming down to a DSD race between Bryston and AMR, both of which are taking their sweet time.

So what are your thoughts on DSD as the next upgrade for AMR and that it should be coming this summer? I think we are still 60-90 days away from a Bryston BDA-3. I'm thinking one of those two may be my next DAC.

Thanks to everyone that participated.

Steve,

AMR does not seem to have DSD in the pipeline, and quite frankly, after last weekend, shouldn't bother.

I've listened to DSD across the multitude of OEM chips out there, and have come to the conclusion that unless they added the Xilinix board on top of the existing dual-discrete, it just won't yield the result intended. As it was, the BADA-esque mentality to just avoid DSD and focus on PCM actually received better results than the "native" DSD decoding.

Alternatively, there is a DAC on the market that uses both TI/BB chips for all PCM duty and then added a Xilinix chip/board for actual 1-bit DSD conversion. That DAC is the Aesthetix Pandora Signature (~$7500). Then there's the T+A big boy that also does the same thing, but is at least double that price of admission, if not more.