MCD-500 DAC Capabilities

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by two dot

If the brunette was included... even I WOULD BUY A SOOLOSS...

Stephen.......Cash is King. Brunettes will come. Blondes and Reds, too, if you want.

[matt_zak]

Jim, the Accustic Arts drives are not tube. The Dac 1 mk4 is ss and the Dac 2 is tube. Anyhow, neither of the drives do SACD so they won't work for ya.

[Gigo]

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum (been reading through for the past couple of years) and I need your advise
I have the olive 4 HD running the analog outputs to my C2300, how would you rate it's internal DAC vs MCD500 or MDA1000
Other option is to go Mac Mini+Ayre QB9, what do you suggest
Cheers
Ihab

[Masterlu]

Jim, take it away!

Gigo.... Welcome to AA

[cmalak]

Gigo...welcome to AA

[jdandy]

Gigo.......Welcome to Audio Aficionado.

Almost two years lurking.......What took you so long to chime in?

[howiebrou]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Matt
I have not heard their products and have only seen one or two reviews. If the only DAC they have is tubed that is a non starter for me.

I am not sure which direction I want to go. I am taking the following into consideration. 1) I do not want to mix too many different manufacturers gear in my rack 2) Most of my listening is via server, do I even require a separate CD player to only play SACD's. 3) Do I go with Esoteric for SACD/DAC or sell the D-07 and go with the MCD-1100 or another brand like DCS, Wadia, EMM, etc. 4) Sell the D-07 (and possibly the Olive 4HD) too and go with SooLoos.

Jim
'

Jim,

I just went through the same decision. I decided that, if the quality was good enough, then most of my digital listening would be via server so I got rid of my cdp and dac and got a sooloos + 808i.3. Job done.

If you really want to listen to SACDs, get an Oppo! ANother choice would be the new Esoteric K-01 which has asynchronous USB, other digital inputs and can also play SACD.

howie

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by howiebrou

Jim,

I just went through the same decision. I decided that, if the quality was good enough, then most of my digital listening would be via server so I got rid of my cdp and dac and got a sooloos + 808i.3. Job done.

If you really want to listen to SACDs, get an Oppo! ANother choice would be the new Esoteric K-01 which has asynchronous USB, other digital inputs and can also play SACD.

howie

Howie
I have been researching so many options. The K1 and K3 do not have 3 of the type of digital inputs I need. Either 2 RCA and 1 Optical or 1 RCA and 2 Optical. This is the same problem with so many other units.

I am trying to limit the number of components and do not want 3 or 4 different looks in the rack.

Still Looking

Jim

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by Gigo

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum (been reading through for the past couple of years) and I need your advise
I have the olive 4 HD running the analog outputs to my C2300, how would you rate it's internal DAC vs MCD500 or MDA1000
Other option is to go Mac Mini+Ayre QB9, what do you suggest
Cheers
Ihab

Welcome to AudioAficionado Gigo

I know it is a long thread but you may want to red thru this one.
http://audioaficionado.org/digital-m...-hd-house.html

To summarize, the DAC's in the Olive 4HD a very close to the MCD-500. I gave a slight nod at the time to the 500. I still prefer the Olive's Digital output thru my Esoteric's D-07's DAC over those in the MCD-500, but again they are close. If you walked into the room you probably could not tell which ones were being played but when you quickly A-B them you hear slight differences when quickly switching between the units both playing the same music.

Jim

[Gigo]

Dear All,
Thank you for the all the warm greetings, it has been a pleasure to learn from all of you while building my system, a job that will never be finished, I learnt this too late

My system is as follows:
MC501 x 3
C2300 with
B&W 802D
B&W HTM2D
B&W 805S
Olive 4HD
Oppo 83SE
Onkyo 5007 AVR
Straightwire interconnects and speaker cables

Jim,
Thanks for the reply, so in a nutshell, it is not worth getting an additional MDA1000 (which is very close to the MCD500 DAC) as an upgrade to the Olive DAC.

Anyone compared the Olive DAC to either the Ayre QB9 or W4S DAC2?
I really do not want to start a new upgrade journey to find that I was better off with what I started with, unfortunately were I live and work right now as an expatriate in Saudi Arabia does not permit for any auditions !

Thanks again
Gigo