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Post by fault151 on Oct 30, 2007 18:45:02 GMT
Hey im after advice. I have seen an X-Dav V3 and was wondering if they are highly rated? Im new to audio and was wondering if i need it or if its worth buying. I have a 2008 green solo amp and an ipod and Sony cd player that i normally play my music from.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2007 20:05:03 GMT
fault 151 The Musical Fidelity X-DAC V3 is a good upsampling DAC. It upsamples to 24bits 192KHZ. However, it is nowhere nearly as good in it's original form as all the hype would have you believe. A Little Pinkie if used to replace the supplied wallwart will make a worthwhile improvement to SQ. There is a great deal more information on modifying/improving this DAC in the Musical Fidelity X-Zone, including extreme modifications by myself, on page 4. The mods I described should only be attempted by experienced DiYers. SandyK
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Sol
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Post by Sol on Oct 30, 2007 20:10:05 GMT
Hey im after advice. I have seen an X-Dav V3 and was wondering if they are highly rated? Im new to audio and was wondering if i need it or if its worth buying. I have a 2008 green solo amp and an ipod and Sony cd player that i normally play my music from. I really like them ... detailed, lots of depth and breath, and reasonably priced. It will certainly bring a middle of the road CD player to life - using digital out. There's upgrade potential - you can add a pinkie V2i, or X-PSU V3 on the PSU side. And you can add some warmth with the X-10V3 (also tweakable with a kit from Mike - which is worth doing) Using lossless files from your ipod direct into the DAC is also an option. And they are tweakable ... search this forum for comments from SandyK, or the web - there's a Scandanavian chap who modded one, and Fergus (on this forum) also had one done.
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Post by fault151 on Oct 30, 2007 21:36:16 GMT
cheers for your reply guys. What is the 'little pinkie' thing? Is it worth buying to iprove my sound quality or will the solo be enough for my headphones?
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Post by fault151 on Oct 30, 2007 21:38:06 GMT
also how much are they? Where can you buy them from?
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Oct 30, 2007 22:33:54 GMT
Mike (PinkFloyd) sells them, send him a PM. As I recall he is on version 3i and sells for 85 BP. There might be a discount to forum members. I have 4 of the Little Pinkies and I love what they do.
I hope to mod my X-Dac V3 but I have not gotten the courage to do so. Be advise that the X-Dac V3 has come down in price a bit and you should be able to find a good price on a demo or use unit. Say about $500 USD or 250 BP.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2007 1:13:01 GMT
fault151 Mike (Pink Floyd) has an unsurpassed knowledge of virtually all the Musical Fidelity X Series products, and used to offer a specialised modding service , which takes them to a much higher level of performance. For members in the U.S.A. , Bennyboy also offered a similar upgrade service. Anyone interested should send Mike or Bennyboy a PM, to see if they still offer these specialised upgrade services. SandyK
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Post by fault151 on Oct 31, 2007 10:07:56 GMT
Have i got this right...
I would link my source to the dac and then to my green solo amp? Will this make a difference in sound or would it be much better to buy a really good cd player and link that to my solo?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2007 11:02:42 GMT
fault151 A good stand alone DAC inbetween ,will normally outperform all but the really top CD players. In my case , the modded X-DAC V3 , in combination with a slightly modded Oppo DVD-A/SACD player, clearly outperformed a Mararantz SA11 SACD player worth over AU$4,000. I suggest you also take notice of the experiences of people such as Sol, Leo, and others, in this regard.The improvements will be even more noticeable when you further upgrade the other components. SandyK
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Post by fault151 on Oct 31, 2007 12:53:48 GMT
So if you were to recommend a few good DACs what would you go with? I haven't got a clue.
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Oct 31, 2007 18:04:55 GMT
I will not talk about a dac but about its use. I mean you being in GB I would buy a dac preferably from a dealer. If tha is not possible get one that is sold through a dealer network in GB. IMO if you get a local product is best when warranty work is needed.
Many by a product for the other side of the world and a month later an issue occurs and then they realize that to ship it back for service they will need to spend $50 each way. Just food for thought.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2007 20:02:32 GMT
" I mean you being in GB I would buy a dac preferably from a dealer. If tha is not possible get one that is sold through a dealer network in GB. IMO if you get a local product is best when warranty work is needed" Fault151 Downunder, we don't have many readybuilt DACs of high quality to choose from. For anybody not capable of making a DAC from one of the many kits available, if you can afford it, I would go for the MF X-DAC V3. You should also be able to pick one up on ebay from a reputable seller. You will also have noticed a strong bias in this forum towards MF products of this type, and there is a huge amount of advice available from many members about further upgrading options. SandyK
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Post by fault151 on Nov 1, 2007 9:57:35 GMT
Thanks for your replys. I found this dac, is it any good? Can i upgrade it or will it be best to buy a new one? Its £150. Click the link below to see a picture. www.fault151.com/dac.jpgLet me know your thoughts please! I need advice!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2007 10:21:11 GMT
fault151 It's not a bad DAC, but IMHO, it isn't in the same league as the later V3 model. Let's see what other forum members think.
SandyK
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Nov 1, 2007 10:41:55 GMT
I had both side by side for a few months. The X-Dac in cylindrical enclosure was modified by replacing the last set of op-amps w/ the LM4562 and I replaced the stock wall wart w/ an unit from www.jameco.com that puts out 1.5 amps instead of the stock 0.5 amps. The sound opened up and it was a very nice sounding unit. Another advantage is that it decodes HDCD w/ the X-Dac V3 does not, furthermore you should be able to pick it up for under $200.
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Post by fault151 on Nov 1, 2007 10:46:22 GMT
ok cheers, is it worth buying? and for £150?
i appreciate your help!
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leo
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Post by leo on Nov 1, 2007 14:10:23 GMT
Regarding the X-dacs, well it all depends how far your willing to go regarding mods, the dac chip used in the V3 is higher quality device but the V3 would need some work to unleash its potential The main disadvantage with an external dac is the SPDIF, to really get the best out of them its something else that needs working on Theres quite a lot involved so I won't waffle on about it here Anyway I'd imagine either of those X-dacs would be better than the Sonys own internal dac, you may only hear a small improvement if using as stock without any mods
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Sol
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Post by Sol on Nov 1, 2007 18:27:33 GMT
The main disadvantage with an external dac is the SPDIF, to really get the best out of them its something else that needs working on Theres quite a lot involved so I won't waffle on about it here Oh please do! I've been procrastinating about modding the x-dac for months (wll other than the addition of the burson discrete opamps) .. mostly because I've not come up with a good reason.
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Post by fault151 on Nov 1, 2007 19:08:25 GMT
If i bought it, is there anyone on here who could help/advise or sell me a kit specific to the unit to upgrade it?
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leo
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Post by leo on Nov 1, 2007 22:14:09 GMT
The main disadvantage with an external dac is the SPDIF, to really get the best out of them its something else that needs working on Theres quite a lot involved so I won't waffle on about it here Oh please do! I've been procrastinating about modding the x-dac for months (wll other than the addition of the burson discrete opamps) .. mostly because I've not come up with a good reason. Well as an example take a CDP that converts its I2S to SPDIF that goes to the digital output of the cdp which goes to the receiver in the external dac which then converts that SPDIF back to I2S which feeds the dac chip. during all this converting from one thing to another the signal goes through other various crap too like filters,upsampling etc. You get jitter,errors If you really want to stick with using SPDIF its worth at least sorting the SPDIF circuit out of the CDP/Transport, remove all the junk and clean things up, fit a good pulse transformer thats suitable in the input section of the external dac Best way (but harder) is to run the external dac by I2S direct keeping things as short as possible, reclock the I2S lines and run a reclocked XO back to the transport Post some good pics of your V3 Sol and we'll take a look at it to see what can be improved further;)
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XTRProf
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Post by XTRProf on Nov 26, 2007 12:37:05 GMT
Hey im after advice. I have seen an X-Dav V3 and was wondering if they are highly rated? Im new to audio and was wondering if i need it or if its worth buying. I have a 2008 green solo amp and an ipod and Sony cd player that i normally play my music from. Ya, it's good and that's why a forum dedicated to MF X stuffs here. However, I will not praise their technical support after my hussle. I have not heard the first gen, third gen X-Dac V3 and the latest fourth gen V8 side by side. But I had read somewhere, the first gen is more "tubey" sound, the V3 more "new' sounding and the V8 somewhere in between. Of course, if you add an X-10 V3 to the X-Dac V3, it could the same as the V8, being a tube buffer unit, since the V8 is more or less the same as those two V3 combo.
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