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Musical Fidelity A3 24 What R My Ears Telling Me?

I think that I have finally lost my mind from tweaking! I was very excited about this product when I bought it. I thought that it made a tremendous differnce with the players I was using (an Adcom & Pioneer). The Soundstage was enhanced, the music jumped from the speakers. This was indeed the Holy Grail of Upsampling DACS. The problem started when I bought a new player...the new Sony DVP-NS999ES. Now I can have SACD and pristine Redbook SACD like quality CD's through the MF DAC! The first problem is that when the Sony is turned on with the DAC on. a pop comes through the speakers which causes the DAC to downsample to nearly Real Audio quality! This is remidied by turning the DAC off, then on. The "downsampling" happens every so often when the draw is opend and closed. I thought it might be the interconnet, so I swapped out a Audio Quest for a Tara Lab and it continued to happen. OK, so I could probably live with this since the vendors from both retailers I bought these items from have never heard of this happening. I went to the MF website but there is no email address for support or questions. OK, I can live with this. Now here is the tricky part. I decided to play some CD's through the player bypassing the DAC and for Gods sake...they sound better without upsampling! The bass extension is better, the music has more "oomph" and clarity (how can that be??) and the sound is warmer. Can the DAC's be better in the Sony than the MF? Did I trick myself into believing that the MF worked to begin with? Have I completly tweaked myself out of my mind and ears? I have done countless A-B comparisons during the past 2-3 weeks and I must be honest, the CD's sound much better without the MF DAC. Any comments and opinions would be apprecitated.

-Joseph Benzola-
jbenzola
socrates
247 posts
 
Just because it is an expensive box that plays multiple formats doesn't in any ways mean it makes for a good transport to drive an external dac, acutally the opposite is most likely, as the vast majority of DVD players make awful transports, what comes out of their digital output can be pretty ugly. Look inside a good dedicated transport and you'll be amazed at how different it is compared to your Sony, or most every sub $3k CD player on the market for that matter. If you're happy with the sound from the Sony, by all means, use it, but I wouldn't discard the MF dac so quickly, not before mating it with a quality dedicated transport. Another problem with good equiptment is its revealing nature. If other pieces in the chain have flaws, good sounding gear can be forgiving and it can go hidden, but great sounding gear can sound like crap in the wrong system, and the fault can be wrongly placed on the newly inserted piece of gear, whereas it is simply exposing a problem or shortcoming elsewhere. Just some food for thought, I've been down a similar path recently and am sure it is a common occurance with other systems as well....

And, again, "Downsampling" should never happen with this player, unless your unit is ill and needs servicing.
hdm
971 posts
 
This relates more to getting even better sound out of the Sony. Apparently not common knowledge, but by default, the Dynamic Range Control is set to actually give you compression-that setting should be changed to "Wide".

Also by default "CD Direct" is turned off and this should be turned on. I'm not sure whether either of these settings would have an effect on the data being sent with the Sony being used strictly as a transport, but they are supposed to make a significant difference in sound quality when it is used on its own. Might be worth a try either way.
nealhood
199 posts
 
Gosh, looking at the feature lists and differences in what one gets between these units is a appalling. MF ought to be downright ashamed for selling such an "under-equipped" player. You would think that, at just over the retail price of the Sony, MF would have at least made this a true player and added the transport, especially since it is so temperamental to transports. And it only plays audio. What part are they using that costs so much?

Under the right conditions I suspect that the MF is a good sounding player. Probably very good. But after just reading the review of the Sony in the Absolute Sound, it apparently is also.

Sorry, but my tolerance on this Monday evening is low. Been a long day.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Neal, a quick look at the 'feature list' of any mass-market product vs. a typical high end product will be just as 'appalling' - and just as beside the point. ("...Only plays audio"? This is a stereo DAC - what else is it supposed to do?) As for price, a Sony who makes millions of units will always be less for what's included; that's just our audiophile lot in life. I don't know about the sound of the MF, but I think Socrates is quite likely on to something here; not being a DVD owner myself, I had forgotten about their poor reputations as transports. I do know that a poor transport/converter combination or interface can kill the sound, and I think this is a possibility that JB might have to rule out, though it may not solve his problem in the end even if proved true. However, I am still perfectly open to the prospect of his simply finding the Sony to be the superior-sounding machine. Again, I come back to asking whether or not he recalls the DAC sounding any better or worse back when it was stomping his previous players used as transports.

(BTW, the phone # for Kevro in Canada, the US distributor for MF, is 905-428-2800, and I think I recall the relevant person as being named Brian, if I'm correct and he's still there...)
sea2
29 posts
 
I too have the MF dac. To be honest I'm using it with a Rotel 991 as a transport and it made a big difference. You have 2 options with this dac. upsample to 96 or to 192. The other day I was listening and thought that the MF was losing it's edge. Later on a looked and apparently I was using it at 96 vs 192. One push of the button and it opened up the sound in a big way.
I'm interested in the comments on a dedicated transport. Everyone on this site says my cd set up is weak. What would going to a dedicated transport do? Which one do you recommend? Is the MF dac up to the challenge?
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