Canuck Audio Mart

Paul had pm'd me about a week back for my addy, so I started to get excited. Anyway, I was speaking with the wife today while at work and she mentioned a strange box was left on the front porch!

Got home and unpacked it...many thanks to Paul for the demo and including the Unity co-ax and power cord! I may do an A/B with the power cord later, time permitting.

So I get it hooked up to my system...

Rega Exon Monos, Rega Hal Pre Amp, Rega Naos Speakers...homebrew Cardas biwire speaker cables. I hooked it up to my Squeezebox. Up to now I had been using the analog outs of my squeeze box, but using my Roksan Caspian CD player for critical listening as it sounded quite superior to the Squeezebox (although the squeezebox was quite acceptable for backgroud listening).

Fire up the dac and put on some tunes...immediately noticed more "air", but it sounded a bit harsh....but then again the tubes had about 10 seconds to heat up. Kept the music running during dinner and after went out to do some more serious listening. The harshness had disappeared....by no means was it what I would call warm sounding (not as warm as the Roksan), but very open airy and detailed. I still had the analogue outs connected to the Squeezebox, so I could A/B with the touch of a button.

The A/B revealed way more "air" than the squeezebox, and more upper detail. The sqeezebox sounded more conjested.

After it had been playing roughly an hour, I called my wife in. She is by no means an audiophile, but is starting to appreciate my obsession a bit. (About a year and a half ago, she got mad when I replaced the Klipsch Heresy's that had been in our system by the kitchen with cheaper vintage speakers. She INSISTED that I return the Heresy's immediately and NOT sell them.) Anyway, I had her sit in the sweet spot and listen as I switched back and forth between the DAC and the analog outs of squeezebox. I asked, do you hear a difference...her response..."It sounded better...a lot cleaner, crisper, before you switched it last time"....I didn't tell her the next time I switched it, but about 5 seconds after I did she said..."Did you switch it back....it sounds better again" She preferred the DAC! When I told her, she said "Wow, thats really cool!" Almost seemed like she wanted me to buy it (In the spirit of full disclosure....while the levels of the DAC and squeezebox were essentially the same, I have the feeling the DAC has a fractionally higher output...but it may just have been the more pronounced highs)

Anyway, I returned to it tonight, having left it on for about 2 hours. I find 1.5 hours is a minimum time to warm up tubes. It sounded even better. It gave the music a lot better tone than the squeezbox....I'm now convinced its better than the squeezebox by a significant margin...next I will compare it to the Caspian.

Mike

First of all, I would like to start out by saying that I am by no means a seasoned audiophile. Having recently returned to this great hobby with higher end audio in mind, this DAC is one of the nicer pieces of gear that I have been able to audition in my home system for an extended period of time.
I am an avid follower of diyAudio.com and most of my gear is DIY, used or modified vintage. For speakers I am running both Paradigm 100’s V2 and 20's V4 – the 20's are for dedicated 2CH with the 100’s used for HT. Amp and preamps for the session were my Musical Concepts modified Hafler DH-101 and DH-200 with the source being a DIY Shigaclone and a Marantz CD-5001. Cables were the digital supplied by Paul along with DH Labs digital/interconnects and Cardas Crosslink speaker cables. This equipment is my only frame of reference at this time. My music tastes range from classic rock, alternative to progressive rock with some jazz fusion mixed in when I’m in the mood.
Upon opening the box, I was quite impressed with the build quality of the unit with the nice thick face plate finishing it off. My only issue, cosmetic wise, is the brightness of the LED’s while turned on – they tend to be quite piercing in a darkened room (but they are blue!).

For me, this unit opened up a level of clarity and presented a soundstage that I have not heard in my system before. I think it was the clarity of vocals that I noticed first, then as I sat down and paid more attention, I noticed the soundstage width (Little Feat’s live Waiting for Columbus album we especially noticeable for me as instrument placements jumped right out). Recent evolution in my gear (PD NOS DAC and B-283 tube buffer) has been bringing me closer to this goal, but the Music Hall took it the one step further. High end was nice and smooth, vocals and mids were especially noticeable and the bass was deep and tight – extended listening sessions were very easy on my ears. I did cycle thru the sampling rates noticing slight differences in each – which was best? Too little time to tell for me – I believe this to be something that needs plenty of “seat time” to determine what you like best in your system. Headphones are equipment that I do not own – so unfortunately I can not comment on this feature of the unit and I am not set up for balanced operation either.
PC audio has grabbed my interest lately – lossless files (FLAC) created with EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and played via Fubar 2K straight out USB to a USB DAC. The music hall locked right on and the computer picked up the DAC straight away. Music playback was very good, although I did not get a chance to do a direct A/B album/track comparison. I believe this format has definite potential as many already know. If you have an older computer lying around give it a try – the software is freeware and there are many setup guides available online. The many connection/source options on the Music Hall make hooking up multiple sources and switching between them very convenient. A definite plus for guys like me that like to cycle different equipment and formats through their systems.

For me, the Music Hall made a noticeable improvement to my system and was a positive listening experience. This is a direction I will be focusing on in the future.

Thanks Paul for the opportunity to demo!

Thanks ddanbo
and you are welcome.
We'll be in touch.

Good Review ddanbo

Nice review.

I have a mid-fi Chinese tube CD player costing around $1K (JAS Musik 1.2) , and although my remastered Little Feat Waiting for Columbus is sweet, it does not have close to the amount of "space" around the instruments as my LP. I just wrote it off to the remixing process, but your comments have me wondering if the 25.2 would get me closer to the LP sound or not...

Appreciate the feedback all!

Maxwebster:

That album has always been one of my all-time faves, for a live recording – so tight and those horns!
I just recently got the remastered CD version myself (within last 3 yrs), as my only other copy was a cassette tape recorded from borrowed vinyl that I made back in the 80’s (and listened to somewhat regularly). So to me, the CD version thru the Music Hall was that good and that much of an improvement over my previous setup. I have just recently started re-spinning some of my old vinyl – perhaps I am really missing something……though I don’t believe my entry level TT (Technics SL-D202) would be revealing enough.

Only one way to be sure – get your name on Paul’s list for a demo – only the cost of postage! I would be interested to hear what you think (hear).

If you want to join the list, send me a pm

pm sent