Mhdt Labs Pagoda Review (R2R Tube DAC)

[renaudrenaud]

What a shame. R2R and tube in the title, I was.expecting something like 70dB SINAD, something like a joke. But here we have the all of time winner.

 

[Kuppenbender]

I am not feeling well you all.... So please take it easy as far asking for other stuff for me to do....

DAC was that bad? Ouch.
You go above and beyond, sir!

 

[tomtoo]

You will hear your music like never before!

 

[JSmith]

You will hear your music like never before!

I hear this DAC sounds much better if one layers numerous veils over the top of it... need to keep an eye on heat though.


JSmith

 

[martijn86]

Get off my lawn!

 

[tomtoo]

[Review] MHDT Labs Pagoda DAC review

MHDT Lab Pagoda DAC, a listening test by Nick Whetstone on TNT-Audio, Internet HiFi magazine, www.tnt-audio.com

www.tnt-audio.com

Digital nirvana?? Pruuust.

 

[bidn]

MHDT = Monstrous Hearing Distortion Titanic
(T can also stand for Terror).
The absolute, ultimate audiophile statement, a definite must-have! Experience the sound of the most audiophile, musical DAC ever created, a truly analog-sounding nirvana!

You have to pay a lot of money to acquire this unique, worst ever commercial DAC! I agree with all those who said that a huge [negative, deconstructive] engineering effort was required to ruin to this point the capabilities of the PCM 1704 DAC chip... The highest technical, cutting-edge achievement ever now available for customers!

 

[TomatoTBone]

I voted for great !

It's got EVERYTHING audiophools love.

• I/V Stage: Current Out Discrete Transistors I/V, No OPAMP, No feedback
• Output level: 3.0v (so higher than 2V for instant likability)
• 4 Inputs -- BNC/USB/RCA//TOSLINK otherwise they could not write BURT on the front.
• Weight: 2kg (yeah it must be heavy)
• Tube Buffer: single 5670/2C51 tube (just one? shocked.. why not 1 for each channel ?)
• sh#tloads of tube distortion
• No proper reconstruction filter
• Lowest SINAD possible so must sound auiophool
• dual PCM1704 ladder DAC
• audiophool capacitors
• special fuse (we all know that helps
• Toroid transformer (115V - 230V)
• discrete audiophool rectifiers
• NO SMPS !!
• see through front panel (we MUST see the tube glow for added joy)
• Made in the French 'CAUTION' factory which is better than the German 'WARNING' or 'DANGER' factory
• cheap for an audiophool product (should have cost > $ 4k

Reviews of it are great too:

It's honestly impossible to find anything to dislike about the Pagoda, or its sound. It's beautifully built, with a solid, expensive feel and appearance. Given the performance and build quality, the price is fair for what is the best DAC that I have heard to date. For those that like tweaking, the option is there to try swapping valves in the buffer stage, although to date, I have had no inclination to want to change anything about the Pagoda's sound. Over time, I fell in love with the Havana and Stockholm 2 DACs, and I have been using the Havana for years. With the Pagoda is has been more like 'love at first sight', and I can thoroughly recommend it. For me, it's put a bit of excitement back into my hi-fi life, and if you want a thrill too, the Pagoda won't disappoint.

Yeah this is great

As a Frenchman, I have to defend our grit nashion honor (please forgive my accent): as for your penultimate point, we froggies write "Danger", not "Caution".

 

[3125b]

This performs about the same as a 5$ cassette deck. Damn.

 

[Doodski]

I'm going to HuRL! I read the reviews and it's sickening...

 

[aj625]

Waiting for those audiophiles who claim all dac sound same, all amps sound same, r2r nos is more natural sounding, measurements don't relate to sound quality !

 

[H-713]

After reading the comments here, there is a part of me that wants to see if I can build a more nonlinear DAC to send to Amir for entertainment value.

 

[amirm]

I rolled the tubes in this DAC. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tube-rolling-does-it-make-a-difference.28583/

 

[abdo123]

If this DAC wasn’t extortionately priced and didn’t have an atrocious noise floor I would honestly buy it or try it.

It would fun to experience music without any of the technological advancement we have had in the last 60 to 80 years. The noise floor of this DAC is higher than a high-end stylus rubbing off the groove of an LP.

 

[ousi]

It would be interesting to see if SMSL had properly used the PCM1704. They just released this not too long ago:
SMSL VMV D3 Advanced R-2R DAC. I just bought one

 

[Thomas_A]

Are there some commercial tube-basee preamps/RIAA/DACs with excellent performance? It is certainly possible to construct; I just read about one DIY tube preamp having 0.002% THD+N @1 kHz at 40 VRms and 100 kOhm.

 

[JensH]

Is it even legal to sell this thing?
From the picture it looks like the protective earth terminal has no connection.
And the safety distances on the PCB look questionable. A further investigation could determine that.

People are asking for a listening test. Perhaps Amir did listen to it and that's why he didn't feel well?

 

[Lupin]

First off all what is going on with that plexiglass front..
Looks like they forgot to tool a front plate and just slapped a piece of plexiglass on it that happend to fit.. somewhat.. last moment.

C'mon man, you have got to listen to one of these train wrecks. It should be hilarious.

I bet the majority won't hear the difference between this and a Topping in a controlled volume matched double blind test.

Audio-GD only measures slightly better and the difference between that and a top measuring DAC was only very subtle according to Amir in one of his reviews. The measurements look and are terrible but not going to be as night and day difference as those measurements/graphs would suggest.

Speaking of which... guess Kingwa kicked himself in 6th gear now to put out a new DAC that will but him back at the bottom place that Mhdt took from him

 

[antcollinet]

 

[Trell]

This performs about the same as a 5$ cassette deck. Damn.

I enjoyed much music using a cassette deck when I was a teenager.