Did Paul McGowan design this?
Dunno about you all but I find it strangely entertaining to read reviews where Amir reports abysmal measurements from an ultra-expensive solid state component. I'm started to get bored of the Topping reviews with the -150dB or whatever SINAD.
Noting is a more horrific thought than packing and shipping this massive box back to China and waiting for it get fixed and come back.
Let's remember that this company doesn't even have an ecommerce system. You have to email them and send the money in advance using paypal! You really have to be desperate for one of their products to go through all this.
I do. I am so overwhelmed with big boxes in our living room that I am testing large devices sooner than I would otherwise! And this one came in a massive box.
Haem. We are talking about 2017/2018. Not a hundred years ago. There were plenty of flawless/transparent DACs back then which run circles around this piece of crap.Disappointing, but it is an older dac now
Audio GD does it to itself. Charging for a box stuffed with over sized everything so it looks impressively expensive and still can't get it right.Well at least this review thread turned out into a free like generator for everyone who jumps in to bash a brand.
Looking at Vinnie R's design philosophy on the website, (uses tubes and zero NFB in some designs) I doubt the products will achieve ultra low measured distortion and as such will most likely cop a severe bashing here.Well, not surprised at all. Audio-gd never impressed me. On a different note @amirm could you test one of Vinnie Rossi's offerings whenever you get a chance. Thanks for the effort, this one's a total shambles
As I said, the M7 design is very old and in and out of production when stock PCM1704 chips show up. It is what it is. Like when an old tube amp measuring like shit getting a good reputation for its pleasant sound are brought to life when sparse tubes apearse in enough quantity.Owner has purchased this unit in 2018 so it is way past 2010 that you say was the start of it.
As I said, the M7 design is very old and in and out of production when stock PCM1704 chips show up. It is what it is. Like when an old tube amp measuring like shit getting a good reputation for its pleasant sound are brought to life when sparse tubes apearse in enough quantity.
Of course that doesn't defend a crappy designed web site or faults on the tested equipment. But are meant to explain why and what the M7 concept are about. And while some measurements looks like a 12$ dongle its overall sound quality do not compare to the same dongle. Most listener in this price range are usually adult enough to trust his ears to figure out if they like the overall sound or not.
It is a colorbox for sure and in my current setup makes for pleasant sound where micro details are set aside in favour of music. Thats how I concluded after switching RME and M7 in and out for months with a touch on the remote control. With the RME in the loop I had a tendency to focus on room size and intrument position. And with the M7 I become more relaxed listening for lyrics and harmonic changes while still being able to hear the difference from maracas made of plastic or wood.
Yes, and surely that is just as important? It's also highly entertaining. ;-)Those priorities apparently include exposing snake oil and overpriced junk audio components, and not just finding truly excellent ones.
It's not obvious from Amir's photo (unless you know how big the panther is), but this DAC is "full-size" (430 x 430 x 93 mm) and "package weight" is 15 kg. It's heavier than a lot of power amps.I do. I am so overwhelmed with big boxes in our living room that I am testing large devices sooner than I would otherwise! And this one came in a massive box.
"Lurking" seems somehow appropriate for this product.Well thank you for the answer, we all know now how to wrap and send you the audiophile fuse to be tested
I'm sure that we have some petanque balls to put some weight on the priority
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PS- Thank you for that review !!
I must confess that some years ago, I was lurking Audio-GD as they had very good opinions from the audiophile insider maniacs in France.
Pffew, I nearly went in to the dark side.
I'm not trying to make excuses. And I do not have golden ears and they seem useless over 14k. But they are mine and I trust I know what I like to hear just as much as I dislike how most TV have their default color, light and contrast settings. And I tell you, I had prefered if I could let the M7 go and have the RME become my main DAC as it has several other features that makes me still hang on to it.Well, as we all know, sighted tests don't mean much, you can't actually "trust your ears" at all, and all audiophiles "know" that a boutique product like this with all those components will be more musical than a small, ruthlessly efficient, German device. So stop making excuses for this pile of crap
Considering what we have seen so far, Multitone results were much more decent:
You might just like the sound of distortion.I'm not trying to make excuses. And I do not have golden ears and they seem useless over 14k. But they are mine and I trust I know what I like to hear just as much as I dislike how most TV have their default color, light and contrast settings. And I tell you, I had prefered if I could let the M7 go and have the RME become my main DAC as it has several other features that makes me still hang on to it.
I do understand M7 measure horribly, still I prefer the sound over any RME or Topping I've compared it to. Why this is intrigue me. Are there any single parameter from the measurements that makes for this fenomen?
Haha, not necessarily ;-)For shits and giggles I'd like to see the measurements in 8x oversampling mode, but it's crazy how hard it is change the filter. That alone is a deal breaker.
And if Amir is confused on how to control the settings, that says a lot.
Now to be fair, that doesn't mean that you couldn't achieve good performance when going discrete - see Schiit Magni 3+ (all discrete) vs. Magni Heresy (opamp-based). The 3+ isn't as good in the distortion performance department but still not exactly a slouch either, nothing like what you typically see in Audio-gd gear.Their whole idea of using through-hole discrete components to replace opamps is pretty good marketing. I almost fell for it a long time ago before my EE friend explained that the concept was completely idiotic, since the component tolerances inside an opamp were orders of magnitude tighter than that which could be achieved with discrete components.
Can someone explain what all that other stuff {PCM1704} is and does? It is just a 2-channel DAC, isn't it?