March Audio DAC1 now available

[Noodles]

Hi

March Audios first product is now available at www.marchaudio.net.au with an introductory discount on pricing.

Along with the forthcoming range of amplifier products, the DAC1 is perfect for the discerning audio enthusiast who is looking for exceptional technical performance, elegant minimalist looks and simplicity of operation.

With an elegant solid CNC milled aluminium anodized enclosure and the latest ES9038 DAC technology, DAC1 offers true high end technical and musical performance.

View attachment 18626

Amir has a unit and will be performing his usual technical review in the near future but prototype testing shown below has already demonstrated top tier performance.

View attachment 18625


Also coming soon is March Audios range of power amplifiers:

Four models will be available:

• P122 - Stereo 120 watts into 4 ohms
• P252 - Stereo 250 watts into 4 ohms
• P502 - Stereo 500 watts into 4 ohms
• P701 - Mono Block 700 watts into 4 ohms

Balanced XLR input design (compatible with single ended RCA)

and the exciting HPA1 headphone amplifier which has already demonstrated class leading levels of distortion and noise (119dB SINAD).

So come on over to www.marchaudio.net.au and have a look

Is there going to be a balanced version of the dac ?

 

[March Audio]

Hi

Ultimately yes, but not until later in the year.

Alan

 

[trl]

Given the lack of support from Khadas, I think it there might be place to pay for latest Thesycon drivers for DAC1, especially after reading https://forum.khadas.com/t/tone-board-error-with-thesycon-4-11-drivers/3307/25. At this moment Khadas is using a very old driver. I know that this DAC has built-in Win10 & OS X drivers, but AFAIK none of them are working with native DSD playback.

Also, a custom firmware update that includes a lower-than-max. volume after power ON might help some people, like required here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...iontek-khadas-tone-board-dac.4823/post-143438.

 

[GeekyBastard]

Given the lack of support from Khadas, I think it there might be place to pay for latest Thesycon drivers for DAC1, especially after reading https://forum.khadas.com/t/tone-board-error-with-thesycon-4-11-drivers/3307/25. At this moment Khadas is using a very old driver. I know that this DAC has built-in Win10 & OS X drivers, but AFAIK none of them are working with native DSD playback.

Also, a custom firmware update that includes a lower-than-max. volume after power ON might help some people, like required here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...iontek-khadas-tone-board-dac.4823/post-143438.

I think that might due to the high licensing fee of Thesycon drivers, Khadas is more of a DIY hobby brand rather than serious HI-FI devices seller, so they might tend to use older version driver to cut some corners, I don't think it's a healthy business model, but it works, at least for a small brand.

 

[trl]

I've seen on DIY audio forum some people being able to sell their USB transport cards ($99) with licensed XMOS drivers, although I'm not aware of the price of these drivers.

 

[GeekyBastard]

I've seen on DIY audio forum some people being able to sell their USB transport cards ($99) with licensed XMOS drivers, although I'm not aware of the price of these drivers.

I guess once this dac gets more attention, the developers would upgrade the driver, they might be hesitated about the cost/income balance, it's a small team after all.

 

[Music1969]

Its there.

At the moment a "feature" of the chip unfortunately. Not getting any negative feedback subjectively however.

A higher performance DAC without this feature is in early stages of development, but it will be a while.

Hi Alan

Does this IMD hump disappear if you feed your DAC1 with PCM768kHz?

Obviously not referring to PCM768kHz recordings, but something like up-sampling via Audirvana/Roon/HQPlayer/JRiver/whatever?

Are you able to run the same IMD measurement feeding it PCM768kHz, by-passing most of it's internal DSP?

I also wonder if this improves other (already very good) measurements too.. would also love if @amirm can test this in future DAC measurements (using Roon up-sampling to PCM768kHz).

Thanks

 

[March Audio]

My initial reaction is that it won't make any difference as its a more fundamental issue but hey I will try it out of idle curiosity.

 

[Music1969]

My initial reaction is that it won't make any difference as its a more fundamental issue but hey I will try it out of idle curiosity.

Thanks Alan. The potential mechanism (in my mind) for improvements would be that this would take a lot of intensive DSP work outside of the DAC chip.

Maybe use a linear phase & very fast rolloff filter at PCM768kHz if you can. Don't forget to add -3dB (or more) headroom management prior to the upsampling, for intersample overs.

 

[Music1969]

My initial reaction is that it won't make any difference as its a more fundamental issue but hey I will try it out of idle curiosity.

Hi Alan

Any chance to try this?

 

[Roen]

Are we still allowed to debate the merits of pricing of this finished DAC?

I think @generalako has a few things to say.