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Musical Fidelity MX-DAC Review (Balanced DAC)

AudioManNewb

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My
I don't claim the test to eliminate the possibility of bias, but the notion that there is any such thing as a perfect experiment is absurd. Claiming that the test was "worthless" is not appropriate IMO.
Perfect no, but easily a better way to test yes.
 

AudioManNewb

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Skimming over the comments in this thread is a hoot.

DAC is $999 and performs worse than much cheaper products. I could care less if its audible or not. I will not waste a grand on something that performs like that when they obviously have the money to very very very easily make it perform better than that. I mean would you spend 100 times the amount on 1ply toilet paper than 2ply? Would you spend 100 times the amount on a toyota corolla than a lamborghini? Both examples do the job they where made for but when you can get something objectively better for less why spend more when that can literally translate to $900 more. It is stupid to buy this DAC the engineers should be upset for what they engineered for a grand. No need to defend your bad purchase we all make them it is a part of life. Move on and be better informed for you next purchase.
 

ZooTV

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I really enjoy reading the reviews... One thing I've learned is that measured performance isn't always the best if the intent isn't on measured perfection...

Let's compare a Monet with an iPhone 13Pro. One can say "what an amazing picture! Sharp, look at how the colors pop..."
A child can take that picture and get lucky...

You look at a Monet, and you say "how can someone capture the essence of the moment with such 'crude' brush dabs"...
The same thing can be said about Jimmy Hendricks or SRV... It's the literal distortion that brings power and emotion into their art.

So, would you want to hear a perfectly tuned guitar play chord progressions, or do you want Hendricks in your living room?
IMO a lot of people in these forums prefer to listen to their gear and not the music. Maybe that's the point? I don't know.

Full disclaimer, I have an MX-DAC, and while it's not the end-all when compared to the topping 90SE, it makes music in MY system sound more like music, and less like rubbing alcohol on a scrape. This is great if you want to stop bacteria, but bad if you just want to collect yourself after a crash. ;)
 

BDWoody

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So, would you want to hear a perfectly tuned guitar play chord progressions, or do you want Hendricks in your living room?

There is a big difference between the creation of art, and the reproduction of it.

Do you listen to music through guitar amps?

If someone were selling a Monet reproduction, would you want them to throw mud on it, or brighten it up, or change the shading to improve things based on their version of how it really should be appreciated?


IMO a lot of people in these forums prefer to listen to their gear and not the music.

Wanting to let the music itself be the unadulterated centerpiece, rather than believing the gear is part of the artistic chain seems to be the exact opposite. For me, I'll leave the art to the artists, and the dealing with electrical signals to EE's. All I want to hear is the music reproduced as accurately as possible, then I can season to my own taste should I choose, not rely on someone else's idea of how everything that goes through their super special box should be tarted up.
 

xaviescacs

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Full disclaimer, I have an MX-DAC, and while it's not the end-all when compared to the topping 90SE, it makes music in MY system sound more like music, and less like rubbing alcohol on a scrape. This is great if you want to stop bacteria, but bad if you just want to collect yourself after a crash. ;)
I've had this dac since few months ago, when I sold it and bough an RME ADI 2 FS. I didn't make any direct comparisons but I bet would be completely unable to distinguish between them. I don't think its easy at all to set up a test on any condition that someone can pass, meaning can reliably tell them apart, but for sure I can be wrong. I didn't hear any noise coming from the DAC, certainly not while playing music, so I guess it's all about hearing distortion, but at quite low levels, so not an easy task for an average listener.

Edit: maybe with a wisely choosen single tone to try to make the distortion as audible as possible.
 

YSC

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I really enjoy reading the reviews... One thing I've learned is that measured performance isn't always the best if the intent isn't on measured perfection...

Let's compare a Monet with an iPhone 13Pro. One can say "what an amazing picture! Sharp, look at how the colors pop..."
A child can take that picture and get lucky...

You look at a Monet, and you say "how can someone capture the essence of the moment with such 'crude' brush dabs"...
The same thing can be said about Jimmy Hendricks or SRV... It's the literal distortion that brings power and emotion into their art.

So, would you want to hear a perfectly tuned guitar play chord progressions, or do you want Hendricks in your living room?
IMO a lot of people in these forums prefer to listen to their gear and not the music. Maybe that's the point? I don't know.

Full disclaimer, I have an MX-DAC, and while it's not the end-all when compared to the topping 90SE, it makes music in MY system sound more like music, and less like rubbing alcohol on a scrape. This is great if you want to stop bacteria, but bad if you just want to collect yourself after a crash. ;)
well I do believe that any tuning or colouration should be done in the studio when the pros and artist tuned the music to be~ music. not the random gear one purchase.

it's not comparing a Monet to an iphone, say if it's a Monet appreciation event through the ineternet, you would want a calibrated, accurate monitor, in a calibrated accurate camera rather than someone with a random vivid mode TV and a who knows what filter used camera to capture the Monet, right?
 

Madlop26

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I really enjoy reading the reviews... One thing I've learned is that measured performance isn't always the best if the intent isn't on measured perfection...

Let's compare a Monet with an iPhone 13Pro. One can say "what an amazing picture! Sharp, look at how the colors pop..."
A child can take that picture and get lucky...

You look at a Monet, and you say "how can someone capture the essence of the moment with such 'crude' brush dabs"...
The same thing can be said about Jimmy Hendricks or SRV... It's the literal distortion that brings power and emotion into their art.

So, would you want to hear a perfectly tuned guitar play chord progressions, or do you want Hendricks in your living room?
IMO a lot of people in these forums prefer to listen to their gear and not the music. Maybe that's the point? I don't know.

Full disclaimer, I have an MX-DAC, and while it's not the end-all when compared to the topping 90SE, it makes music in MY system sound more like music, and less like rubbing alcohol on a scrape. This is great if you want to stop bacteria, but bad if you just want to collect yourself after a crash. ;)
I think you are not getting it, do you want to listen to Hendrix as he recorded in studio or colored (distortion and harmonics) added by your Dac or amp?, you see is actually the opposite , most of people here look for perfect transparency of music, the fact that some artist use distortion in their instruments it is not the point
 

rdenney

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I think you are not getting it, do you want to listen to Hendrix as he recorded in studio or colored (distortion and harmonics) added by your Dac or amp?, you see is actually the opposite , most of people here look for perfect transparency of music PLAYBACK, the fact that some artist use distortion in their instruments it is not the point

Fixed that for you.

Rick "who has looked at a lot of art reproduced in books--it is never transparent but it's a lot closer than it used to be" Denney
 

milosz

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HAHAHA so many people just don't get it. People who look for transparency in audio gear want to AVOID listening to their gear, and let the MUSIC come through. I do not want my audio gear to ADD artifact - euphonic or not - to the reproduced sound. I want JUST THE MUSIC. Saying that adding distortion or some other "signature" to the playback is somehow more musical turns the playback gear into a musical instrument, one which the original artist has no control over.....
 
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