Review and Measurements of Musiland MU2 Plus DAC & Amp

[la2ygoo]

I wonder what caused that? SMSL IDEA's test seems to be performing well, why not Musiland MU2 PLUS?

I was a little bit confused, based on those datas you now have, Amir, which one would you recommend more, SMSL IDEA or Musiland MU2 Plus?

Because musiland uses their own FPGA hardware to do usb data transmission, they use the universal uac2.0 driver, do not have asio driver.

I think asio4all maybe helpful.

 

[amirm]

I wonder what caused that? SMSL IDEA's test seems to be performing well, why not Musiland MU2 PLUS?

Something about how some devices advertise themselves to windows causes ASIO4ALL interface to truncate them to 16 bits.

 

[GeekyBastard]

Because musiland uses their own FPGA hardware to do usb data transmission, they use the universal uac2.0 driver, do not have asio driver.

Something about how some devices advertise themselves to windows causes ASIO4ALL interface to truncate them to 16 bits.

Oops, that sounds like "we tried to reinventing wheels but we ended up with something worse than wheels" to me...

 

[amirm]

I was a little bit confused, based on those datas you now have, Amir, which one would you recommend more, SMSL IDEA or Musiland MU2 Plus?

I looked at the SMSL idea and unfortunately it is with my old instrument and not the same measurements. So I can't give you any objective comparison.

 

[amirm]

Oops, that sounds like "we tried to reinventing wheels but we ended up with something worse than wheels" to me...

It only manifest itself when using ASIO4ALL interface. Using it as a normal Windows device works fine as I showed with Roon playback of Dashboard.

 

[GeekyBastard]

Something about how some devices advertise themselves to windows causes ASIO4ALL interface to truncate them to 16 bits.

I looked at the SMSL idea and unfortunately it is with my old instrument and not the same measurements. So I can't give you any objective comparison.

Oh okay...

But is there a way to subjectively compare those two? They seem to be two direct competitors, the price and etc.

 

[la2ygoo]

Oops, that sounds like "we tried to reinventing wheels but we ended up with something worse than wheels" to me...

Compatibility is worse, but musiland claim that FPGAs sound better than XMOS

 

[GeekyBastard]

It only manifest itself when using ASIO4ALL interface. Using it as a normal Windows device works fine as I showed with Roon playback of Dashboard.

And there goes my wish of using it with my DAW in low latency ASIO mode, it looks like a fun toy in pocket.

 

[GeekyBastard]

Compatibility is worse, but musiland claim that FPGAs sound better than XMOS

I doubt, but because we can't test those critical numbers, we can't disprove it either!

Outstanding Move

 

[amirm]

But is there a way to subjectively compare those two? They seem to be two direct competitors, the price and etc.

I don't have the SMSL IDea as it was on loan.

Good news is that I did get a second instance of the SMSL Idea and tested it here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...orloo-zuperdac-s-and-smsl-idea-dac-amps.6293/

Looking at that data, the SMSL Idea is slightly better than Musiland MU2 Plus. It has a bit more power with 300 ohm and cleaner when driving 33 ohm. It has much worse SINAD but that only matters if you use these two as DACs in which case the 2 volt output of the Idea will make up for lower SINAD. Overall though, I think you have two good choices and you can decide based on fit and function.

 

[dc655321]

I looked at the SMSL idea and unfortunately it is with my old instrument and not the same measurements. So I can't give you any objective comparison.

You've looked at the SMSL iDea a couple of times, once with your newer AP, and once with the older.

EDIT: Bah, beat me to the punch.

 

[GeekyBastard]

I don't have the SMSL IDea as it was on loan.Good news is that I did get a second instance of the SMSL Idea and tested it here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...orloo-zuperdac-s-and-smsl-idea-dac-amps.6293/

Thanks Amir!

I think based on the ASIO compatibility, and those performances, I'll choose SMSL IDEA in the future.

 

[la2ygoo]

I don't have the SMSL IDea as it was on loan.

Good news is that I did get a second instance of the SMSL Idea and tested it here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...orloo-zuperdac-s-and-smsl-idea-dac-amps.6293/

Looking at that data, the SMSL Idea is slightly better than Musiland MU2 Plus. It has a bit more power with 300 ohm and cleaner when driving 33 ohm. It has much worse SINAD but that only matters if you use these two as DACs in which case the 2 volt output of the Idea will make up for lower SINAD. Overall though, I think you have two good choices and you can decide based on fit and function.

I think mu2 work better with 33 ohm in low gain ,Please give it a second chance.

 

[amirm]

I think mu2 work better with 33 ohm in low gain ,Please give it a second chance.

Will do later today.

 

[la2ygoo]

i find this in datasheet.
https://statics.cirrus.com/pubs/proDatasheet/CS43130_F1.pdf

High voltage mode enable. 0 Function disabled (VP_LDO = 2.6V) 1 (Default) Function enabled (VP_LDO = 3.0 V). This requires VP min to be 3.3 V. Also, this mode only applies to load 600 ohm and above.

1.7v gain need High voltage mode enable.
so it is not good at 300 ohm and 33 ohm.

amirm，Would you measure SINAD at 0.5v gain plz? thx.
I use mu2 as dac at 0.5v gain.

 

[amirm]

amirm，Would you measure SINAD at 0.5v gain plz? thx.
I use mu2 as dac at 0.5v gain.

Here you go:

1 volt:

1.4:

Doesn't seem like you come out ahead at lower values.

 

[Veri]

Is the little spike close to 1k-Hz a problem do you reckon?
Thanks for taking the time to measure the other output voltages

 

[amirm]

Also for digital filters, short press volume + and volume - the same time. Long press to restore default setting.

Here are the results cycling through them:

Two of them completely overlap so not sure if that is right or wrong.

 

[amirm]

Here is the 1 volt setting with 33 ohm load:

It just stops earlier than 1.7 volt so again, it doesn't seem to have much value other than slightly lower noise floor.

 

[Ron Texas]

Outstanding, a dongle with desktop performance. Not so great for driving HD650's due to limited power, but much better than the pack.