A belated sale

Can't remember when I'd posted a For Sale for my MSB DAC....

Must have been for months ....

For so long there wasn't a single query .... Damn!

Maybe the asking price was too high at $900.... Or maybe people can't be bothered with a DAC without a USB input ....

After a few weeks of trying I was getting frustrated .... Since there was no interest, I wrapped everything up with a roll of plastic film and chucked them in a corner of the room...

For reasons that I can't explain and perhaps for fun I decided to drop the price and try once more...

So on Sunday I bumped my thread again...

And at $400 it was sold in a day..!!

That's fast huh ....

Sent by mobile mail

welcome back my old friend

i said Wednesday is D-day...... and although i remained optimistic, i wasn't THAT hopeful that the situation will change on this last day......

till today all remained the same i.e. no emails no queries on my MSB Link 3 full nelson DAC with P1000 power supply..... thus there was nothing else for me to do except to welcome and embrace it once again as my choice of Digital to Analogue converter.....

most importantly, it's not that same DAC that came into my system years ago after it was recently refreshed with a burson clock and capacitors upgrade and improvements to the AES/EBU input board.....

it's going to be a happy reunion...... welcome back my old friend..!!

no interest 2....

still nothing???

no worries, i will wait until Wednesday.....

by then, i will end the For Sale advert and keep the MSB......

it's not a do or die sale anyway.......

no interest....

alamak..... !!

almost 24 hours gone since the FS post and so far there's no interest in the MSB DAC....

aha looks like i am destined to keep it for good....

sonically there's nothing much to criticise but i was bitten by the upgrade bug.... after all i have been using it for years and the urge to change cannot be eliminated easily......

can someone just take it off me for a good price.....

more burson clock...

ever since the msb dac was modified, listening was never quite the same again......

there is now more life and air when the system is singing....... even those crappy CDs that i never used to play are now enjoyable..... looks like there is so much more information hidden within the digital bits....

so if the burson clock can do that bit of magic to the convertor, what can it do to the transport???

well, i intend to find out......

and once i am ready, i will hand it over to james ..... stay tuned......

A B testing

Ok I m going to wash up before I start the a vs b test... cal delta transport vs acer laptop haha....

and this is what i am using to connect the laptop to the msb dac... and you can more about it here http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/musicloverdigital/digital.html

burson clock...

i will cut the story short and let you guys know exactly what i'd heard from the addition of a burson clock in my msb nelson link 3 dac:

vocals - better texture, more life-like than before....... image size of vocals is rounder and deeper.....

soundstage - able to discern more layers..... deeper and more 3-dimensional..... placement of instruments clearer ......has a nice bloom and air around each instrument

treble - more extended high frequencies..... able to hear more but never never close to being bright and harsh.....

timing - much better pace ....everything is tighter, louder and has a better rhythm ..... comparison is like watching the march past of a guard-of-honour contingent vs a normal group......

bass - more bounce more impact more slam.....

general - more details......... much more organised and less messy.....

that's all for the moment.....

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addendum - 27 Nov 09

i was informed by james that the improvements i have mentioned above are also due to the mods to the XLR input board and the replacement of critical capacitors at the power supply section

thanks...!!

new connection

i spent the 1st hour listening to CDs n then switched to my laptop as the source by using the hagusb device as the go-between the dac n digital source..

to be honest i didnt expect much as most users know that a computer is a very noisy device..... however the very track i played from itunes gave me quite a shock cos it sounded very good.... and from then on i extended the session to almost another 2 hours.....

it does seem like there is indeed much potential in this area of tapping on the computer to play music.....

of cos the key is how to do it..... one can either buy a dac with an usb input or simply buy an usb to s/pdif converter...... no matter what you choose, it's still a quick way to enjoy music from your computer....

if you are serious about this, you should get a laptop with solid state memory which has no moving parts....... that will be quite a potent music source for your audio system....

welcome home 2...

just came back not too long ago..... and was already quickly getting into action to put the msb nelson link 3 back onto the rack.....

before plugging in everything, i cleaned all the connectors with rid-ox and then carefully placed the TAOC footers under the p1000 and the dac itself....

next.... from the box out came the silver sonic d-110 AES/EBU digital cable and when i powered up the transport, preamp and power amps, this time round there was no hesitation, no drop-outs, no clicking.......

only music and sweet music......... haha.....

ohhh forgot to let u guys know that i have added a burson clock for the dac ......

for the moment, i have put the cd on repeat mode and will let everything run in for one day and night before i sit down to listen ......

switched to tv

my usual retreat after lunch is to nap.... but this afternoon, i spent the lunch hour chatting with colleagues and this made me especially tired after work...... end result of not having a lunch nap = dinner nap from 1800 to 2030 hrs haha.....

well just that take it as compensation or rather charging a flat battery... anyway the DAC is not back so i have nothing to listen to..... might as well go to sleep....

so no a weekday night, the only entertainment is tv...... maybe i am getting old haha cos i find taiwan tornado to be quite entertaining ......

msb upgrade....

ok right now i have no dac in the house and that means i have nothing to listen to.... my only hope is to get it back soon....

to make things better another acrolink 2110 interconnect cable will do the trick.....

now resting ....

just came back from my evening run......

so now is shower time..!!

this afternoon as i was walking to my car, rec'd a msg letting me know that the parts to upgrade my DAC is here.... to cut the waiting time i'll be sending it in later in the night...

YAHOO..!!

for the MSB...

to check if there are spare parts for the MSB, i dropped by high-end research on saturday ... but too bad, they have not been doing MSB for a long time as well....

so now my bets are with Ong Radio...... if not last resort is to send my upsampling board back to USA...

ISSE 09 - 2....

while at the show, i came across the compact ps audio digital link 3 DAC..... on sale for S$1299...

at first i was abit tempted to get it..... but i regained my composure very soon as i wasnt too confident of selling off my msb link 3 at a good price... well i certainly dun need 2 DACs at home right .....??

moreover i wasnt even sure how good it is...... should i spend S$1300 to bring it home and find out for myself? nah certainly not..... but i like the USB input and balanced outputs.... for the price and features, it seems to be a winner.....

ok no rush no rush... i shall not rush into this....

cos there are many worthy DACs out there..... and i am also considering the benchmark DAC 1 USB and northstar model 192 mk 2....

clocking the hours....

wheeeewww..... tonight i clock a 4-hour listening session.............. quite amazing huh and i have not done that for a long long time....

looks like the 132 kHz upsampling is really working..... so wait till i get the msb checked for its AES/EBU input....

i must get this off my chest this time.....

and if everything goes ok maybe i'll give up on the turntable hahaha....

up the frequency....

i cant remember why was i using the 96 kHz upsampling on my MSB....was it a better choice back then??...... and i also cannot remember when was the last time i compared between the 96 and 132 kHz..... must have been years ago..??? maybe....

so this evening i opened up the MSB Link 3 to switch the jumper....... to the higher upsampling rate.....

and now everything seems better..... more bass more depth and more impact.... more of everything.....

yeah..!!

so that's a good move..... haha and somemore it's free....

oh btw, i also removed the bicycle tire-tube from below the chopping board below the delta cd transport........ maybe i have become too lazy to wanna pump the tube every few weeks haha.......

and in it's place are 4 ikea metal door knobs....after dropping in the knobs, i thought the sound became too tight and too sharp..... but tonight everything sounds ok..... or even better than before....

hmmmm weird.... and i also didnt realise that MSB is still making the nelson Link 3....

back to basics

i've been telling myself to find that little bit of time to listen to music.......

in recent months i was so tired out after work and on many occasions, i would fall asleep on the sofa and couch while watching tv.... that was how hopeless i became..... haha

on monday i said i would..... and today i must do it.....

AHHHH it sure feels so good to go the room and fire up the system.... YEAH CRANK IT UP..!!....

and i can sense this feeling .... as if i am back to embrace my CAL delta tranport, MSB DAC, adcom pre-amp, CIA power amp and polk audio speakers........ OH what a reunion we are having right now haha.....

i feel so glad i did what i have been wanting to do......

and if you have been messing around with hifi and audio stuff for many years, you surely have seen and heard of the ebony wood pieces in the picture....

HA..... did it bring back any fond memories...???? especially places like hifi corner at the adelphi and people like joe lee...???

a tweak....

i never was able to get my msb nelson dac to hook up successfully via a AES/EBU link with my CAL delta transport .... no matter how i try, the signal would drop after a while..... therefore i stuck with a coaxial connection over the years....

out of curiousity, i decided to try both connections at the same time.... i.e. the coaxial S/PDIF and AES/EBU links......

WOW it works......! i hope the dac is giving priority to the 110 ohms connection........ it is potentially a better interface than the 75 ohms version.... finally my dh labs 110 cable is getting its exercise....

and now is burn-in time...... and i will listen tonight if i have the chance.....

it may just postpone my decision to get a new dac...