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M-DAC

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]DETAILS
PRODUCT:

Audiolab M'DAC
ORIGIN: UK/china

perfect

TYPE: DAC

wEGHt:
1.5kg

DIMEI6IONS:
(wxHxD)
25ox59x252mm

Audiolab's much heratded M-DAC digitat

convertor is finally here. nidrord Blockfindsils
performance adds up to something special...
'mongthenamesto
conjure with in digital
.rudio orer recent veaLs.
.lohn Westl:rke s hrs, r,rne
to figule very highly He has been
behird nirny of the Audiolab
products we'vc waxed lyrical allout
in past issues of Hi Fi Cfioice, and
before that was involvecl in some
justifiably celebrated products honr

Cambidge Audio (the original

DacMagic) and Pink Trianglc (fhe Da
Capo, one of rhc nosr sought-after of
thc first lvave of audiophile Dn Cs,
back in the 1990s). FIis latest
magnum opus is this, the M DAC.
Choice

,u

E2o12

'lhere are a number ofthings

interestirg about this product, but
surely the nost noteworthy is its
wide range offilter options (many of
which wc'vc cncountercd alrcady in
thc cxccllent Audiolal) B200CD). This
makes it one ofthe most sonically
tweal<able DACs on the rnarket.
A briefdigression on the subiect of
fi]ters, if you']I indulgc mc. Digitally
cncoding audio inevitably requires
sone filtering, which simply means
limiting ofbandwidth. Ifyou don't
do this, all sorts of bizarre and
unpleasant distortions adse. There
is such a

tling

as a

filte

ess DAC

FEATURS:

. balanced (XtR)and
un

balanced (phono)

opticatdigitat

and opticatdigital

24-hitl192k{z)
. USB digitatinput
(max. 24-bitl95kHz)

(Audio Note, for instance, makes

thcm) brt rhis simply orcans that the

filrering is in effcct ca.ricd oLlt by the
loudspcakers, the air and your ears
insreadl The \.ast majority olllAcs
use diSlital filtering to present an
unclistoned analogue signal to thc
world, but thclc are various ways to
do this. And by lar the commonest
!i,'ay oldoinS this is surprise,
sLll pl isel a conlpro]Dise, achieving
okay performance frcm relatively
sinple hardware ofvery welldocumented dcsign.
Wirh thc huge advances in
designing and manufactLrring digital
integratecl circllits, requirerrents foL
sinple hardware have receded and
the option now c)dsts fb1 audio
designcrs to implemcnt more

sophisricatcd iiltcrs. Trouble is,

viaUSB
. digitalgain control
DISTRIBUTOR:
IAG
TEI-EPHONE:
WEBSITE:

there's no consensus on what

the besr filrer R?e actually isoptions inchlde filters with nearpcrfcct amplitude response but lots

ofringing, or no rin8ing but poor

amplitude response, or good
amplitude response from a filter
wifi no pre ringing, but plent-v of
post ringing, and more. Audiolab is
not the only manufacturer to have
seized on this dil'ergcncc of opinion
www.hifichoice.co.uk

AUDToLAB-\r-DAc

rf

at the analogue output

test methods and
odrer hand, specialist
from the same issue and
there's no shortage ofpeople prepared to
pur tlleir hand on t-heir wallet and swear
they make plenty of differcnce I These
options are available in 'Optimal Transient'
mode, as )aD and DD versions.
selecrable filtering isn t the only lrand)
thing the M DAC does. It's got a volume
control which can be taken out ofseryice
ifyou prefer to use your preamp, but widr
five digital inputs on the M-DAC itself you
may not acrually need a separate preamp
this is it! There's a balance control too, like
the volume conffol calibrated in accurate dB
steps. Ifyou wish, you can set the display
to indicate signal level for each channel,
and it can display either nominal or exact
incoming sample rate, possibly useftrl for
fault-finding. The display can even indicate
track and time information fiom a CD; who
knew that information came down the
S,/PDIF digital linl{? No, I didn't eitherl
With computer audio such a common
source these days, more and more
manufacturers are including details ofhow
to ensure bit-perfect replay, and Audiolab
does this in its instruction. It goes one
further in making a 'bitperfect' test
available. n hich is very clever and simple.
relying on a file which you download fiom
the Audiolab website. It's very comforting to
know that you are playing back an
uncorrupted file. Ifyou're using windows
XB which has a habit ofaltering the least
significant bit (LSB) of the audio data, yorl
can use the 'LSB restoration' feature of ti'le
M-DAC to conect the damage done.
Finally and it gives me great pleasure to
report this, practically all this stuffcan be
controlled remotely Ifs remarkably rare to

directly obser.,/able
using conventional
equipment. On the
audio cables suffer

owEfi

oudiolob

as an oppor'tunity to offer selectable filters

so that you can tune lhe sound to your taste.
John Westlake however has taken thirgs a

stage fufther within some (not all) ofthe

filter R?es, he has made available options
related to how the DAC processes the data
intemally This is pretty subtle stuff and
Audiolab makes no claim that the results are

find a rcmote conffol included with any

DAC, but Audiolab has done it and I for one

am grateful. The rernote's nothing fancy but

who cares? It does a valuablejob.
Electronically the M DAC is based around
a high performance DAC chip from ESS,
which conve s to a very high technical
standard. Ifs followed by op-amp chips, as
is the case in most conveftors, but the
M DAc also includes discrete transistor
circuitry an extremely rare detail at this
ldnd ofpiice. The headphone output is also
driven by discrete circDits. There's copious
power supply filtering all over the place and
hea\,y dutyjitter attenuation to ensure that
jittery sources are still optimally converted.

Sound quality
with all the options available, it's hard to
know where to start dre listening, so I
plumped for the 'sharp roll-off' digital filter
(much the same as most CD playels) with a
budget CD player as the source connected
via an elect.ical S/PDIF link, and output
volume fixed. Very much the plain vanilla
setting in other words, but probably the
simplest way of assessing basic perfoimance.
And as I d ralher e\pecled. pcrlormance is
in fact anlthing bur basic...
There's near-faultless extensiol at
liequency extrenes. Bass is beautifully
extended but never in any danger of
exaSSeration or overhang, while treble is
sweet and open. Ifs ffeble that most
obviously reacts to changing the digiral

filtedng settings, seeming to gain

"ii,?B',r$ex"Jirlr8fl

nmphono
analogue output

batifted IrR
analosueoutDut

ete.tdcal.oaxial
digitalinput

opth.lToSUIK

uS8 digital input

ar8[alrnput

Gt po{el

www.hifichoice.co.uk

liftle

transparency in'Optimal Spectrum' mode.

Thi' is a hard one to cJll 3r some recordin8s
just don't show up the difference, but with
the clearest recordings, including some I'd
had a hand in making, I definitely felt that
Optimal Spectrum had the edge all round
over the longer term, though Optimal
Transient can sometimes be more
immediately ear-catching.

in extensjon when one switches to 'Optimal

frcnsienr'bul, as il seems ro Lrs. gaining in

q udiolo

REVI EWS

input so.ket

lur{E2012 Hifi0nlce 49

AUDToLAB rv-DAc

REVIEWS

O $lst

8.PSU

ACnnillstoDC

l&ltowdldthe
,ll+

lt had

M-DAC come obout?

itsorigins

in

workthat

Class

tlhovetton.

ESS32-tlt
SabnDAC

.a!.oded
async otrouslime

Llt.hrnnal hrlrmd

tor

Aoltp,rtstag""

iitter.L.*

donahisoli or

DominikPektoand I did before joining

lnternatjonal Audio Group (Audiotab),
but italso grewthrough ourworkon
the32ooCD, CDQand 0Q,
What's the thlnklng behlnd XIt
orrd DO

It
-

a5yllclrurcu3

rst st.3!

tnnsfomer ilolited

W.esstng?

USBintErhte

iiler

attenuation

sbtr

aoailinplll!

XDand DDfilters arevariations of

the original OptimalTransient f iLter.

TheXDfilterresultsina
mathematically identical output
as the 0ptimalTransient f ilter,
butthe results are achieved via
computationally dif ferent processing,
altering second-order effects such as
internal PSIJ mod ulation. The Optim at
Transient DD filtertakesthis fuft her
by using corrective processingto null

theseeffects.

rcollyrcsbte bft.
pet@ oudlo oltetvlndows has
fddled wlth the LSB?
Yesitcan, ascan beverified using
the M-DAC'S buitt-in BitperfectTest.
The LSB restoration willworkforf iles
with originaLbitdepth ofupto 2o bits
atsample rates upto96kHz played
on Windows XP through Directsound
orwaveOut. ln otherwords,you can
nowlistentoa lossless CDoreven

musicstraightfrom iTunes

orWindows Media Playerwith no

feelings ofguilt.

OIIG DAGwe'v

the Rega DAC (t fC

357) is the ctosest in

pdcetotheM-DAC.

Con the n-DAC

HDCD

ffi

nfortu nateLy, Vista

and 7 both employa

selctable fflters,

though dosn't
have the other
Pro(essingoptions
ofth J|it-DAC. Nor
doesit havethe
informative dlsptay,
a

headphoneoltput,

batancd outputs,
so Audiolab can

aPparently,ustify
the extra roo

asilyenougfi.
Sonicaltythe
intersting. I found
lots to like about the

Rega,includinga
similarly eFortless
way with detail and

M-DAC'S real-time bit depth analvser

with was imaging,

whichseemda
touch distant. Now
haven't mentioned
imagingasrcgards
theM-DAC,simpty

and peakmetermake

itpossibleto

observe th is behaviour.

Whd oE the odru nb ges tthe

very good extension

bass. The on

thingitfellbehind

diseEl-ll:ldt ulb?

hardly aware of it.

The M-DAC'5 f ully discrete analogue

Goingbackand

circuits make up an extremelylinear

output stagewithout relyingon
overall global feedback, to linearise

lfound imags

thedesign.Theyarealso highly
immuneto RFdemodulation, RF
leakage f rom the digital conversion
processisoneof the main reasons
we believe conventional digital
designs haveatendencytosound
'hard'an d 'bright'.

fifiqdce

lUlE2012

comparison is

limiterthat's
kickingin anytimethe music is hitting
peaks, irreversibty changing a ll the
samples nearbythe peaks.Again,the

One of the beauties of having all

these filters available is that some
music may seem more convincing via
a different filter A solo piano
recording seemed to have just a
shade more body to it using the
'Minimum Phase' filteL for instance.
My investigation of the filters was
certair y aided by the very high,
quality headphone output, which
drove all in my large collection
of 'caN'very convincingly and to
very high levels when required.
Interestingly though, my conclusions
as to which filter was preferred for
which music once or twice differed,
depending on whether I listened
through headphones or speakers.
That this DAC dearly offers some of
dre most detailed - and at the same
time most musically bewitching
sounds I've heard ftom any digital
source. lt is, as it should be, largely
funmune to dre differences between
sources and gets the best from CD,
streamed audio and local computer
playback with the greatest of
confidence. It simply revels in the
kind of tricky multilayered sound
that can so often ffip up modem
audio electronics.
As with all the best ki! it's up to
you how you listen; if you just want
to let the sound wash over with you,
you'll be caried away in no time,
or if you prefer to listen closely

listenlngspe.ifically
forthat,though,
wre about as sotid
and believabl as

Andthlscrtainly
includes rcordings
lpersonallyhad a
hand in making.
The Rega is a very
fine product, butl
feel the M-DAC iust
edg6 past it.

ard analytically you'll find the

information you seek widt very litde
effort on your part.
A quick word about practicalities. I
mentioned above that I started with
the M-DAC in fixed-volume mode,
but engaging the volume control
convinced me that this is also a
perfecdy sensible way to listen.

Pedormance as a digital preamplifier

is excellent, and the gains to be made
from eliminating a unit (i.e. the
preamp) from the signal chain dont
seem to have a pdce on them. And
while it doesn't affect the sound, the
unusually informative display and
remote conbol combine to make this
one of the nicest DACS to use that I've
encountercd at any price. I couldn't
conyince myself that I could hear any
gains from dte DD,O processing,
but everything else about tie M-DAC
is so easy to recommend that it
comes out a clear winner.

Conclusion
With excellent sonics across a wide
mnge of sources, fine build,
superlative ease of use and a vast
feature count, it's very difficult nor to
rave about the new Audiolab M-DAC.
It's a landmark product, just like
Johr westlake's original DacMagic
was all those years ago. If you're
looking for a digital-to-analogue
convertor at or anj'.where near this
price, you surely must hear this. o

OUR VERDICT
SOUNDQUALITY

*****
*****

VAIUETOR MONEY

EUIIDQUAUTY

*****
dii;iiri;i--.
*****

llXE Beautjf ullyclearaid

detailedsoufd;strcng
on fiythm; impressive
featurcset
DISU(E

Fragile

power

coinectot that's alll

llE

SAY: Raisesthe

bar

forwhat an affodable
DAC can

achie\

OVERATL

*****
wttw.hifiahoice..o.uk