Stratmangler
26-07-2012, 22:35
For a little while now I've had an M2Tech DAC in my system - not the Young, but it's little brother, the EVO.
And I'm bowled over with the level of performance this little bright metal box delivers.
On the features front things are sparse - there is a 3 way toggle switch on the front, to switch between coax, optical and I2S connections (the I2S in my system is
superfluous).
The supplied basic PSU is a cheap and cheerful SMPS affair.
The box itself is fairly small and business like. It ain't pretty, but it ain't ugly either.
There are LEDs on the front to tell you the sample frequency of the material being played.
Now, before I continue, I would like to point out that my listening has been with the SMPS PSU with an SBooster in line - I can't recommend the SBooster enough, as it
really does lift the performance of all the SMPS PSUs I've heard in my setup.
The EVO has been designed with a battery supply in mind, and I've not yet explored this path, so there may be yet more to be gained - a visit to Maplin is on the cards :eyebrows:
What I like about this DAC is the way it builds on the sound quality of the Squeezebox Touch when powered with a decent linear PSU.
The Touch with decent linear PSU sounds great.
The Touch with decent linear PSU + EVO DAC raises the bar again, and it raises the bar by quite some margin.
The last option really does reap rewards - as I said, Touch + decent linear PSU sounds great, but feed that combo into the EVO and the sound gains insight, clarity,
muscle and presence.
To hear into a mix is sometimes astonishing, but to hear the individuals contributing to a backing vocal where before there was a homogenous noise is something else, and yet the recording isn't torn to shreds and left dying on the mixdown room floor.
The recording displays the detail and retains the coherence of the performance.
The EVO has been stalwart in its performance, sound phenomenal, and has also been totally unfazed switching between various sample rates from 16/44.1 to 24/192 when
fed from the Squeezebox Touch.
Which makes me a happy bunny :D
Rumour has it that the Young is better still - I really wouldn't mind having a listen to that :eyebrows:
Many thanks to Keith from Purité Audio for giving me the opportunity to hear this tremendous little DAC - if you haven't already guessed I like it a lot,
so much so that the idea of sending it back does not appeal.
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKhhvTToUyZrA1tJO3q6VwfgIWyUS7x 9YjY_vi8PYQXUwr9HA32w
And I'm bowled over with the level of performance this little bright metal box delivers.
On the features front things are sparse - there is a 3 way toggle switch on the front, to switch between coax, optical and I2S connections (the I2S in my system is
superfluous).
The supplied basic PSU is a cheap and cheerful SMPS affair.
The box itself is fairly small and business like. It ain't pretty, but it ain't ugly either.
There are LEDs on the front to tell you the sample frequency of the material being played.
Now, before I continue, I would like to point out that my listening has been with the SMPS PSU with an SBooster in line - I can't recommend the SBooster enough, as it
really does lift the performance of all the SMPS PSUs I've heard in my setup.
The EVO has been designed with a battery supply in mind, and I've not yet explored this path, so there may be yet more to be gained - a visit to Maplin is on the cards :eyebrows:
What I like about this DAC is the way it builds on the sound quality of the Squeezebox Touch when powered with a decent linear PSU.
The Touch with decent linear PSU sounds great.
The Touch with decent linear PSU + EVO DAC raises the bar again, and it raises the bar by quite some margin.
The last option really does reap rewards - as I said, Touch + decent linear PSU sounds great, but feed that combo into the EVO and the sound gains insight, clarity,
muscle and presence.
To hear into a mix is sometimes astonishing, but to hear the individuals contributing to a backing vocal where before there was a homogenous noise is something else, and yet the recording isn't torn to shreds and left dying on the mixdown room floor.
The recording displays the detail and retains the coherence of the performance.
The EVO has been stalwart in its performance, sound phenomenal, and has also been totally unfazed switching between various sample rates from 16/44.1 to 24/192 when
fed from the Squeezebox Touch.
Which makes me a happy bunny :D
Rumour has it that the Young is better still - I really wouldn't mind having a listen to that :eyebrows:
Many thanks to Keith from Purité Audio for giving me the opportunity to hear this tremendous little DAC - if you haven't already guessed I like it a lot,
so much so that the idea of sending it back does not appeal.
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKhhvTToUyZrA1tJO3q6VwfgIWyUS7x 9YjY_vi8PYQXUwr9HA32w