Musical Fidelity V90 DAC Digital to Analogue Converter

I bought this DAC more or less on impulse, mainly because I was having exasperating trouble with a much more expensive DAC that was giving me severe drop-out problems on the co-ax input, and I wanted an alternatative DAC as a standby while I tried to get it fixed. I'm so impressed by this product however that it could well be taking pole position. It is neat and very well made, taking up an unobtrusive yet decorous position on the shelf: it is easy to set up, just plug in and play. I read that it takes a good few hours to run in before it is as its best, but I was impressed with it from the start. I run it from an MF V-Link 11 via co-ax into a Heed CanAmp, using Etymotic and AKG 'phones. The replay is very smooth, giving a very exact, high definition sound, just as it really is. One might say it could be a tad restrained and over-mannered, not full throated, precise rather than punchy: so if your taste is for heavy rock, you may feel short changed. But as I said, it's not fully burned in yet, I will be giving an update after more usage. Well it certainly suits all my purposes, playing classics and jazz, on CD's, MP3 and FLAC files. I'm going through my favourite numbers, with new delight as though hearing them afresh. Well pleased with the purchase, really at this price it's an obvious choice for quality listening.Update 03/06/2014. M.D. Worsely and general commentators on this product have been proved right: the reticence of this DAC is quickly overcome by usage, it soon becomes much more assertive, with a broad expansion of its effects and listening engagement. It combines accuracy with excitement, giving a real enjoyment of listening without any carping reservations, a giddy sense of Wow! where is all this coming from? Arrived today the Fidelity Audio PSU, which I connected to the DAC via Russ Andrews Powercord. Some striking nuances and subtleties detected so far, but it needs more settling in before reaching any definitive judgement. That measly little wall-wart on the V90 DAC is reasonable enough, if you're not too finecky. What is remarkable however is that this reasonably priced product can be compared to much more expensive models, and still found to be superior.

Beautifully built, sounds gorgeous, very nicely packaged; but.... it's not easy to use in the UK. For a product that's British-designed for the British market, it falls down on one major point - you can't power it without a UK to EU mains adapter plug!! Given that you are advised not to use any power adapter other than the one supplied with the unit, you're forced to either use an adapter or come up with another power supply. For a unit costing nearly £250, I think that's a very poor show indeed!On to the sound itself. This is a huge improvement over every laptop sound system I've heard (and that includes the B&O system in my HP laptop) and compares very favourably indeed with my Meridian Director, (which I use with the same laptop and speakers JBL Creature II's). The bass is tight, with detail in the treble and a warmth to virtually any musical genre that you care to throw at the whole - jazz, classical, pop, rock, vocals all show huge improvements over any internal laptop sound system. One thing I have noticed is that when the laptop wakes from sleep, the DAC fails to re-acquire lock with the signal over the USB and needs to be turned off and back on again to re-sync; a minor inconvenience.The  Musical Fidelity V90-HPA - headphone amplifier  came with a completely different power supply (with interchangeable plugs), so did not suffer from the same power supply problem as the DAC. I've reviewed the v90-HPA separately, so won't re-cover that ground other than to say that the V90-DAC, coupled with the V90-HPA using  Kenable Pure OFC HQ 2 x RCA phono to phono stereo audio cable 50cm  to connect the two (I don't want hanks of cable on my desk) works beautifully with the  KEF M500 Over-Ear Hi-Fi Headphones - White , is certainly one of the best-sounding desktop systems that I have heard in many a year, with no shortage of power for the headphones.One caution I will mention is that Musical Fidelity told me this morning that the entire V90 range has been discontinued, so if you're after almost hyper-fi quality at reasonable cost, get in quick; stocks won't last long!

Underbar "Engelsk" ljudåtergivning!

Ce convertisseur a été utilisé sur un ampli et préamplificateur à tubes de très haute musicalité .il est linéaire ,fluide, neutre espérons qu’il soit fiable.

Avevo preso questo DAC per tentare un up-grading del mio CD NAD C521 BEE per by-passare il suo dac interno collegando il digital out del NAD all'ingresso coassiale al V90 DAC. In questo senso non ho avvertito nessun miglioramento, ma non perchè il Musical Fidelity non sia all'altezza, ma semplicemente perchè il NAD ha un suo convertitore già più che buono.Utilizzato per riprodurre la musica da pc/tablet/smartphone, dà il suo meglio nonostante la porta usb abbia risoluzione inferiore alla porta coax. In questa configurazione, rispetto all'ascoltare la musica da questi dispositivi direttamente collegati all'amplificatore ( sempre di casa NAD ) il guadagno in termini di qualità è palese, restituendo ai formati compressi , una resa molto vicina al CD. Disponendo anche di ingresso ottico, questo convertitore risulta oltre che ben suonante , anche molto versatile.

*ORIGINAL REVIEW*I am relatively new to the hifi scene, having come from a place where my main concern with audio was that it only be capable of maximum loudness. When I had to downsize from my floorstanding Polks and 300 watt Polk sub to a smaller bookshelf system upon moving into an apartment, I accidentally discovered the joys of a legitimate High Fidelity music system. I am now on my second [budget] setup which consists of the following (I'm getting to the V90DAC review, hang in there!):- Elac Debut B6 speakers- Music Hall A15.2 integrated amp- Onkyo C7030 CD player (acting only as a transport now)- Musical Fidelity V90DAC- Bel, Sextet, and Blue Jeans Cables interconnects- Dayton Audio speaker stands, with Blu Tack securing the speakersI've battled pragmatism the entire way through the upgrade process with the CDP, stands, amp, and interconnects, even though I realized nice, progressive increases in sound quality upon purchasing each one. It took me the longest to decide if a DAC would bring any meaningful improvement to the sound, especially because I didn't believe that a mostly air-filled box with some circuitry could alter 1's and 0's and make them sound better. But after I found an open box V90 DAC from a 3rd party seller on Amazon for just $230, I couldn't find a reason NOT to test it out.To be honest, and despite the fact that I had intensely resisted the idea of a DAC previously, I found that the improvement to sound quality was almost as significant as the proper placement of the speakers in the room. I was fully expecting to hear no difference, but even after a couple seconds it was impossible miss that the mids had become a lot richer and warmer. They had some actual "feeling" to them that I hadn't heard before. Couldn't miss it. What comes to mind is the song "Past Life" by Lost in the Trees; previously that one was portrayed by my system to have kind of a gulf between the lows and highs. But with the DAC, the mids seemed to bridge that gap, giving the illusion that the lows and highs were "working together" more, or that they were more integrated. Bass tightened up (for lack of a less cliched word) and got more musical as well. Looking back on what I remembered about the system pre-DAC, the low end used to sound less controlled, less round, if you will, and more bloated. Specifically I noticed that on classical songs with plucked upright bass, these notes were more noticeable, clear, and smooth. Really liked that. As for the highs, I would say that while the change was not as drastic, they were still beneficial. Not clinical, but smooth, detailed, clear, and completely free of fatigue. It can't take away the effects of a poor recording, but it definitely dampened them and made things more enjoyable. In a word, I would describe the upgrade as "livelier". As in, there was more life to everything than before, more musicality, more realism. Shuffling through a variety of genres, I found the effect to be the same with everything: wonderful, deep, controlled bass, warm and rich mids with tremendous feeling, and lovely highs with excellent clarity. I used a Blue Jeans coax cable to between the V90 and the C7030, finding no difference between that and a $50 optical I borrowed from a buddy. Some argue that there is a difference in sound quality, but either they're wrong or my system isn't of high enough quality to make it apparent.Lest this review sound *too* glowing, I understand that it is still subjective, and that if you're like me you may still not be convinced. Additionally, your components and room arrangement might make the effect less pronounced. However, if your CDP doesn't come with a great DAC, you might find the V90 a worthwhile upgrade. Buy it from a site that gives you a 30 or 60 day return period to test it out, if you're able. If you can't hear anything, return it and be happy that it only cost you a few bucks in a restocking fee. If you can, enjoy the sweet improvement brought by the wonderful little Musical Fidelity V90 DAC!*UPDATE 04/24/2016*I got a Chromecast Audio for the wife, and it's hooked up via the optional optical cable to my V90-DAC. Figured this would be the best place to review all of that, since a DAC typically makes the biggest difference when talking about streaming music. Using Spotify Premium's "Extreme Quality" 320kpbs streaming, music sounds excellent. Understanding that a review of this is subjective and entirely dependent upon one's system, I can say that for my setup CD quality is better than Chromecast Audio (CA) & Spotify quality. But not by a huge margin. Highs are the most noticeable difference, with the CA having less detail and emphasis - as if the high end is reduced by something like 25%. Mids seem unaffected, and bass made it through mostly unscathed as well. Soundstage and overall sonice presence are slightly worse with the CA; CDs have a more involving, deeper, wider, and clearer presentation. But this would probably not be terribly obvious without doing direct comparisons between albums on CD format vs through the CA. I'd say you get 85%-90% of CD performance. However, you gain access to millions of songs for only $10 a month. That's an alright trade off, in my opinion!

Lo compre para mejorar el sonido que tenia en el ordenador y aunque al principio me decepciono bastante, pues no sonaba bien con mis beyerdinamyc t5,hoy por hoy es una delicia escucharlo con los denon ah-d600 junto con el amplificador de auriculares shiit magni que no es muy caro, pero juntos los tres y un cable usb blindado sacan un sonido muy bueno,tambien he de decir que los denon estan con un cable de plata fabricado por mi y si que se nota la diferencia con respecto al original,pero bueno si quieres conseguir un sonido bueno merece la pena comprarse este dac,aunque igual no te suena como esperabas segun con que auriculares, pero yo los recomiendo para oirlo con los denon,pues parece que tienen buena sinergia con esta marca o por lo menos con el modelo ah-d600