Music Hall CDAC 15.3 vs NAD T512

baco99

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Hello friends!

I have recently stumbled upon a deal for a Music Hall C/DAC 15.3 CD player and DAC, with remote, new. I have read a little bit on the unit, but I haven't seen any real audiophile reviews. The Music Hall has switching for three external digital sources: USB, Opt, and Coax. In addition to a Burr-Brown powered CD Player

I am considering this unit in favor of the trusty NAD T512 DVD player that I have been using for 2-channel listening on my main system for about 2 years. I am very happy with the NAD. I am wondering if any of you thought there'd be any marked improvement from a more modern DAC-transport vs a unit from 2002/2003.

The NAD plays music CDRs very well and never skips a beat. But it's 10 year old tech. It retailed for $399 when new.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks!
 
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Bro! If you ask me, thats a no brainer! Get the MH/DAC!

Truth be told, I've seen that player about 5 times at my dealers house...but never heard it. I did ask him about it once and he said its a surprising great little player.
 
Price is $440 shipped.

I'm really on the fence because I really don't need it. But...... Do I really need any of this stuff?

It's tempting. I haven't bought "new" in years.
 
Music Hall make some very fine and affordable device. This 15.3CD/DAC would definitely be a significant upgrade over your Denon. The emergence of quality DAC those last few years has exploded. I say why not!
 
OK, I'll give it a shot.

The DAC alone is a $250 piece. But they said I would need a separate docking station for my iPod or iPhone for it to work with the USB input. Any ideas?
 
Yes if it's USB you would. But it might be better to get a istreamer instead.
 
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The CDAC arrived on Thursday and I have it set up on the main system, but only had a chance to turn it on and listen to one song. I really like the look of it. The display is a little hard to read from a distance, but the build quality seems top notch. Also the remote is impressive. They spent a lot of time on the remote.

More updates on the sound by the end of the week. I am picking up an Airport today and will experiment with digital streaming to the CDAC and see if there are any differences between that and CD media.

Also, the NAD T512 is now back on A/V duty. Plugged it back into the HT setup and it's been playing Game of Thrones Season 3 like a champ. If any of you see one of these NAD T512s available, they are worth picking up. They are cheap, are exceptional for music, and great for video as well.
 
Another quick update:

I got the Airport Express today and hooked it up with a Mini-TOSLINK to TOSLINK cable to run through the CDAC and then to the preamp.

I have an issue. There's a TERRIBLE crackling sound, like digital interference of sorts, coming from the stereo when running through the AirPort Express. It's intermittent and inconsistent. Any ideas where this could be coming from or do I need to do some sleuthing?

My thoughts are:

1) bad cable

2) bad wifi connection

3) AirPort Express not talking to the CDAC properly. Is there an output setting on the AirPort Express?

4) Something wrong with the CDAC.

Thoughts???
 
Try using an analog 1/8" stereo plug to RCA cable from the airport directly into your system (eliminating the DAC from the setup) and see if the Airport is still crackling when streaming from your device.

Start here and lets see if the problem is with the airport express.

can you also list:
what device and app you are using for playback/streaming
File type and quality (Flac, Wav, ALAC, AIFF ) 16/44.1? 24/96? 24/192?
 
Try using an analog 1/8" stereo plug to RCA cable from the airport directly into your system (eliminating the DAC from the setup) and see if the Airport is still crackling when streaming from your device.

Start here and lets see if the problem is with the airport express.

can you also list:
what device and app you are using for playback/streaming
File type and quality (Flac, Wav, ALAC, AIFF ) 16/44.1? 24/96? 24/192?


Yes, that was my first thought. I will try that.

I will also try plugging in another digital device to the CDAC and see how that sounds.

For playback I have tried iPhone 5, MacBookPro, and a 2006 iMac White. Same issue on all three devices.

From the iMac, which would be the #1 device used for this purpose, I was using iTuned Radio. I haven't tried anything else yet.

I can run digital via USB to the PopPulse DAC to my office system directly from the iMac and there's no crackle. So I know it's not the iMac.
 
If the analog connection works fine without the DAC in the loop, try power cycling resetting and reconnecting the Airport on your network. make sure it's away from things like CD players , power supplies etc. then try the DAC in the connection again and see what happens.
 
It is sitting on top of the ART PB 4x4 power supply/strip, which sits on the shelf above the CDAC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I relocated the unit away from the power supply and things seem to be sounding much better. I am also playing through iTunes files, not iTunes Radio and that also seemed to clean things up. Will keep listening!
 
what happened with the DAC, and digital cable out of the system and using an analog Y cable from the Airport to your system? it doesn't sound like you ever properly narrowed down the source of the issue. or perhaps you hadn't posted the outcome of your findings testing the set up this way. It's a subtractive process. Strip it down to the basics first , listen for a while then add one thing more etc etc etc... it's still not clear if it's the Airport, the Dac, the Toslink Cable , the Wireless network. blah blah blah...

Analog cable , NO DAC
Then Digital Cable NO DAC (you'll need a preamp with a built in DAC/Toslink connection)
then Analog Cable w/ DAC (using Analog out to the Pre-amp)
then Digital Cable w/DAC (using Analog out to the pre-amp)
what's the source that's streaming the signal? Ipad? Iphone? Macbook? are all of them behaving the same way? is it one device?

Shouldn't be too difficult to find the source of the issue, just a bit of trial and error. ( and a few beers won't hurt either)
 
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The only thing I have had time for was moving the box away from the power supply.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
No issues going Airport analog to the preamp. Next will be connecting another digital source to the CDAC. And also connecting the Airport to a different DAC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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