Well after months of hunting I've finally taken delivery of a Micromega DAC 1.
It's hooked up to a QUAD CD66 which I'm using as the transport, then into a Quad 34 / Quad 606-2 pre/power combo and onto a pair of Spendor S5E's.
I'll try and update this over the next week, so is a kind of blog.
First impressions...nice, very nice.
Compared to the Quad CD66 alone there is a definate fullness and better bass. I always used to play CD's with the bass lifted 3db on the 34 Pre, now running without any tone control tweaks.
Pace seems to have improved as well, definately a more exciting sound.
Highs are good, plenty of detail with a lack of forwardness.
Nice speration betweeen instruments, far from the last word in detail but enough to give a real sense of individual instruments/band members doing their thing.
Guitars sound much more like a guitar, again with just the Quad CD66 there was a slight thinesss to higher notes on the guitar this is gone and the notes sound real.
Soundtsage wise I'm preceiving improved depth, little drum rolls etc seem to come from deeper in the speaker.
Muisc played so far:
- An old Wailers CD compliation from 1966-1968.
- A Bill Childish compilation, have had trouble with this sounding strident in the past, with the Micromega there's plenty of ooomph but with little stridency.
- Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson - Storytellers CD - live two guitars and two singers, wonderful, audience applause vastly improved, guitar notes much more defined.
- Zoot Sims and Henri Renaud - Jazz in Paris. A 1956 recording so always going to be a tricky one, but it's well listenable. Sax a touch thin but not too harsh. Piano, bass and rums all present and correct.
The DAC and transport are linked by a Monster digital co-axial, for the first day I used an old interconnect. Think it's an improvement, but then I'd read that standard i/c's would produce an edgy, thin sound in comparision to a proper digital co-axial so could all be suggestion.
I did try the same rig with the KEF 104/2's but struggled a bit. My rooms small and the KEF's just need more space to breathe, Chinese Rocks - Johnny Thunders the snare was over emphasised, at higher volumes somewhat overwhelming and sounding a bit like someone was whacking a quality street tin. In a larger space I'd think this would have room to disperse and other frequencies would bloom instead.
Funnily enough it kind of reminds me of the good points of the Arcam 8SE (which I had but sold) without the bad (and for me there was plenty of these). There's the fullness, butmore detail,better speed and delivery, smoother top end and overall much more coherent and musical.
It cost me £175 - not the deal of the century but reasonable. Just missed a Micromega Duo 2 DAC that was on eBay, logged on 5 seconds after the auction finished - it went for £120!!! which seems like a real bargain, I was going to slot this in the second system..shame that.
More to follow.
It's hooked up to a QUAD CD66 which I'm using as the transport, then into a Quad 34 / Quad 606-2 pre/power combo and onto a pair of Spendor S5E's.
I'll try and update this over the next week, so is a kind of blog.
First impressions...nice, very nice.
Compared to the Quad CD66 alone there is a definate fullness and better bass. I always used to play CD's with the bass lifted 3db on the 34 Pre, now running without any tone control tweaks.
Pace seems to have improved as well, definately a more exciting sound.
Highs are good, plenty of detail with a lack of forwardness.
Nice speration betweeen instruments, far from the last word in detail but enough to give a real sense of individual instruments/band members doing their thing.
Guitars sound much more like a guitar, again with just the Quad CD66 there was a slight thinesss to higher notes on the guitar this is gone and the notes sound real.
Soundtsage wise I'm preceiving improved depth, little drum rolls etc seem to come from deeper in the speaker.
Muisc played so far:
- An old Wailers CD compliation from 1966-1968.
- A Bill Childish compilation, have had trouble with this sounding strident in the past, with the Micromega there's plenty of ooomph but with little stridency.
- Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson - Storytellers CD - live two guitars and two singers, wonderful, audience applause vastly improved, guitar notes much more defined.
- Zoot Sims and Henri Renaud - Jazz in Paris. A 1956 recording so always going to be a tricky one, but it's well listenable. Sax a touch thin but not too harsh. Piano, bass and rums all present and correct.
The DAC and transport are linked by a Monster digital co-axial, for the first day I used an old interconnect. Think it's an improvement, but then I'd read that standard i/c's would produce an edgy, thin sound in comparision to a proper digital co-axial so could all be suggestion.
I did try the same rig with the KEF 104/2's but struggled a bit. My rooms small and the KEF's just need more space to breathe, Chinese Rocks - Johnny Thunders the snare was over emphasised, at higher volumes somewhat overwhelming and sounding a bit like someone was whacking a quality street tin. In a larger space I'd think this would have room to disperse and other frequencies would bloom instead.
Funnily enough it kind of reminds me of the good points of the Arcam 8SE (which I had but sold) without the bad (and for me there was plenty of these). There's the fullness, butmore detail,better speed and delivery, smoother top end and overall much more coherent and musical.
It cost me £175 - not the deal of the century but reasonable. Just missed a Micromega Duo 2 DAC that was on eBay, logged on 5 seconds after the auction finished - it went for £120!!! which seems like a real bargain, I was going to slot this in the second system..shame that.
More to follow.
