Grace Design x Massdrop m9XX DAC/Amp

It looks good, the international courier is very reasonable, but I did something different: bought an 80th birthday present for a dear friend

 

I don't want to get into an argument over this. It wasn't my intent at all.
I just wanted to read about the grace M9xx.

*edit, and about the GOV2, I simply used it as an example of a similarly priced item. I think you're reading into things too much.

 

Well, Grace is a make that has always caught my eye, but my wallet has never been fat enough. There are unanswered questions about whether Grace 'consumer' audio is going to match up to Grace 'pro' audio, and whether there is any consumer-aimed 'voicing' of this unit.

A review here would be great. I think I must make sure my fotmitis inoculations are up to date before going back to that HF thread.

 

...and this is why you guys are super best audio friends. Thanks!

 

Now this is money better spent!

 

looks like a crappier version of the jds labs element, would rather get one of those, cheaper too.

 

They do look similar. The main difference to me is JDS is moving up to the Element, whereas Grace is coming down...

 

Good job Massdrop.

 

I get the feeling we (VelvetX and I) may get to listen to it at the upcoming Head-fi meet at Massdrop's office, so will see.

Maybe see if our friends in SoCal would like to check it out as well?

 

I like the confidence that Will shows towards the community. But CS was one of the few places to show Massdrop love when head fi wouldn't at the time.

 

Reflecting more on Marv's words, points 1, 2, & even 3 ought to be enshrined in some sort of SBAF commandment--sorta like zen and the art of audio enlightenment.

 

Just saying I use a Grace m903 at work everyday and it's a solid unit. That is all.

 

I just skimmed through the product description on Massdrop and its nice to read that
"The m920 is a world-class DAC/Amp, but it has tons of hardware that’s only useful for Pro Audio applications....With the m9XX, we’ve achieved our goal, bringing the price down to $499 shipped....while maintaining the m920’s performance level for Audiophile applications...."

Normally I would expect it be exactly the opposite where prices are proportional to the number of times the word audiophile is mentioned.... or am I a victim of good marketing here! AARRGGHHH

Somewhat similar to the JDS Element but $150 higher with much less aesthetic value.

 

Hey folks, anyone with questions on this, I'd be glad to answer or pass along to Michael Grace if my technical knowledge is too weak.

Also, wanted to address the Element related discussion. The Element and m9XX are mostly black, and they have a volume knob, that's where the similarities end. I haven't spent any time with the Element so I can't speak to which is "better" but here's a quick list that illustrates the difference.

Amp:
Element - LME49600 (decent information http://pavouk.org/hw/audiosystem20/en_lme49600.html)
m9XX - THS6012 (decent information http://sound.westhost.com/highspeed.htm#a3)

DAC:
Element - PCM5102A
m9XX - AKM4490

USB Controller:
Element - SA9023
m9XX - XS1-U8A-64-FB96 500MHz

Someone in our product discussion had a similar question (link to question https://www.massdrop.com/buy/grace-design-x-massdrop-m9xx-dac-amp/talk/294808) and Michael responded with this:

Hi Compassionator,

I had not heard of the JDS labs product until reading your post. I don't really know anything about it's design so I cant comment on that as a comparison to the m9XX.

The m9XX contains a mixture of new technology and adaptations of already designed/refined circuit elements from our other products.

The USB streaming controller software running in the XMOS is very similar what is in the m920. Our XMOS firmware engineer Caleb Roberts has 5 years of experience with optimizing the XMOS code. The code running in the m9XX has not been "re-invented" but has been tailored to the requirements of the product.
The headphone amplifier is very similar to what is in our flagship studio monitor controller m905. But with a novel configuration of the output amplifier topology which allows for extremely low output impedance.

The DAC section is all new. It is based on the AK4490 from the latest generation of AKM 32bit dacs. AKM is, in my opinion, leading the pack of mixed signal semiconductor manufactures with many new high performance DACs and ADCs in their lineup.

The analog power supply design is based on our push-pull DC-DC converter developed for our m101 microphone preamplifier. Professional microphone preamaplifiers are extremely low noise, high gain circuits that require very quiet power supplies.

Jamie Kraphol is our engineer in charge of the magnetics design for this power supply. He spent months optimizing this design for high power output, dual voltage operation (Buss Power vs High Power mode), and sample rate synchronous operation . So while the circuit topology looks similar to the m101/m103 it is a different animal in terms of performance parameters.

Obviously there are cost constraints when designing a $500 product vs. a $3500 product (m905). However, the careful selection of features and higher volume manufacturing allows us to bring exceptional performance to the m9XX.

EDIT: Improved formatting

 

The m9xx looks tempting, but I now see that the Element additionally provides value in allowing external DAC input via RCA. OTOH the m9xx does offer optical input in addition to USB. If only those 2 feature sets were combined!