Grace Design x Massdrop m9XX DAC/Amp

Thanks Marv, us noobs have nothing to lose, I can tell everyone to avoid entire companies like Beyer, Grado, Audeze etc but the poor reviewer can't make a living like that...

At the prices they charge why should we have any mercy? If one in 5 Chevys blew its engine in the first year it would be bye bye Chevy in a matter of months.Why should the audio world be any different?

I'm pretty sure somebody like Jude could bankrupt a company by saying their latest shiny piece of crap sucks.....I guess they become part of the machine and then its impossible to be a straight shooter.

 

Nitpicking here, but large scale product failure/unreliability is far worse and damning than performance not living up to hype or expectations.

The DAC in the m9xx is the same as the one used in the new Bifrost non-mulitbit D/S, so would it be naive to think it would perhaps have similar sonic qualities?

 

I vote stream-o-consciousness, but with the addition that as you go, keep the first post updated with summary stuff. As for honest, be as honest as you feel comfortable, and maybe if you find the need to avoid harsh language for something that deserves it, either go harsh or if you don't explain that you are being generous?

 

The way I feel that John Grandberg reviews audio gear is very much like the infinite loop illusion in audio. John's reviews are always compared to the last best thing(s) he reviewed or has access to him at that very moment. It means you never know quite what the goalposts are, whether they are moving forward, backward or have come full circle. It is an unstable foundation that allows him to say a lot about products, but doesn't really let you know where you stand with it and whether it is actually any good or not.

Tyll imo has a firm set of principles/values that haven't changed one bit which lets you know exactly where he stands and in doing so it means that there is always something one can relate to in his reviews even if you don't necessarily agree with his views. I think he is a model for reviewers as far as maintaining a good degree of professionalism whilst not ignoring the value that objective measurements can bring to the table and what it tells us about gear.

With Stereophile one can often to a degree read through the somewhat opaque text while gleaning information from the measurements. There are some useful information in the internet how to interpret these results and I've always enjoyed Floyd Toole's lectures on how to interpret speaker measurements (especially what you can learn from off axis measurements).

 

Would it be fair to state that the vast majority of hobbyists ( = consumers) of especially amps and DACs care much less about measurements (other than stated impedance and power output) and more about how it sounds with their music and equipment? Isn't that who the target audience is for such reviewers?

* On reflection, that's probably not so much the issue as not gaining much meaningful insight into a product from a Project86 review.

 

Jude can also ruin a small business by saying they have an awesome product. I was one of those guys that fell into the Thunderpants hype train and flushed $650 down the toilet because Gary couldn't handle demand and kept accepting orders.

I think that's when Jude learned about his power, and what he had...

 

Jude can also ruin a small business by saying they have an awesome product. I was one of those guys that fell into the Thunderpants hype train and flushed $650 down the toilet because Gary couldn't handle demand and kept accepting orders.

I think that's when Jude learned about his power, and what he had...

 

Try these: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/new-members-introduce-yourself.17/
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/the-all-purpose-advice-thread.19/

And welcome.

 

i believe the akm 4495 is actually the flahship

 

Day One impressions from the loaner using HD 650 and mostly uncompressed metal

Recordings used you probably have never heard. All original CD masters except where listed
Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten
Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East
Dismember - Like an Ever Flowing Stream
Immortal - Pure Holocaust (I have to use my avatar)
Angel Witch - Angel Witch LP rip
Philip Glass - Mishima
Sarpanitun - Blessed be my Brothers (ultra compressed but unclipped tech death)

Build is good except the digital pot on the loaner unit is wobbly. The pot feels like it will break if you throw the unit in a bag for a year. Why didn't they stick a button on it to select settings? How about a power button too? The mini pots on other small amps are better even if they have channel imbalance at the extremes due to the size. It's too easy to brush with your hand reaching over your desk and go up or down 20 decibels. Had a couple noise scares. Not big on the power cable being a USB micro cable and power supply either. More stuff to break or lose compared to a small, thin wart if you carry it around. I don't see how you could use both jacks with two high impedance, insensitive headphones with uncompressed masters. Binaural orchestral recordings could just run out of juice. I was at 80ish most of the time.

Sound: Nice and warm. Slightly too bloomy in the low end which sounds better than the Schiits for a while until the euphony pisses you off somehow. For me it eventually made many kick drums sound like a fake movie or videogame heartbeat sound effect rather than drums or drum samples eqed a bit. Makes Immortal's tape sped drums have some thump when they don't as they were accidentally pitch shifted. Warms up the surface noise of vinyl rips too. Maybe instrument separation isn't quite as good due to the bloom. It's harder to pick out multitracked instruments and vocals if there are low kick drums or fat basses. Harder to pick out what TV static black metal guitars are actually playing (chromatic power chord riffs). Had trouble presenting some of the fast metallic percussion transients in Mishima.

F1 aka AKM's "Powerful sound" filter (I think) just compresses the soundstage. Doesn't help alleviate high frequency nastiness on decent, uncompressed masters. Sounds funny even with compressed masters with HF nastiness due to extreme overuse of dynamic range compression but no clipping. Powerful sound makes everything sound like closed headphones I guess. F2 is "Original sound" and comparable to the Schiit Uber's soundstage.

It's not as good as the Schiit Uber stack but is transportable which counts for a lot. The M9XX is a good transportable combo but overpriced and way overhyped for what you actually get.

 

I don't mean to be annoying by resurrecting this post, but this is one of the most valuable posts I've seen on an audio forum and one that could potentially save people a lot of money. It is very relevant to me at this time. I'm wondering if these "philosophical statements" could be abstracted/copied from this thread and moved to a sticky somewhere.

 

Related but similar philosophical statements stickied in Gear Advice: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...dget-among-headphones-amps-and-dac-source.57/