From the outset I must state that with the Playback Designs’ Edelweiss MPD-6 streamer/DAC DSD files sounded exceptionally good. In fact it was the best rendition of DSD files that I have ever heard.
I played native DSD files that I downloaded from Opus 3 in DSD 2.8 and DSD 5.6. These are natively recorded in DSD and the difference in sound quality between the DSD 2.8 and the 5.6 files was greater than when played with other DACs.
With the Playback Designs MPD-6 streamer/DAC, DSD files sounded smooth, very rich and full-bodied. Compared with the DSD 2.8 files, the DSD 5.6 files sounded more dynamic and clearer with more authoritative bass. Even the high notes became more prominent without sounding bright or shrill.
If you are a DSD fan and have mostly DSD files, buy the Playback Designs DAC and you will not feel the itch to upgrade anymore.
That the Playback Designs DAC handles DSD files exceptionally well comes as no surprise considering that Playback Designs’ owner/designer Andreas Koch has done much work on DSD, having designed in 1997 the world’s first 8-channel DSD recording / editing / mixing machine named ‘Sonoma’ which is still used in studios today and has been used for most SACD releases.
He also designed all the digital parts of A/D and D/A converters that helped establish DSD as a superior sounding audio format in SACD. He also participated in all standardization committees for SACD in conjunction with Philips.
Andreas started off working for Studer Revox in Switzerland in 1982 and built the world’s first fully asynchronous digital audio sample rate converter. In 1984, he designed one of the first filter
banks for digital audio.
After that he worked with Dolby Labs, Sony and EMM Labs. Thus it is obvious he is one of the leading experts in digital audio in the world.
While DSD playback is Andrea’s forte, his Playback Designs MPD-6 streamer/DAC also handles PCM files very well too. In fact, its rendition of native 24/384 kHz files (from Kent Poon of Hong Kong) sounded especially dense and lifelike. It appears that the Playback Designs’ MPD-6 streamer/DAC works extremely well with files that have very high sampling rates.
The Playback Designs MPD-6 is sold as a DAC, but it has an optional streamer module, which works well and the owner will save money as he will not need to buy an audiophile USB cable that can cost a few thousand ringgit.
To control the Playback Designs MPD-6, you need to download the MConnect app on your smartphone. However, to access the menu, you need to use the DAC’s remote control to turn the ‘Streamer’ on. To play files from an external hard disk, you need to turn the ‘USB’ input on and then return to ‘Streamer’. I encountered a problem trying to play files from a thumbdrive. The DAC could not read the thumbdrive and I had to reformat it to FAT32 and pasted some files into it before the files could be played.
When you launch MConnect on your smartphone, you will see this:
Volume can be controlled with your smartphone, the remote control or with two small buttons on the top cover of the streamer/DAC.
I used the preamp function of the streamer/DAC as its volume control is claimed to be an ultra high end analog design. I can say that the volume control is good enough to replace a preamp, which means more savings.
I used a pair of Duelund interconnects with compressed paper plugs to link to the good ol’ Bryston 4B SST and thence to the ATC SCM50 floorstanders with Kimber 12TC speaker cables.
I spent much time listening to my songs in the external solid-state hard disk and to streamed files from TIDAL. The music sounded natural with large and deep soundstage, good layering, solid imaging and dense images.
Though the Playback Designs MPD-6 has a proprietary clock generator, jitter and buffering
technology (PDFAS) that cleans up any digital input signal before subjecting to the D/A process, there was a noticeable improvement when I plugged in an iFi LAN iSilencer. It goes to show that no matter how good the DAC is, the quality of the signal going in must be the best possible.
The Playback Designs MPD-6 DAC retails at RM75,000. The optional Stream X2 module costs RM13,000.
For an audition, call Victor Pheh of Hifi Creations at 012-2962799 to fix an appointment. His demo room is at N-9-07 Gamuda Biz Suite, Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam (Next to Coffee Bean Gamuda Walk). Check out www.hifi-creations.com or Facebook.com/hifi-creations
