My M1 arrived today and I am starting the upgrades...one thing I found very funny, look at the back panel and note the label "IMPORTANT This appliance must be earthed" yet when you look inside, the ground connector on the AC mains is not connected to anything. Too funny. Good job on the upgrades Mike! Looking forward to hearing it. Cheers
It would be nice if you would put together an upgrade kit for sale. I would like to upgrade my M1 but unfortunately I can't get all the caps from one seller, so the shipping costs are very high for 3 to 4 packages from different sellers
Great video, as usual. Keep up the good work. You're making me want to possibly tackle fixing my own Tri Vista SACD player, the DAC part anyway as many know the Philips transport crapped teh bed for MF, Krell and others.
Hi, You may pick up on this. You use WIMA caps on this but used Siemens caps on the Tri-Vista when replacing the ceramic caps, any reason? Great descriptive Vids. Thanks for taking time to do them👍
Thanks Paul, no particular reason. I love both and have thousands of NOS parts, I like to experiment a little with cap choices sometimes, changing things up here and there just because I have the option. Ceramics are actually fine too!
What is your opinion on ceramics? Is it worth it? Or when might it be worth the effort? First thing I check now are the caps around the voltage regulators, the ESR meter tells me what I should replace.
Hi Mike. Very nice and informative video, I really enjoyed watching it👍 You talked about diminishing returns for any future mods and I have some questions if you don't mind: 1) Cheap analogue output connectors - how intrusive would be to change to higher grade ones for XLR out, for instance? 2) What is your take on adding a custom low jitter clock to the design and potential improvements it could make to the sound? 3) Would it be worth considering a low noise Differential Linear Power Supply for the analogue stage? 4) It looks like you used a coaxial cable to connect to your CD transport. Any advice on what to look for when picking a coaxial cable, with the point of diminishing returns in mind. I use Marantz SA8005 as transport, BTW. Keep up the good work 🙌 All the best. Danilo
Hi Danilo, glad you enjoyed the project! I can't address all of this here in a brief comment, but the key is to focus on biggest bang per buck improvements. You can change connectors, but there are bigger issues. Remember that the output buffer is basically one quad opamp. Local power supply stuff might help, but a better output buffer would help more. I think you'd be better off channelling that time and money into a better DAC, but it's fun to take these things to the limit. By all means try a few things, just be careful not to over sauce the goose, overbake the soufflé or whatever the saying is..!
@@LiquidAudio Hi Mike. Thanks for your response. I actually belatedly discovered your page: liquidaudio.com.au/musical-fidelity-m1-dac-review-upgrades/ where you got into more details and answered some questions I had 🤦♂️ Overall, I am very enthusiastic about the possibility of improving the listening experience with the existing equipment through modification instead of continuously switching gear. It looks like the M1 DAC is a very popular for custom modifications here in the UK as a couple of your colleagues tend to offer that as a service: www.fidelityaudio.co.uk/musical-fidelity-m1-dac-v2---level-3-1625-p.asp www.russandrews.com/musical-fidelity-m1-dac-upgrade/ That's, as you mentioned, probably due to its good layout and overall design that allows for non-intrusive incremental improvements. Thanks again for your videos and work you have been sharing 🙌
Hi Danilo, yes modification is a great way to go, as long as you don't expect a Hyundai to become a Porsche, to use another analogy! Pick the right piece of gear though and the modifications can really take it to another level.
Hello Mike you did a nice upgrade on this dac. My only question is did you also think about swapping the 5532 opamps? For example for the opa627 opamp ...🤘Greetings from the netherlands
Hi Peter, thanks and yes I did. There are some design limitations in this DAC, created by the need to sell it at a certain price. There are too many op-amps, but in reality, the 5532s are essentially blameless, delivering high performance in this role. The bigger issue is the lower performance, bigger bottleneck MC33079 quad op-amp package ahead of the 5532s.
@Liquid Audio thnx for your answer Mike ... and what kind of solution are you thinking to have for the mc33079 opamp? Or just let it be as the beatles already said😁
@@pt7628 No worries. It depends on your budget and what you are trying to achieve. They are all just op-amps, so they all have limitations. There are better dual and quad packages but they need to suit the role, it's not one size fits all as some folks assume. My approach is to focus on things that can be easily improved and give good performance gains for the money. The next step would be op-amps, but at that stage, I'd suggest putting the cash towards a better DAC.
With any recommendation, it always comes down to use-case and budget. If you have a few hundred bucks to spend, these are great DACs. It's getting old but that doesn't matter at all if a product is good! Try to have a listen to one.
Why bypass the output coupling capacitors (Muse electro BP, 47uf) with those 0.1uF MKP Wima's on the other side of PCB? That's not std. for output coupling, and the parallel filter value may significantly change the sonics. To use large-value poly caps is better. Auri or Mundorf, 10-47uF, will be fine. And i would change those jellybean opamps to something better. In fact, you could have left in all those ceramic caps, and saved the effort/$ for better opamps or even Burson discrete OPA's
Is this something one should do for good measure every couple years? Or are you simply doing it because you can/have the means? I am asking because I just bought one, also from 2010. And I want to get my old Musical Fidelity CD1 down from the attic, which is mid 1990s. I have already secured a replacement laser just in case, dunno whether I will need it.
Hi, you probably haven't looked around my channel or website yet so this is a good question. I run a specialist hifi electronics service, repair and restoration business, so videos like this showcase what I do and give people ideas, but they also bring customers who want their equipment repairerd or improved to me. I develop mods like this, test them and then apply them to my customers' equipment where requested. None of this should really be attempted by the end user unless they have the equipment, experience and knowledge to safely do this type of work. I repair a lot of CD players too, so let me know if you have any questions, ideally via the contact page of my website: liquidaudio.com.au/contact/
Does anyone use this DAC M1 from a laptop running under Windows 10 or 11, and using an USB A-B cable between the DAC and the Laptop? There DAC will not run using a laptop running with any Windows version after Win 8. Any Tips and tricks to get it working?
Hi Jerome thanks for your comment. I receive lots of requests for them, but I don't provide kits or component lists. I consider budget and special requests, so each set of upgrades I design is customised. Plus I'm not keen to design, build and test everything and then just give it all away. It takes hours of work, testing, parts analysis etc. I give quite a bit away via RU-vid and liquidaudio.com.au already, but maybe if I start a Patreon at some point..!
Greetings from norway, Do you have a parts list over what components you swapped out? A friend asked me to do this upgrade to his DAC, and since he is using it every day i wanted to make the time that it takes to do the job a little shorter if i can order the parts ahead 😊
@@LiquidAudio thanks for the straight up answer and quick response. I just have to do it the old fashion way , take it apart and make a list 😊, my friend demanded that i built him a Riaa for his turntable so he had something to listen to while i service the DAC. As long as he pays me im all good lol.
@@LiquidAudio you earned a new subscriber btw. 😊 Always cool to see good work been done . Im very passionate about not only doing a repair/service myself , it should also look aesthetically good too
@@Alextheampguy Thank you, feel free to visit my website where you'll get a better feel for how we do things and our unique approach. Lots more interesting articles over there. You are also welcome to buy me a drink if you've found my work helpful.
Hi Ravi, unfortunately not, it's not possible to do a useful or valid comparison via RU-vid as everything is severely limited by the compression, lossy conversion / low bit-rate format, upload, download and end-user devices. All of this is a sonic disaster. The only valid way is to listen in person, in real time in a proper hi-fi system and it's easy for my customers to come and do that. This DAC is now sold to a happy new owner!
Hi Ravi, it's hard for me to keep up with all the requests I receive, keep an eye on my For Sale page at liquidaudio.com.au, that's the best way to see when new audio gear comes up for sale.
Great to see a fellow rider in the comments! Sure, without getting too technical, bypassing capacitors is a way of improving their performance across a range of frequencies. This has the added benefit of improving sonic performance in many use-cases, especially when associated with power supplies, crossovers and so on. There are many good technical articles on this if you do a bit of a search, but go for the engineering articles rather than forum-based stuff.
Hi Mike, nice upgrade. Can you explain the theory on why did you put those bypass caps? My understanding is those are connected to those green bi-polar caps. Also, what are your thoughts on upgrading MC33079 with something like LME49740NA? Would that make sense?
Hi Donnie, glad you enjoyed it! I won't go into detail here on bypass and decoupling theory as there is a ton of great technical information available online so have a google. Improving that quad op-amp is a great idea but be sure to check that a different part will work correctly and be stable in this role.
@@LiquidAudio Hi Mike, thanks for your answer, I am quite familiar with bypass/decoupling theory to reduce AC ripple "noise". For some strange reason, I had a thought you soldered them in parallel to bipolars and that would have adverse effect in capacitance and circuit behaviour as such. My bad.
@@donnied8127 Hi Donnie, my pleasure, no problem and you are on the right track but perhaps some information is missing. This is potentially a long conversation but briefly: Small ceramic/film/silver mica etc caps are used in parallel with larger electrolytics here and in circuits in a huge number of applications, especially in audio. Smaller 'bypass' caps of much higher quality are used to reduce HF ESR and linearise HF performance. A pair or sometimes even three are used and effectively create a better-performing cap of basically the same value. Far from having an adverse effect, they have almost no effect on capacitance for obvious reasons. Overall C increases by 0.2% in this case, which is of no significance, but measured and perceived HF performance including ESR and distortion are improved.
@@LiquidAudio It's not going to hurt it, that's for sure, but why MF didn't do it in the first place is what's bugging me, even if they had to increase the retail price for 20 pounds, people would be talking more about great product and even pay more. Or was is the case of "it's good enough"?
@@donnied8127 Don't be bugged! This happens with every piece of gear ever made, especially where cost matters as much as it does with lower-end audio gear. MF already filled it with the cheapest parts and expensive WIMA film caps add significantly to the BOM cost. Far from not hurting things, this technique is a critically important way to improve performance in the right applications and you'll see it used in better audio gear, test and measurement equipment etc, where fewer compromises are made.
Ok, 500 usd today (2021, October), brand new, in Brazil. Is it still worth it? Half of it for a cambridge dac 100, better deal? Any advice is very welcome, thanks!
@@LiquidAudio lol, thank you! Denafrips Ares will cost more than 1k usd after taxes. Until then, do you consider the M1 a good dac to play redbook CDs nowadays? Thanks again:)
@@yuriwalter385 It all comes down to what you consider good. It's basic and limited in the ways I described. I would not be buying a new one now, but a good used one, with my modifications, is a solid performer. Always better to pay once though. Ares is a much better option.
I have one here, a 2012 model, and it will not start any more. It has surface-mount audio opamps, so it is a generation later. The power supply looks the same. There is no voltages coming out of the SMPS and the four 470uF/25V cluster does not show the bulge on top that usually indicates that they are gone and needs replacement. There is high voltage on the other/input side. Anybody who has suggestions, wish I had a schematic or service manual.
Those bypass poly caps not soldered on that well especially the end one shouldn't you use some hot glue or sticky pads underneath to stop them coming loose so they're not flapping about in the breeze just a thought.
Hi John, no actually the poly caps and every other part are are soldered in perfectly. Tiny WIMA film caps are very light and the leads stiff. When the work is done carefully and the lead dress is as good as it is here, there is zero movement and certainly no need to hot glue them, or use sticky pads!
@@LiquidAudio don't get me wrong, but the end poly cap just seemed like it had a bit of Bridge solder holding it together, there's no actual physical clamping! except for the shoulder it's not even going through a hole to give it stability. more than likely it's not a problem as you say it's lightweight but with age or drop down heavily could possibly cause it to crack.
John sweda John unfortunately this one problem with people not having the knowledge or experience to correctly assess something. The capacitors under the board are more firmly attached than just about anything else, I add them like this purposely, because it is the best way to do it, nothing is going to drop down or crack!
Liquid Audio I can only say what I saw and it looked like poorly soldered that's on a small screen so maybe it isn't maybe is! As I say it's probably fine! Don't worry about it.
John sweda That’s OK John, all good but maybe next time just ask - “Mike, why did you attach the bypass caps like this.” I can then explain about minimizing lead length, maximizing stiffness, minimizing RF coupled into the parts and lead inductance etc.
Hi, no the unit is not new. You may not be able to follow this video if English is not your native language, but I made these changes to improve the performance of this DAC. These improvements were focussed on bypassing, decoupling and using much better parts where needed and reasonably cost effective. Most manufacturers cut corners with parts quality, to save on manufacturing costs. This is a classic example of how using a textbook approach and going back to design intentions can generate big improvements.
