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What chip is used in the Majestic DAC? |
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Graham Slee
Admin Group Retired Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: South Yorkshire Status: Offline Points: 16298 |
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It's lamentable this "come day go day" attitude. Fab plants, like tons of other manufacturing functions, don't exist here in the UK. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the WM8804/WM8741, but plenty wrong with the believers of the internet trolls who had it in for them. Does anybody ever use their own smell test capabilities? Search engines rank results by popularity, and are either naïve or purposely set up for disinformation, meaning that a good trolling campaign trumps honesty any day. When anything that doesn't fit the agenda gets a good review, it is invariably followed by comments intended to steer the purchaser back on track. Then, if that doesn't work, kick the legs out from beneath it. By not having any useful manufacturing base to speak of, the UK hamstrings those that could make the difference. I tried it once, but the powers that were - and still are - were acting for the competition. By 2006 it became so blatant that all should have seen it, except that would have meant removing the blinkers, but they were firmly attached to all! So, when Covid19 happened, so did the bidding war. Fabless "manufacturers" simply would not be able to sell to recover their costs. It can easily be imagined that a tiny 28 pin chip that already cost £12 at component distribution prices, could have had to increase several fold. That's not sustainable, and it wasn't even Cirrus Logic's own chipset design (they'd bought out Wolfson). And so fell yet another great UK product.
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That none should be able to buy or sell without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps
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lfc jon
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jan 2018 Location: Devon Status: Offline Points: 3986 |
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I didn't know Wolfson was British (you live and learn) I always thought it was an American firm. It's American owned now and that brings me to "I wonder if they still Manufacturer stuff in the UK"
I do know that some companies have brought back manufacturing to the UK, but can't remember who off hand.
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Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.
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patientot
Senior Member Joined: 28 Nov 2018 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 1524 |
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Those kinds of DAC chips never seem to stick around long. I remember when Wolfson was highly praised and one company sold tons of CDPs based on their reputation. When the chips were no longer available, they had to switch to something else from AKM and sales slowed, then the CDP was discontinued. Of course we know what happened to AKM now, unfortunately. From what I can tell most of these manufacturers (ESS, Cirrus, AKM, etc.) were always trying to push the latest and greatest chips even if the gains in performance were minuscule at best. I can't imagine it make things easy for small manufacturers.
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SL-1200 MK7 (modified) + Reflex M + PSU-1 used with AT150-40ML, AT VM95ML, Stanton 680mkII + Ogura, and Shure M35X cartridges.
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Graham Slee
Admin Group Retired Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: South Yorkshire Status: Offline Points: 16298 |
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On "hardware" chips there are function control pins with which the designer can select the functions that best fit what the designer feels is necessary. The designer will have chosen that chip after an exhaustive process of comparing and/or looking for the necessary functions. The WM8804/8741 chipset were hardware/software chips, meaning they had an address port (a control interface) for a (noisy) microprocessor (they're all noisy), but that could be switched off, and used in hardware only mode, and made to do what THIS designer wanted, all without a built-in computer. This resulted in a slower clock, which translates to less noise pollution, but without the loss of functions I wanted. The other chipsets were not able to do all those things in hardware, and all others were software. Hence the choice! To provide the software control and the snazzy interface along with the techno look, requires considerable investment, and that has to be recouped by a large sales effort, and mass production (get it?) So, out goes the artisan leaving all the sales for the greedy oligarch.
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That none should be able to buy or sell without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps
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Fatmangolf
Moderator Group Joined: 23 Dec 2009 Location: Middlesbrough Status: Offline Points: 8989 |
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You did a great job in my opinion.
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Jon
Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC. |
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Fatmangolf
Moderator Group Joined: 23 Dec 2009 Location: Middlesbrough Status: Offline Points: 8989 |
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Who else uses the USB input of the Majestic, please? After years using the S/PDIF input at higher and higher bit rates I got a streamer that just plugs into the Majestic's USB socket and the sound is very good. Only 48k and 16 bit but natural sounding with lots of detail.
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Jon
Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC. |
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Ash
Senior Member Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Location: Dorset Status: Offline Points: 4334 |
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Before I got my S/PDIF PCIe soundcard, I used the USB input exclusively for several years and always enjoyed the standard of reproduction; like the Bitzie but better, and the Bitzie is superb anyway. I'm not sure whether the S/PDIF is better than USB yet, not until I connect a DAK 5V 3A PSU to it and let all the equipment stabilize over time. I selected S/PDIF over USB to cut out the number of conversion steps in the digital domain so in theory, it will either be the same or better; hopefully better. I'm still testing my speakers currently and I won't know the answer to which interface is better until I get my speakers sounding like my MySphere 3.1 headphone dynamically. My recent CHR-120 wide-band drivers are sounding superb on my latest cardboard open baffles.
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We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.
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