Musical Fidelity A3 - possible upgrades?

[speedy.steve]

Reading the thread about dissapointment when upgrading CD players and some comments made about DACs... I was thinking.
I like the sound of the A3.

The A3 reportedly had the then top of the range Sony transport.
Can I do something with it by getting a DAC - I know nothing about this option.
How does one connect it and what would the likely improvement be?
How much?

OR is this
1) Not possible
2) Waste of time

[Knightshade]

Hi Steve,
A dedicated DAC will alter the sound from your A3. Notice I say alter. To your ears it may be an improvement, it may not.
All you are doing is using the CDP purely as a transport. Visible improvement here is your digital to analogue conversion stage now has a dedicated power supply.
As to how they sound? A lot will still depend on how good the transport is. The A3 is no slouch so you should be fine.
The NOS DAC is available for between £100 - £200. It is a simple design but works very well. The sound is very analogue. Easy on the ears, basically you could listen to it all day. The soundstage is very deep.
Another one that I have to mention is The Chord DAC 64. Personally I don't like it but others rate it highly. To me it's pretty flat and clinical to others it's lively and detailed. It is built like a tank and it will definately alter the sound of your system.
Others to look out for (I'm sure CJ & DT will add to this) Benchmark DAC1 (I heard this briefly and liked it), MF range.
I still think out of all of them the NOS DAC is the best all round.
All you need to try it is a digital output on your A3, either coax/optical or AES and a DAC that accepts those inputs.

[akhc]

I have owned the A3 myself. if you like the MF sound then you could try getting a trivista DAC. I've got one myself (hooked up to a TEAC VRDS-10 as a transport) and I love the sound it produces - typical MF really.. smooth and detailed but not overly bright that allows me to listen for hours on end. trivistas are available from about £650 -700 on ebay (last I looked). before buying I had auditioned it against upsampling DACs like the Benchmark and Chord and to my ears the upsampling DACs at 192kHz definitely have a slightly different sound from those that upsample only to 96kHz (as the A3 does). there's a little more presense and smoothness to the sound which to me gets closer to the real thing (that being large scale orchestral pieces/opera where color and tonal reproduction of instruments and voices is most important to me and hence the change). my advice would be try and get an audition of the chord 64/trivista and see if you like the sound better (the benchmark only oversamples to 96kHz). thing is if u like the MF A3 sound and the difference isn't significant to you then there may be no real reason to upgrade.

[Knightshade]

Hi akhc, You should really try out a NOS DAC. If you like big orchestral pieces these are certainly worth a listen. Be interesting to see which you prefer out of the 2.
I'd say you made the right choice with the MF, a much more involving sound than the 64.

[akhc]

knightshade, I would.. except I really don't want to spend any more on AV.. at least not till I sell off some of the stuff I have lying around. good thing I'm single at the moment becoz I don't think any gf/wife would be prepared to put up with boxes and pieces of equipment cluttering up the living room :D!

[speedy.steve]

After some discussions with some pals I might take a punt with one of these...

http://www.kandkaudio.com/digitalaudio.html

The Tent Labs XO-DAC one. I would use a 12V DC PSU (accumulator) as the purness and simplicity appeals.

Any views?

[Knightshade]

For the money I doubt you can go wrong. I'd be very interested to hear what you think as I haven't heard one.