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M1Clic - my experience so far.

Posted by kenzo (A) on December 15, 2013 at 12:44:12

Thought folks might be interested in my experience with an M1Clic so far, since they are still on sale on the internet for $499.

One of the limitations of natural language of course is that we cannot communicate subtle chacteristics of sound with anywhere near the complexity and detail of actual hearing. So we have to rely on euphimisms such as "bright, flat, laid back, forward, muddy" etc. etc. All of which are pathetic approximations of the actual pysco acoustic experience of human hearing.

With that said, my best digital file based sound so far in my environment has been vi Sony Vaoi optical out to Musical Fidelity V1 DAC, then to my "prime system" preamp and amp (Transcendent Sound grounded grid preamp -> T8-LN OTL power amp -> Reference3A DeCapo I spekers). So that will be the reference. I've owned and used many dacs in the last few years including Benchmark, Cambridge Audio, Musical Fidelity, and even a non-oversampling VALAB.

M1Clic has two audio outputs. 1 output where volume is controlled by included remote, and one output at full "line level" as in a typical DAC.

I've left the M1Clic running for much of the past week streaming files from attached USB hard drive, so it has had at least 100 hours burn in.

After about 16 hours of critical listening - to everything from country to classical - using the line level output into the grounded grid, I find the sound to be a little too "soft" and electronic sounding.

This surprised me since I don't find the V1 - a dac by the same manufacturer - to have the same characteristic in my system. The V1 sounds just right to me- not harsh or digital sounding in the highs, but still plenty of high end speed and energy, and with sweet midrange with plenty of "presence". With the V1, cymbals, clapping, etc. sound just right, and with no hint of digititis.

Not quite so much with the M1's dac and line level output into the grounded grid. It sounded consistently too soft and a tiny bit "flat". This is not a characteristic I have ever in the past associated to the Grounded Grid- it is one of the most musical sounding yet exciting preamps I have heard.

So I decided to try the M1Clic's "preamp" out connected directly into the T8 therefore bypassing my Grounded Grid preamp.

Surprisingly, I hear a noticeable improvement. The mids and highs are less "electronic" sounding, brass has the bite it should, but mids are still sweet and highs more extended, with only a touch more sibilance than with the "soft sounding" line level output. Appluse/clapping now sounds much more realistic- one can hear the individual slaps, not just a blur of lower pitched hiss.

The overall sound - in my system - using the "preamp" output of the M1Clic now rivals the excitement level of my previous reference. If I keep the M1Clic, I will not be passing the signal through my beloved Grounded Grid preamp.

This confirms my experience in the last few years. When evaluating the sound of individual components in a high quality system, the "synergy" of the different characteristics and sound qualities of the individual components muddies the evaluation of any one of them.

A device that may make one system sound the best it ever has, may do just the opposite for a system with a very different chain of components depending on how the various qualities and imperfections of the individual components complement - or clash - with the others although each individual component may be considered high quality and well reviewed and respected in the industry.

It's the whole system of course that is being evaluated. And assuming very high quality components, substitution of only one component may tell more about it's particular synergy with those other system components than anything else.

Like others here, I regret the M1Clic does not have an sp/dif output so it could be used simply as a streamer. Musical Fidelity _really_ missed the boat on that one. I wonder if it was time to market, cost, faulty marketing research, or perhaps some contractual limitation with the outsourcer of the streaming circuitry that caused MF to design "out" an sp/dif output. I expect we'll never know.

These days you really have to design that capability "out", otherwise it would be there by default...

kenzo

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