Merging+Nadac

[Zappadaddy]

Anythoughts on this awesome dac from Schwitz? I just have one on audition and comparing with Tamabaqui.

 

[fbhifi]

I own the the 3 piece Nadac stack and am finally happy with my digital- never thought I’d be saying that!

The single box Nadac at $11k is an absolute steal and a great place to start.

 

[masaccio]

Hi,
I have 2 NADACs, one is single box the other is NADAC + power. If you will run the LAN option, please note that NADAC is using Ravenna which is the recording studio technology developed by merging. Unlike UPnP/DLNA, Ravenna is the real time data transfer protocol. Based on this technology, NADAC gives us very clean and high speed sound. If you go to NADAC player, you can use RAAT (perhaps able to use Ravenna as well when you don’t use Roon).
In my opinion, NADAC is sensitive for LAN cable. A small tweak for improvement is changing the internal LAN cable from the original to your favorite. The sound will be changed significantly. I am afraid no chance to use “merging clock” but I know NADAC has the external clock sensitivity. I am using Antelope audio’s trinity and 10M oxco of Mutec (merging clock uses 625kHz. I don’t know why they set this freq but we can use other company’s clocks such as mutec, antelope, etc.) on the other hand, Headphone output quality is not so great as XLR/RCA output, if you are a serious headphone user, better to consider to buy headphone amps.
Regarding the Molamola, I haven’t heard yet. Perhaps you thought NADAC was better than molamola? NADAC released in 2016 but still having sound advantages due to audio over IP.
Hope this helps.

 

[Citation]

Hi Masaccio,
Can you elaborate on how the Trinity is connected to the NADAC. What frequency is it set to? If the merging clock uses 625kHz and it appears that the trinity only goes up to 284kHz, how does that work? I currently have a Mutec MC3+USB and Ref10 SE120. Do you think that would work with a NADAC or PLAYER? Right now I have a Merging Hapi but would like to upgrade to NADAC.

 

[Citation]

oops, 384kHz

 

[masaccio]

Hi, sincere apologies for my late reply.

I have both mutec mc3 USB and antelope Trinity. Also using mutec se120, cybershaft op20, and antelope 10M. In my ear, Mutec se120 sounds more explicit than cybershaft.

anyway, I tested mutec and antelope with NADAC. The freq will be fixed in 44.1 or 48, then I am setting digital sources in 44.1. Recently I stopped to use exterclocks due to space factor (but se120 is used for 2 x sotm switching hub). if you are listening to 48khz under 44.1 setting of mutec, NADAC stops to use 44.1 of mutec and uses the internal clock. I think if we like mutec or antelope, we can use them as we like. (You can hear the NADAC sound difference on/off of mutec and display will show “wck”, if doesn’t work, internal bnc cable might not be connected well)

Needless to say, unlike other word clock, the merging clock uses 625khz for NADAC. If using the latest firmware, NADAC recognizes 625khz signal of merging clock. It attracts us to use “NADAC only wordclock” based on internal 10MHz clock. But I thought a bit expensive for 103dBC @ 1Hz…

best

 

[zebo67]

Hi,
I have 2 NADACs, one is single box the other is NADAC + power. If you will run the LAN option, please note that NADAC is using Ravenna which is the recording studio technology developed by merging. Unlike UPnP/DLNA, Ravenna is the real time data transfer protocol. Based on this technology, NADAC gives us very clean and high speed sound. If you go to NADAC player, you can use RAAT (perhaps able to use Ravenna as well when you don’t use Roon).
In my opinion, NADAC is sensitive for LAN cable. A small tweak for improvement is changing the internal LAN cable from the original to your favorite. The sound will be changed significantly. I am afraid no chance to use “merging clock” but I know NADAC has the external clock sensitivity. I am using Antelope audio’s trinity and 10M oxco of Mutec (merging clock uses 625kHz. I don’t know why they set this freq but we can use other company’s clocks such as mutec, antelope, etc.) on the other hand, Headphone output quality is not so great as XLR/RCA output, if you are a serious headphone user, better to consider to buy headphone amps.
Regarding the Molamola, I haven’t heard yet. Perhaps you thought NADAC was better than molamola? NADAC released in 2016 but still having sound advantages due to audio over IP.
Hope this helps.

@masaccio, in reference to LAN cables; did you swap out internal LAN cables? I own +player and wondering if it would be worth pursuing this upgrade?

 

[masaccio]

Hi,

Thank you for your question.
Yes, I replaced the internal LAN cable. I tested (1) acoustic revive 0.5meters and (2) AET sin LAN 0.8 meters. Both showed better results than the original, unable to imagine to move back to the original LAN cable. (Also tried to change the internal clock cables but it looks they are glued with rear panel. )
please be careful about the static electricity not to damage the NADAC circuits. Perhaps soft and short cables are easier to install.
Hope this helps.

 

[zebo67]

Hi,

Thank you for your question.
Yes, I replaced the internal LAN cable. I tested (1) acoustic revive 0.5meters and (2) AET sin LAN 0.8 meters. Both showed better results than the original, unable to imagine to move back to the original LAN cable. (Also tried to change the internal clock cables but it looks they are glued with rear panel. )
please be careful about the static electricity not to damage the NADAC circuits. Perhaps soft and short cables are easier to install.
Hope this helps.

@masaccio, thank you for your feedback and advise. I will check out AR LAN, my personal two favorite LAN’s are from JCAT and Network Acoustics. I will post my impressions once I accomplish this upgrade.

 

[mageak]

any internal photos of dac i have of power but not dac

 

[zebo67]

@mageak Here is the photo of Merging NADAC.

 

[analogsa]

The PS with the freaky custom heatsinks looks a lot more impressive than the bare bones ESS dac board.