SOLD: Audial Model S Mk2, SPDIF w/ OPTs

Selling my Audial Model S Mk2 DAC, with two BNC inputs, one pair RCA out, one pair XLR out, and both hooked up with very nice Jensen output transformers.

Unit works perfectly, and while it is in fair condition overall, it has some particular cosmetic flaws. The top of the unit has 4 worn down spots from where I had an amp sitting on it, and I had some adhesive foam applied to the amp's feet (bad idea). Eventually that made a mess on the DAC, which I then had to polish down to clean off. The front of the amp has some scratches on it from where I tried to clean it, because apparently I don't know how to clean brushed aluminum. Lastly, the machined, sunken portion of the front plate around the power button has some scratches and blemishes, but make note the DAC came like that. There are some other machining blemishes in the front plate. The back plate has some mild scratches from me missing the RCA and BNC jacks, which I think is true of a lot of used gear.

I think this DAC compares favorably with modern multibit DACs, but with a non-oversampling design. I've heard a lot of people say the TDA1541 somewhat polite and midrange focused. Personally, I thought this DAC sounded fairly balanced and powerful, not the sort of polite, mid-focused sound I've read about. I think a proper design for this chip matters.

I personally prefer it to both the Holo Spring and Menuet. Sonically, it sounds a surprising amount like the Pavane or Adagio, granted the TDA1541 chip does have its own flavor and is a vintage, 16-bit chip, the latter which means you can only go so far with ENOB. I personally thought it was closer in overall performance to Gungnir Multibit than Bifrost Multibit, but you may hear otherwise depending on your affinity towards non-oversampling.

Measurements of this DAC are very impressive, and not just for NOS. The designer did a lot of work to essentially meet the maximum specs listed on the TDA1541's datasheet. He's gone as far as hand picking chips from a specific batch year from a specific production factory (usually they meet S1 or S2 spec). His technical work with and study of the TDA1541 might be unmatched in the DIY community. There's a lot of love and work put into this, and it's not half-assed, even with some cosmetic imperfections.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about this DAC to anyone interested.

SOLD, PLEASE CLOSE

 

Front side view. You can see some of the blemishes and scratches I somehow managed to add while attempting to clean the unit.












The machining process around the power button caused these blemishes. I don't know how to get them out. It came this way.




Side view. Some additional machining imperfections.




Other side.




Top side view. You can see some blemishes from where I had that amp sitting on top, and the marks I left from cleaning up adhesive residue (damping material on amp feet).




Another top side view with blemishes.




Back side. Some scratches from blindly trying to plug things in.

 

I'll let the buyer take that risk.

 

Trade you for ZD?

 

Bump! Could use the cash right now, seeing as another part of my fence just blew over due to wind (fun year so far...).

 

Whoa! I closed this in one of my cleaning sessions. Still open! Someone buy Hands DAC please!

 

Bump

 

bump

 

sell yer junk at Head-if

 

Bump

 

Yep, it's on HF as well.

 

Bump. Bit of a price drop. Really need to move this thing.

 

Bump, price dropped to $1100 shipped.

 

Bump. Maybe someone into MHDT DACs should buy this to compare to their MHDT with the 1541.

 

Could have bought this instead of MHDT.