Mousai MSD192 DAC | Audiophile | DACs | Drop
Went ahead and grabbed it for some reason, looked cute. An old OEM clone of an even older Questlye. Any thoughts?
Thinking it will be kinda fuzzy wuzzy. might try to swap op amps. Hoping to get a SE tube headphone amp this fall (maybe hagerman or tor?) i was thinking an older dac might pair well.
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Hello,
I saw that one too.
It looks good.
The Nichicon Fg capacitors look good and the Wolfson chip will definitely make it musical, probably balanced treble and crisp bass.
Too bad it is no longer available in the Eu version.
Might have been a good replacement for the Cambridge Dac magic100.
I’m currently using it with the Little Dot 1+ and it works.
So yes it won’t be able to play dsd and co but it will be able to play music.
And for the price you can’t go wrong.
I wonder where Massdrop dug that one up.
I hope it’s not a remnant found by chance in the warehouse.
Oh yes, the op amp can’t be changed there, but at least I don’t see anything on the Dac.
Edit: find a quick Rewiev about them:
http://www.changstar.com/www.changstar.com/index.php/topic%2C1792.0.html
Hello everyone, first time poster. I don’t mean to hijack, but there isn’t a lot of activity so I figured it was ok. If not, you may all shun me and send me back to the shadows of this forum 
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Has anyone else had experience with this dac? I picked one up before the drop ended and I was curious if anyone had any opinions on a good amp to pair it with. I currently have an smsl su-8 feeding a loxjie p20 (balanced) and a liquid spark.
My initial thought was to pair the mousai with the liquid spark, but if anyone has any other amp suggestions, I would love to hear them. It doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest amp either. It could be something from a few years ago that doesn’t get the attention the new stuff gets. I like good value (who doesn’t) and I’m not against going used.
Thanks in advance!
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Hello,
No, you are not disturbing and you are welcome.
So welcome.
To the Dac:
I think the implementation is one of the good ones that was made in combination with the Wolfson chip at that time.
Certainly not the world’s best but a very good one.
As you have already seen, it was made with the current Questyle head.
So I’m not so worried about that.
I think this box is better than the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic100.
And also pushed a good bit to the limits that existed at the time,
I saw it and didn’t pay enough attention to it.
In hindsight, I should have gone for the price it was advertised at.
I also think it’s better than the Cambridge because it’s built to go straight to Class A instead of D.
This directly eliminates noise and saves money on a better power supply.
They don’t even have bad amplifiers from the old Baj series that will certainly run well with it.
As inspiration the Schiit Asgard 3,Rupert Neve,Singxer Sa 1 and many more would work very well.
I would gear the amp to your headphones that you have.
It depends on which one you have and how much power you need to drive it.
The Dac is less of a problem in that respect.
Not to mention it was in the $500 league at the time.
So it will cover a lot.
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Thank you for all the info! I’ve had my eye on the Singxer, I think it fits my headphones selection well (t50rp mayflower mod, t20rp, grado sr125, akg k240 sextett, akg k240m 600ohm, kph30i ultra, yamaha mt5, shure srh840.) However, i’m also curious how my two 600ohm k240s would sound on a tube. I’m debating if I should go the tube route instead?
You’re not intruding at all. I think its cool to find someone else who will be trying it. I’m more of a lurker here myself but it seems to be a pretty civil place compared to other places like it.
I’ve never heard the liquid spark, but have heard good things about it, seems like it would be a fine start. I’m almost 40 and have worked events my whole life so i might not have the best ears to judge, but i’ll try to report back. I can try it with a schitt jotunheim 1, massdrop 789, and geshelli archel gmr (their newest least expensive, unbalanced inputs only).
I want my next amp to be a tube, but if i was going for a level up in solid state, singxer would be on my short list, or rebel amp for me, but my hardest to drive set right now is the senn hd650 so i don’t really need much power. If i do grab a tube amp ill try to come back here with how they work together.
also looking forward to complaining about massdrop shipping together 
hopefully not tho
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So if you’re a little bit into tube amps but often have low ohm headphones.
A hybrid amplifier is the better alternative.
Unless the tube amp has 800mw to 1 watt output on 32 ohm then it would be feasible.
The only one I know that works with low ohm headphones is the Woo Audio Wa06.
For the American side quite interesting also for Europeans if you are willing to pay more.
Another alternative would be the Cayhin Ha something.
But with hybrid amplifiers you have to be careful, not everyone is good.
I found the Aurium Patos quite overpriced for what it delivers.
Would certainly be good with the Mousai Msd Dac.
Yes, not everyone likes tube amps - it took me a while to get the spark.
With the Little Dot 1+ hybrid amplifier it worked, especially with planar headphones.
Singxer is certainly a good choice at the moment and worthwhile even for beginners.
got a notice that my order shipped! What a weird drop, never get stuff early.
Lucky you! No update for me yet. Crossing my fingers
came today, doesn’t power on lol
That’s a shame. I ended up getting mine on Thursday but didn’t have a chance to open it up yet. Saw your post and immediately plugged it in. Fortunately, mine turned on.
Stupid question, did you flipped the switch on the back to the on position as well as hit the power button on the front. I didn’t see the switch on the back at first and thought I got a dud too
If you are a European, did you make sure when ordering on Massdrop that there were 2 versions in the voltage selection?
You could choose between 115/230 volts.
By default, the page says 115 volts and then you have to select 230 volts.
If you selected 115v, it may have been inadvertent when you ordered it, but if it is plugged into a normal socket in Europe, it will not work.
If you plug it into a normal socket in Europe, it won’t work or it will destroy it and the fuse may have blown.
Because the European voltage is too high for the appliance.
Check the fuse again and see if it has remained intact or has changed colour.
In the case of my wife’s 3D printer, an Us device was sent to her by mistake and it blew the power supply and motherboard, although the fuse should have tripped beforehand.
@Nostromo give us some feedback please 
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lololol i didn’t even see that switch, it had been a long day. glad i saw your reply, and thanks Deleeh, too, but yeah im 115v here it works just burning it in, thanks guys!
Awesome, I’m glad it’s not broken!
How are you feeding it, usb or coaxial? I haven’t had a chance to try hooking up to windows 10 yet. If it doesn’t play nice with windows 10, I think my only option is to get a spdif to coaxial converter and run it that way
yeah fine on windows 10 out of box, tested youtube and roon wasabi exclusive. i think the drivers would only be necessary for asio, and i doubt those play nice with windows 10. Asio is necessary for DSD, but since this dac doesn’t have that you probably don’t need the drivers at all for windows 10
oh yeah that was usb, i think windows stole so much from linux that it fixed the audio issues, probably inadvertently.
also i think the thx from massdrop doesn’t like the slightly higher voltage, seems to clip alot at no so loud, (single ended to single ended to neumann ndh20) might try a gesheli amp later