Musical Fidelity V90 DAC Digital to Analogue Converter

I bought this DAC more or less on impulse, mainly because I was having exasperating trouble with a much more expensive DAC that was giving me severe drop-out problems on the co-ax input, and I wanted an alternatative DAC as a standby while I tried to get it fixed. I'm so impressed by this product however that it could well be taking pole position. It is neat and very well made, taking up an unobtrusive yet decorous position on the shelf: it is easy to set up, just plug in and play. I read that it takes a good few hours to run in before it is as its best, but I was impressed with it from the start. I run it from an MF V-Link 11 via co-ax into a Heed CanAmp, using Etymotic and AKG 'phones. The replay is very smooth, giving a very exact, high definition sound, just as it really is. One might say it could be a tad restrained and over-mannered, not full throated, precise rather than punchy: so if your taste is for heavy rock, you may feel short changed. But as I said, it's not fully burned in yet, I will be giving an update after more usage. Well it certainly suits all my purposes, playing classics and jazz, on CD's, MP3 and FLAC files. I'm going through my favourite numbers, with new delight as though hearing them afresh. Well pleased with the purchase, really at this price it's an obvious choice for quality listening.Update 03/06/2014. M.D. Worsely and general commentators on this product have been proved right: the reticence of this DAC is quickly overcome by usage, it soon becomes much more assertive, with a broad expansion of its effects and listening engagement. It combines accuracy with excitement, giving a real enjoyment of listening without any carping reservations, a giddy sense of Wow! where is all this coming from? Arrived today the Fidelity Audio PSU, which I connected to the DAC via Russ Andrews Powercord. Some striking nuances and subtleties detected so far, but it needs more settling in before reaching any definitive judgement. That measly little wall-wart on the V90 DAC is reasonable enough, if you're not too finecky. What is remarkable however is that this reasonably priced product can be compared to much more expensive models, and still found to be superior.

Beautifully built, sounds gorgeous, very nicely packaged; but.... it's not easy to use in the UK. For a product that's British-designed for the British market, it falls down on one major point - you can't power it without a UK to EU mains adapter plug!! Given that you are advised not to use any power adapter other than the one supplied with the unit, you're forced to either use an adapter or come up with another power supply. For a unit costing nearly £250, I think that's a very poor show indeed!On to the sound itself. This is a huge improvement over every laptop sound system I've heard (and that includes the B&O system in my HP laptop) and compares very favourably indeed with my Meridian Director, (which I use with the same laptop and speakers JBL Creature II's). The bass is tight, with detail in the treble and a warmth to virtually any musical genre that you care to throw at the whole - jazz, classical, pop, rock, vocals all show huge improvements over any internal laptop sound system. One thing I have noticed is that when the laptop wakes from sleep, the DAC fails to re-acquire lock with the signal over the USB and needs to be turned off and back on again to re-sync; a minor inconvenience.The Musical Fidelity V90-HPA - headphone amplifier came with a completely different power supply (with interchangeable plugs), so did not suffer from the same power supply problem as the DAC. I've reviewed the v90-HPA separately, so won't re-cover that ground other than to say that the V90-DAC, coupled with the V90-HPA using Kenable Pure OFC HQ 2 x RCA phono to phono stereo audio cable 50cm to connect the two (I don't want hanks of cable on my desk) works beautifully with the KEF M500 Over-Ear Hi-Fi Headphones - White, is certainly one of the best-sounding desktop systems that I have heard in many a year, with no shortage of power for the headphones.One caution I will mention is that Musical Fidelity told me this morning that the entire V90 range has been discontinued, so if you're after almost hyper-fi quality at reasonable cost, get in quick; stocks won't last long!