If You buy this thing ,You wont plug it in and wonder if you notice anything.Your mind wont trick you by convincing yourself that your hearing some little changes.After you plug it in your jaw will drop!!!! this is the best $200 you can spend .(especially if you own a marantz cd63 or67.)

Well, here it is: the moment you've all been waiting for, the imperative X-10D vs. Z-man ASE review!
I'll try to be as brief as possible. I have spent about 1 week with each product, and have come to the *general* conclusion that both are excellent products; either one should make an imporvement to your system. However, I favor one over the other.. which one do I favor? Let's take a look see...

My system:
NAD C340 50wpc integrated amp
Onkyo C340 CD player/transport
Magnepan MMG speakers
Audioquest F-16 speaker wire
Audioquest Turquoise interconnects
Straight Wire Chorus interconnects
Musical Fidelity X-10D / Z-man ASE
relatively "optimizable" listening room (i.e. no significant other complaning about speaker positioning, etc....)

I tried these products with a variety of software..... here are some of the primary tools I utilized in the testing:

Mahler: Symphonie 5: (Bern.)
Chopin: Nocturnes (Claudio Arrau)
Radiohead : (OK Computer)
Rolling Stones: (Beggar's Banquet)
Verdi: Force of Destiny (Armantz)
Mehta Concert (Pav, Car, Dom)
Grant Lee Buffalo (Mighty Joe Moon)
R.E.M.: (Automatic For The People)

In general, I found the ASE to be brilliant in reproducing detail and neutrality. Gone as coloration. Impact was beautiful.
However, the x-10D, while not as "neutral" sounding, did something that no other upgrade had before... it made my speakers disappear, and added serious warmth to the vocals. Stipe singing "I have GOT to find the river" sounded more full of desperation and import than ever before; "One day this ground will break" by GLB took my breath away. Chopin's runs sounded more like a piano and less like a synth.

In conclusion, I must give my final vote to the X-10D for its warmth. While perhaps not as exact as the ASE, it breathes more life into recordings. Nevertheless, I believe each to be a solid product.

Peace and happy listening!

After hearing the rave reviews about how well this product meshed with aMarantz CD-63se, I decided to try it. Hooked it up, turned everything on -
Where did my resolution go? This box really "gummed up" the sound - sure
it was "warmer," that's because it rolled off the highs. Tried it with another player and a DAC and the result was the same.

See my posting on X-DAC for details.
I'll give it a 5. I tried to remove it after using it for 1 month. I can't and will never !!

It's an excellent thing, almost a betrail of the entire audio industry by MF (given it's value versus price) !

Good cables are critical (though with patience you can get good cables cheaply).

more opened, detailed sound

original Philips valves

This little box realy works, but do not use it with 500$ and more CD players. The only suggestion is to replace original Philips ECC88 alves with any kind of ECC85. You will be surprised and you will not belive that you are listening the same system.

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Tubed Magic

Fiddly

This thing is a giant killer, man!!! Rock on!!!

It SLAYS the silly battery toy Silbatones from China made Loth x , man. At one/hundredth it s asking price.

I am using this at the tail end of a very high end system front end. CEC TL0/DcS Elgar and it rocks. Yuuube magic out ma as*man...go git it. It rocks.

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Loth X Silbatone pre-amp

Increase in soundstage,smoother more tranparent sound.

? for this price??? come on now??

Wow,what a range of opinions on this product!..First off,I saw a review of this item in several audio magazines some time back..I thought,hmmm,intresting,but..My reciever has a full digital chain,with no straight analog bypass,so the Dac10 would serve no purpose...Well,a few months ago I talked to a local High-end audio dealer who also happens to be qualifed in component design and he informed me that,yes,putting the audio signal through the Dac10,then to the inputs of my reciever would make a difference...(perhaps)...Well,I figured what thne heck and bought one from AudioAdvisor..(After asking the salesmen the same question about its benefit.)Honestly folks,these guys are honest,and wouldnt lie to get a sale...Anyway,upon hookup and 4days of continous breakin,I found that the sound did seem warmer and more detailed when playing CDs..Yes,I know the Pioneer ADs chips processed the signal again,but,the ouput stage of the DAC10 is different then the Pioneer CD player,hence the difference in sound? Anyway,after a few weeks of listening,I decided to try it through my VCR...WOW,folks,this really is what the DAC10 should be used for..Stereo T.V broadcasts were much smoother and engaging.Movies broadcast in surround sound also benefitted from the DAC10 by being more subtle in detail and less harsh in the higher end..Obviously this cant be used for Dolby Digital sources,but for standard stereo cable and satalite systems,along with stereo VCRs,the DAC10 is a great addition! In some sytems that offer a TRUE digital bypass mode,the DAC10 might offer even better results..However,novices remember that your system(reciever) has to clearly state that it offers this bypass,or your really not getting TUBE-LIKE sound..Though like me you may hear a difference due to the ouput stage difference..!..

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AMCDAC,All Pioneer Elite electronics,Cd player,Reciever,Tapedeck,DVD player..

is this simple: this gizmo makes wonders with low budget components up to £250 a piece so for starting upgraders: audition first without it then plug it and fly

Softens bright electronics. Good impedence control tames wild output on mid-fi and cheaper CD players very nicely.

VERY system dependent. Numerous negatives that have to be weighted against benefits. Too expensive an investment at retail for what it does, compared to what you can get. Good at used prices though ($80-110).

I've had one for about a year and just removed it from my A/V system used for music, surround music, and home theatre. I feel it's a good time to comment having compared it to the DAC.

I used the X10-D with both a Denon 360 CD Changer and a Marantz 65SE Changer. The receiver being a Denon AVR 2400, which actually has very good potential, and Paradigm Reference Studio 20s, which I am still very fond of after trying out about 6 other speakers with values up to about $1800. The the 'dimes tend to be tipped up on the treble, and are very revealing of all the upper frequency crud your electronics can have. They also sound incredible when mated to pretty high catagory equipment, so it's not hard to know with these speakers what sounds good and what doesn't.

Before installation, the system did not sound too good at lower volume levels...it had to be played pretty loud before it would sound good. Treble was very bright and forward. Dymamics seemed strong, especially with the Marantz, but not at all well controlled. I at first suspected the speakers were the problem, but found out later that wasn't the case, though they may have contributed by being mismatched to the other gear.

I installed the "X" with DH Labs BL-1 interconnects (having tried a few others quite a bit costlier and finding these by far the best of the lot). What happened was momentarily perceived as a decrease in dynamics, but very soon realized that the system was much more listenable over a far greater volume range. I think it had less to do with tubes, and alot more to do with the X being an good impedence control that helps CD players maintain good equalibrium throughout their frequency range. When the "naked" CD player was on its own, the sound was all over the place. With the X, it was much more well behaved. It was also alot smoother, not nearly so edgy.

On the downside, I felt the bass regions got weaker and less well defined. I did lose detail and speed, and picked up some overall muddiness and loss of soundstage. Overall though, it made this particular system much more enjoyably listenable for longer periods of time than without it. Now on to the comparisons with the DAC...

Ok, so I yank the X out and in goes the MSB Link DAC III, with a new CD Transport--a very highly modified Marantz 67SE based unit (about $250 in mods done on it, that was turned into a transport only machine. Unbelievable! I'm amazed at what the Denon and the Paradigms now put out. These Paradigms are gorgeous now, and play well at every volume level. It's hard to say as to how much credit goes to the DAC and how much to the CD transport, as I haven't tried the DAC with the Marantz 65SE changer yet.

After burning in the cables for awhile I tried slipping the X in between the MSB DAC and the Denon, to try to figure out it's "real" sound. It didn't take long to figure out the X was not something to put between this beautiful Transport/DAC combo and the receiver. There were no benefits I could hear, as my source equipment manages all those needs exceedingly well. Negatives were smeared and blurriness, loss of imaging, detail, and soundstage, and much less well defined bass.

In conclusion, I'd say it's a good item for mid-fi to lower mid-fi CD players and harsh, bright electronics poor control. It can be a pleasureable addition to these types of systems. It doesn't seem to have a place with higher end "Class B" level source componentry. Musical Fidelity even states it in its literature included with the X10-D that it is intended to improve lower to mid-fi CD players, without mention of higher end use.

Also, the retail price of $200, (I'm not sure they are still available, as Audio Advisor no longer had them listed on their site) I think you are far better off saving up a couple hundred dollars more for an MSB Link DAC III, which Stereophile rates as "Class B $$$ (very high value for the price)". This seems to really be the ticket. If you can get one used though for around $80-100, and have an extra set of decent interconnects, it could make your system significantly more listenable, less harsh and fatiguing, and more dynamically controlled. You'll have to try it out yourself with your own componentry, but I still think stepping up to the MSB Link DAC, even a used version I or II, would be the better choice.

Overall rating based on systems it is intended for (not comparing to Levinson, etc.!)

Value is based on what you get for your money, averaging new and used prices. 1 star value rating at $200, considering the MSB Link DAC can be bought new for about $360.

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Using inline DAC now--MSB Link DAC III

Extends bass

Kills sound stage,midrange out of phase,muddy treble

After buying a Marantz 67SE and a pair of Kimber Hero cables to upgrade my system. I hook it all up. The sound is extremly foward and the treble is very harsh.To say the least I,m very diapointed.But I,ve heard a lot of great things about this X-10d so what the heck I buy one of those too. I plug it up with a pair of Kimber PBJ's & hero's going to the preamp. It helped somewhat but in the back of my mind I know I've made a mistake($450 cd player,$200 two sets of cables,$180 X-10d thing).Well I left it alone for about 6 months.Then I read some reviews about how the kimber heros were too bright on some source components so I pick up a pair of well broken in MIT Terminator 2 cables and put the kimbers between the the preamp and amp with the MIT's going from the cd player to the preamp and the X-10d sitting in a box. Now the sound is open and clean in phase and on time.Sound stage is twice as large. Every now and then I hook up the I X-10d(it does look pretty cool) and I realize how much this thing freaks my stereo out.If you feel like you need one of these things, go buy a new cd player or some better cables or a 6 pack of your favorite brew. I can assure you that your money will be spent more wisely. Terry Clarkson

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