Đánh giá musical fidelity m1 clic dac pre network player năm 2024

Essentially it combines a high-quality streamed music player, internet radio, 24-bit/192kHz digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) and pre-amplifier in one compact box.

The multi-faceted M1 CLiC handles and enhances a vast array of sources and formats, with support for both wired and wireless networking increasing its flexibility further still.

Whether you’re enjoying a new level of music quality from a laptop, Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad, USB drive or more traditional sources, the M1 CLiC clearly displays what it’s playing on its bright, colourful display.

The M1 CLiC’s exceptional capabilities may mean it’s a hard product to categorise, but they make it easy to praise. EISA - Europe’s most prestigious technology association – named the M1 CLiC as Best Network Player in its 2011-2012 Awards; Gramophone’s review called it “remarkable for the money”, Hi-Fi News dubbed it “outstanding’ and Hi-Fi World declared ‘it’s hard to think of another product that’s as versatile’.

Think of the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC as the little DAC that could. For its very modest asking price, you got and get a lotta DAC for the money. Excellent technical performance, good looks and smooth sound make the M1 DAC a winner, especially now on the used market. The changes I’ve designed here elevate its performance to the next level.

UPDATE – Jan 2019 – The M1 DAC is for sale!

UPDATE – Jan 2019 – SOLD!

Design & Features

The M1 DAC has, at its heart, the TI/Burr-Brown DSD1796 DAC chip. The DSD1796 is a high-spec chip, with excellent signal-to-noise performance and very low distortion. It’s not as good as the DSD1792 found in the Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 DAC and others.

Both chips are in current production (in 2018) and the DSD1792 is still the second most expensive audio DAC chip TI sells. In qualities of 1000+, the DSD1796 retails for around $3USD a piece though, vs $12USD each for the DSD1796, reducing manufacturing costs considerably.

The M1 DAC I modified

The M1 DAC uses a switched-mode or switching power supply, not “switch-mode” as you’ll often see them mistakenly called. A switching power supply or SMPS is cheaper to make than a linear power supply. They are also better suited to standby operation and multi-voltage usage, but alas, they are also noisier.

Usefully, the M1 DAC has four digital inputs – coaxial, TOSlink, AES/EBU and USB. These toggle with a tactile push button on the front panel. Fit and finish are very good and the DAC feels very solid and well-built, which it is.

Inside the M1 DAC, with Mike aged 5 annotations: 1. Mains input and filters 2. Rectification, filtering, switching, more filtering 3. Oscillator and sample rate conversion 4. Digital to analog conversion 5. Current to voltage conversion, output buffering and muting. The USB input sits between 1 and 5.

Versions

There are two versions of the M1 DAC. The first was produced until the end of 2010 and has the cleanest internal layout. Its limitation is the USB input, which only accepts data at up to 16/48kHz. Many won’t care about this, I for one.

The second version, produced from January 2011, has an improved USB input accepting data at up to 24/96kHz. The layout of the output buffer is more cramped, but MF may have cleaned up the grounds because the second version measured slightly quieter in Stereophile’s testing.

Musical Fidelity M1 DAC Specifications

Courtesy of Musical Fidelity

[Performance]


Jitter: <12 picoseconds peak to peak
THD(+ noise): <0.0025% 10Hz to 20 kHz
Frequency Response: +0, –1dB, 5Hz to 100 kHz

[Inputs]


XLR AES balanced digital input
RCA coaxial connector SPDIF 32-192 kbps (16-24 bit stereo PCM)
TOSLINK optical connector 32-96 kbps (16-24 bit stereo PCM)
USB type ‘B’ connector for computer/PDA - 16-24 bits, 32-96 kbps (Determined by source file/computer settings)

[Outputs]


Line-level RCA (single-ended)
Line level XLR (balanced)

[General]


Dimensions - WxHxD (mm): 220 x 100 x 300
Weight (unpacked/packed): 3.4 kg / 4.1 kg

Reviews

The M1 DAC was generally well-received at the time of release. Stereophile enthusiastically reviewed the M1, with :

“What I mainly heard from the M1 DAC was nothing: an absence of artifacts, if you want to get fancy. There was no fudging of detail, no smearing of transients. Purity of tone was exceptional—and this remained true when I took the M1 DAC upstairs to play with its brother, the M1 HPA headphone amp. So addictive is this DAC that I can’t bear to replace it with another…” Sam Tellig

As Stereophile’s test engineer, John Atkinson said himself, after putting the M1 DAC on the test bench:

“It may be affordably priced, but in almost all ways, Musical Fidelity’s M1 DAC offers performance that is close to the state of the art.” JA

It’s quite clear from these comments that these guys were very impressed with the M1 DAC. Many others were too, like Audio Stream, TechRadar and HiFi Review.

Liquid Audio Upgrades

The M1 DAC sounds good out of the box, dead quiet, smooth and grain-free. But it’s also somewhat dull, lacking air, resolution and microdetail, compared to the best DACs I’ve heard and owned. I wanted to see what I could do for this little DAC in terms of some modest, carefully implemented improvements.

I planned a series of upgrades, similar in spirit to those I developed for the Tri-Vista 21 DAC, and more recently this Tri-Vista 21 DAC. As usual, I focussed on the power supplies, DAC and signal path, utilizing better quality parts and greater attention to bypassing and decoupling.

As I often do, you can watch an accompanying video to this article over on my YouTube channel:

Be careful or at least mindful of the comments section of my videos, and others. I monitor the comments to ensure misinformation and BS don’t lead my viewers astray, but people still try. I had a guy say that what you should do here is not any of the carefully considered work I’ve done of course, but instead “Replace ‘trafo’ with 200VA,”. Yeah. This commenter obviously missed the part where the M1 doesn’t even use a transformer of the type he was referring to! Comment gold like this is usually removed, it’s easier than arguing with people 😂

Before…

It’s worth taking a look at everything before we start, to see what Musical Fidelity did and where improvements can be made.

The mainboard, removed from the chassis. This board is nicely made but populated with the usual cheap Jamicon caps, film caps and ceramics. It’s easy to work on though.In this image, we see several local power supply regulators like REG2; IC3 – the DSD1796 DAC chip; IC5 – the weakest link here, in my opinion, the quad op-amp; IC7 and 107 – the JRC5532DD output buffer op-amps. The black capacitors next to them are the output coupling caps. These are obvious targets for improvement.Typical MF, loads of Jamicon caps, certainly not the worst in the world, but these can be easily improved.

After…

Now, let’s look at how I improved things for the M1 DAC.

I replaced the Jamicon capacitors with Panasonic FM, low ESR, high temp, high ripple current parts.I replaced all the electrolytic, film and ceramic caps in the critical digital and analog signal areas. Here you can see a range of Elna SILMIC, Nichicon Fine Gold and WIMA film capacitors. I used some of my best parts from stock, because I could and why not?Regulators, operational firmware and lots of nice caps here now. Elna SILMIC caps are a premium grade capacitor, specifically designed for critical areas like DAC chip local filtering, as used for here. Each WIMA replaces a ceramic decoupling or bypass cap. MF did great design work, but the accountants got in the way and made them cheap out in production.Note the component installation neatness, something I’m very particular about. Leads should be as short as possible and I like everything to be straight, aligned and aesthetically perfect. For me, if someone opened this, they should have no way to know it was ever improved, except for the superb quality parts.The low-quality output coupling capacitors had to go. I’ve replaced them with these green Nichicon MUSE bipolar caps. I’ve further improved them with WIMA polypropylene film bypass capacitors, under the board for the best performance.Here are the WIMA bypass capacitors. These improve the performance of the MUSE coupling capacitors.Another shot of those pretty MUSE bipolar audio grade capacitors. Note the cream ERO rail decoupling caps around each JRC5532DD op-amp. The 5532 has been around a long time but is a technically excellent op-amp.Fully upgraded mainboard, with original factory parts in the background.The 60 or so parts I’ve replaced in this M1 DAC. I’ve also added a few more not visible here. The yellow mains suppression X2 cap was completely dead. I replaced it with a premium Kemet part.The finished M1 DAC. The end result is very pleasing, the DAC sounds much nicer than in stock form.

Further Improvement

Is there room for further improvement? Of course, but I believe the art lies in finding the balance between price and performance. This is a budget DAC and I’ve hopefully created the best bang-for-the-buck improvements one might reasonably make to an M1. The DAC has limitations, most notably in terms of the output buffer. Not much can be done here, other than to focus on the coupling capacitors and possibly change the quad op-amp for something better.

Realistically, the amount of work and quality of parts I’ve used in these modifications take this M1 DAC to its limit. I would not suggest doing any more, because returns will be limited. I hit all of the low-hanging fruit, without overreaching. Some design limitations of the M1 such as that non-discrete output buffer I mentioned would require surgery to circumvent. Discrete op amps might help, but for me, that’s probably a bridge too far.

Performance

So, how does my modified Musical Fidelity M1 DAC sound after all this hard work? Fantastic! The upgrades have given her what I hoped they would – more air, more oomph and a more relaxed, musical sound. The DAC sounds less dull, more involving, resolves more detail now and is a big step up from stock.

I suggest utilising the balanced outputs wherever possible. Balanced signal transmission is technically superior and sonically beats the single-ended output, with obviously better bass performance. With balanced equipment, you get the added benefits of lower noise and the negligible impact of longer cable runs.

The Bottom Line

If you want to buy an M1 DAC and enjoy it as is, go for it. They sound great out of the box and are very capable for the money, which isn’t much these days. Alternatively, you may already own one and be looking to improve its performance. This is worth considering and, if done right, you’ll end up with a strong performer, definitely better than standard.

The M1 is no giant killer and does not perform as well as the PS Audio NuWave DSD is for example, but I definitely recommend the Musical Fidelity M1 as a high-performance, budget DAC, with a strong performance for the money and a solid upgrade path, should you wish to take it.

Get in touch if you’d like me to improve your M1 DAC.

Footnote

If you’ve enjoyed this article and appreciate the time and effort that went into creating it, you can say thanks by shouting me a drink or making a donation via the contact page or the donate button in the footer. You can feel good about giving something back too, because very few people bother, which is why I’ve stopped producing this style of article.