ECdesigns

for information AIRPLAY is bit perfect as long as you stay with 16/44 files . for the PLL inside the Mosaic dac it can certainly get rid of the optical fiber and receiver Jitter but the less you have at the input the better it will be . the Aries mini is certainly a good device for lower jitter out . as for reading upsampled files instead of native resolution some says it is better some says not. have good times with your new toy ;

Sorry. You're right! Thanks

Sorry. You're right! Thanks

Thanks for posting your first impressions, good to have a update ( and get others' experience too) in time. How long from placing order to receiving the DAC?

Im happy if I could help you. 6 days

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/mutec-mc-3-a-17300/index9.html

perhaps a little too much for the task but it seems the perfect low jitter optical device for the mosaic T dac

Im happy if I could help you. 6 days

so , what are your opinion about the Mosaic after few days with it ?

hi , every body . i have received my Ec design Mosaic T dac , i have a mixed feeling as the sound of the Dac seems very good

but i have some problems of Sync with my 2 airport express digital out ( one stock and one PS moded) the problem is click and pops when changing tracks ( Roon + tidal) and sudden horrible white noise when the Dac went out sync.

with Itunes and airplay it is more stable but not entirely . i had emails with Ec design to try solving this annoying problem.

i know there are problems with some airports express optical out so

i will try a better USB/optical converter and a glass toslink cable to be sure.

for the sound on itself , it seems promising but i will tell later if i succeed fixing the instability first.

As I already said. And still can confirm till now. There are no problems at all with streaming via Aries mini.

happy to hear that , i have made some change in my set up i have disable the Wifi on my airport and feed it with ethernet and i 'm trying now Roon /ttidal with HQ player as output player and it seems working fine, no clicks and pops or Sync problem with the Airport until now . but for sure HQ player sounds far better than room or iTunes ..

for information AIRPLAY is bit perfect as long as you stay with 16/44 files . for the PLL inside the Mosaic dac it can certainly get rid of the optical fiber and receiver Jitter but the less you have at the input the better it will be . the Aries mini is certainly a good device for lower jitter out . as for reading upsampled files instead of native resolution some says it is better some says not. have good times with your new toy ;

Airplay doesn't sound good to me prolly because it transcodes files to 16/44 ALAC for transmission (I prefer FLAC/WAV to ALAC). Out of interest, have you tried connecting your AE using an ethernet cable? Might sound better/solve dropouts...

Airplay doesn't sound good to me prolly because it transcodes files to 16/44 ALAC for transmission (I prefer FLAC/WAV to ALAC). Out of interest, have you tried connecting your AE using an ethernet cable? Might sound better/solve dropouts...

i have the same problems of clicks and pop with the optical output ( 2Meter plastic toslink) of my TV .

that's why i have decided to try a MuTEC MC3 usb ( reclocker) on trial next week , i think it will be able to cure my problems or i let down..

I solved the problem.

The A1264 that works has 7.6 firmware version.

The two A1264 that don't work have last firmware version 7.6.4

I downgrade to 7.6.3 and it doesn't work.

with 7.6.1 version it works perfectly.

Hope this can help someone.

this post on DIY audio save my life.

now my airport (A1264) works fine with the old driver . no more drop out with the Mosaic Tdac with Roon or others players ..

next match Airport express VS Mutec MC3usb as source . don't bet too fast

finally i have all the goods that deserve the Mosaic T dac . and yes it makes a big let me say gigantic difference.

for the first few days i have received the Mosaic i had a mixed feeling about it , first i had a lot of problems with my system to get it works , bad firmware on my airport express , cheap plastic tousling cable and even at the end i have succeed to make it wright with a good sounds i was not entirely happy with the sound . sure it was very detailed and dynamic but there was a kind of harshness who let me think that i will never get rid of the " digitalis" type of sounding even with a Set tube amp with carbon Pot.

then arrives the Mutec MC3 and later the Fiber GLASS lifatech toslink to Mini toslink cable.

the MC3 change the game at the first seconds of listening , unfortunately can"t go back to the cheaper Airport optical output.

remembers my old audiophiles days it"s like going from a Wadia 12 to a WADIA 25 dac everything is better more image , more details, very refined highs and stronger bass too. the Mosaic was now a very very good dac one of the best i had before ( audio aero , berkeley alpha model 1, totaldac A1 , etc..)

but at my surprise the biggest gap came from the short Lifatech fiberglass Toslink . the Mutec MC3 + the LIfatech cable put the Mosaic dac to a level i never heard before. with my Wadia compares i have now the WADIA 9 drived with a CEC TLO .

to resume , first the Mosaic dac is fantastic music player all price category .

two it"s not easy girl you need the best feeding it to get the best from it , software included. impossible with it to listen to iTunes anymore . Hq player of Audirvana is the minimum ( on Mac) .

finally i have all the goods that deserve the Mosaic T dac . and yes it makes a big let me say gigantic difference.

for the first few days i have received the Mosaic i had a mixed feeling about it , first i had a lot of problems with my system to get it works , bad firmware on my airport express , cheap plastic tousling cable and even at the end i have succeed to make it wright with a good sounds i was not entirely happy with the sound . sure it was very detailed and dynamic but there was a kind of harshness who let me think that i will never get rid of the " digitalis" type of sounding even with a Set tube amp with carbon Pot.

then arrives the Mutec MC3 and later the Fiber GLASS lifatech toslink to Mini toslink cable.

the MC3 change the game at the first seconds of listening , unfortunately can"t go back to the cheaper Airport optical output.

remembers my old audiophiles days it"s like going from a Wadia 12 to a WADIA 25 dac everything is better more image , more details, very refined highs and stronger bass too. the Mosaic was now a very very good dac one of the best i had before ( audio aero , berkeley alpha model 1, totaldac A1 , etc..)

but at my surprise the biggest gap came from the short Lifatech fiberglass Toslink . the Mutec MC3 + the LIfatech cable put the Mosaic dac to a level i never heard before. with my Wadia compares i have now the WADIA 9 drived with a CEC TLO .

 

to resume , first the Mosaic dac is fantastic music player all price category .

two it"s not easy girl you need the best feeding it to get the best from it , software included. impossible with it to listen to iTunes anymore . Hq player of Audirvana is the minimum ( on Mac) .

Congrats on your success. How does Roon and Tidal compare to HQP or Audirvana now? Particularly with redbook files.

ici rex , i listen mostly 16/44 99% of the time . i like the Roon for tidal , for me Roon and tidal sounds nearly the same perhaps roon is a little better but can't bet on a blind test. i don't use oversampling with HQ player just the dither filter as i have found that the Mosaic T dac prefer straight 16/44 or 96/24 files. i will say that HQ player and audirvana sounds nearly the same too but far better than Tidal player or Roon alone . that is a pity as i have to spend more money for HQ player Roon add-on . but the real gap vs Audrivana with Roon/Hq player is the Tidal integration . if you don't use Tidal Audirvana is more stable as sometimes Roon crashes with Hqplayer as endpoint ..

ici rex , i listen mostly 16/44 99% of the time . i like the Roon for tidal , for me Roon and tidal sounds nearly the same perhaps roon is a little better but can't bet on a blind test. i don't use oversampling with HQ player just the dither filter as i have found that the Mosaic T dac prefer straight 16/44 or 96/24 files. i will say that HQ player and audirvana sounds nearly the same too but far better than Tidal player or Roon alone . that is a pity as i have to spend more money for HQ player Roon add-on . but the real gap vs Audrivana with Roon/Hq player is the Tidal integration . if you don't use Tidal Audirvana is more stable as sometimes Roon crashes with Hqplayer as endpoint ..

Thanks, apart from the software player, it seems that what box comes between server and DAC is more important than the DAC itself. I'm trying to decide between a Mutec or a Cubox/Sonicorbiter.

EC designs - Mosaic T

I'd like to hear more on how this sounds, especially in comparison to other DACs.

Their whole "ecosystem" of DAC + "passive volume control" + USB>Toslink converter> + amp is quite intriguing. Not cheap, but not a lot of money if it as good as some more expensive units.

i will compare mine soon with the T+A 8 DSD , the Mosaic sounds very refined and natural and perhaps will be more analog than the T+A in PCM ( need to be confirmed) . but of what i have heard with DSD512 or even DSD 128 it does not play in this league .

the MOSAIC also needs my MUTEC MC3usb toslink output to give it"s best .

i will compare mine soon with the T+A 8 DSD , the Mosaic sounds very refined and natural and perhaps will be more analog than the T+A in PCM ( need to be confirmed) . but of what i have heard with DSD512 or even DSD 128 it does not play in this league .

the MOSAIC also needs my MUTEC MC3usb toslink output to give it"s best .

thanks. useful info.

i will compare mine soon with the T+A 8 DSD , the Mosaic sounds very refined and natural and perhaps will be more analog than the T+A in PCM ( need to be confirmed) . but of what i have heard with DSD512 or even DSD 128 it does not play in this league .

the MOSAIC also needs my MUTEC MC3usb toslink output to give it"s best .

May have misunderstood the above, but I didn't think that the Mosaic could play DSD? No mention on the website from a quick look.

it cannot only do PCM 44K to 192K . but i have listened some DSD files with it with the Mutec MC3 doing the DSD/PCM conversion. nice sound but i prefer the mosaic with native PCM non oversampled .

From what I understand is the EC design will come with a new DAV that accepts USB input and has RCA output. Instead of only optical in and stereo jack output.

Mosaic UV with a single USB input?

https://www.ecdesigns.nl/mosaic-uv.html

We'll need an adapter like this

http://www.pangeaaudio.com/adapters.html

€ 1750 (without VAT)

https://www.ecdesigns.nl/order.html

I do not think EC Design will go anywhere.

Their product line changes to often and it seems they just abandon pervious designs.

On 9/6/2016 at 1:17 PM, mordante said:

I do not think EC Design will go anywhere.

 

Their product line changes to often and it seems they just abandon pervious designs.

According to EC Design, they are working on Mosaic II in order to minimise external dependencies in the manufacturing process.
 

They don't abandon their previous design, but build on the same NOS design and enhance it.