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IN-DEPTH

ometime in the lateseventies, the autoindustry decided that thesportscarwas dead, and

the result was a decade of uniformlyuninteresting hot hatchbacks'. Butthen suddenly Mazda's l\fi5 roadsterarrived in 1989 and changedeverything - from then on niche carstook off and the world never lookedback. In a sense, 2011's M-DAC wasAudiolab's 'MXS moment'- just asMazda tumed the staid 323 back tofront and chopped the roof off, soit took the'sensible-shoes' B200CD,pulled out the disc drive andcrammed it into cute aluminiumcasework. The result wasunashamedly audiophile in itsorientation, rather thanjust being atrendy-looking box designed to matchmodern lifestyles!

The Q-DAC and M-P\iVR, the next inAudiolab's [,AB series, hope to buildon this success. The former is a'lowcalorie'M-DAC, with much of thesame good stuff under the hood, butcost-cut to reach a selling price off400. The M-P'vVR is the matchingpower amp for Audiolab DACs of bothQ and M variety and something wewere promised some 20 months agowhen the M-DAC originally came out.It retails for f500, and together witheither of its DAC partners makes for atull digital decoding and amplifyingsystem -just add a digital source ofoptical disc or computer vadety andyou're away

Lest we forget, the M-DAC is a thingof loveliness. It won this magazine'scoveted product of the year awardlast yea4 ald was selling like heatedsweet baked desserts even beforewe'd got the first review sample. It'sbuilt around the respected, latestgeneration 32-bit ESS Sabre DACchip, which nms at up to 24/192resolution and sports seven adjustabledigital filter settings for fine tuningthe sound to your ovm personaltastes. It has a useful spread of digitalinputs and outputs - including twocoaxial, two optical and anaslnchronous USB in, as well asmatching digital outputs and a choiceof balanced and unbalanced analogueoulputs. The new Q-DAC you see herestrips all this dor,rm to a single coaxial,optical and USB input, and loses thebalanced )(LR outputs, but prettymuch everything else is retained.

This meaas there's still a volumecontrol, although it's now done byslightly fiddly up,/down buttonsrather thal the old-fashioned, andeasier to use, volume knob. There'salso a front panel mounted 6.3mmheadohone socket. with the

accompanying built-in amplifi er,naturally But another key differenceis the display which is still a niceOLED screen, but smaller. One nicetouch is that it can be configured toshow CD track and timinginformation via the settings menu,when being driven by a CD transport.

One major dovrnside is that theremote control has upped and left, sovolume setting can onlybe done bythe fiddly fascia mounted buttons- this makes the Q-DAC feel quite adifferent beast to use. Also, the ESSSabre DAC chip is the lower-spec9016, rather than the M's 9018,alftough Audiolab claims this makesonly a fractional subjective differencein sonic terms. Like the M-DAC, triplecascaded jiner attenuation stagesensure that jitter is kept to aminimum, and there's the samehigh-current, high-linearity Class Aanalogue outpui stage, the companysays. Also like the M-DAC, the Qhas a separate off-board switchedmode PSU; Audiolab says thathaving a switchirg power supplyin such close proximity would be adesigner's nightmare because of theinterference caused.

The new M-P\AtrR is a compact ClassAB stereo power amplifier designed to

Tfuere F* re* sen#€ *fs€rsEre *r furgttl€r?*sst*"xs€ s*ffi*a*lgB*s*sf?Eesfr*F"st *&partner the other Audiolab minicomponents, but the company pointsout that it will, of course, work with awhole plethora of products - fromcomputers to preamps - just so longas they have a volume control. Itsports both single-ended RCA andbalanced )O-R inputs, and is claimedto output 40W RMS per channel intoBohms (see Lab Tests). In use, it givesout plenty of power even forstandmounters of average sensitivit5lsuch as the Q Acoustics Concept 20sthat I use. I also try out the QAcoustics 2050i floorstanders, whichare an ideal partner both elecuicallyand sonically.

Sound qualityYes, the Q-DAC does sound very closeto the pricier M-DAC, when runningunbalanced RCA phono connectionsof course; indeed you'd be hardpressed to tell the difference throughany sensibly priced speake4 with onlya very slight softening of midbandfocus and a marginal diminution ofdepth perspective. The M only really )

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Bailey's Irish Cream and no lessaddictive - is a deiight, and there isno sense of strain or brittleness thatsometimes comes from CompactDisc. Things move along slowly butgnppingly capturing the plaintivefeel of the song. AII this makes mewant more, so it's time to rum thetap full open and go for some24/192 hi-res via the USB input.

REM's lararkana proves a delight.Here's a track that's packed withringing fuckenbacker guitars, andvia 16-bit it can grate just a touchtoo much. But a hi-res FI,AC rip ofthe superb DVD-A disc, played offaMacBook Pro, is delightfully smoothand open. Once again, this comboshows its innate smootlness; itdoesn't shout at you and nor doesit try to grab your attention byturning in an unsubtle, edgy showysort of performance. lnstead I getfour minutes of the sweet sound ofMessrs Stipe, Buck, Berry and Millsenjoying themselves massively- again with Mike Mills'beautifulvocals floating ethereally out of thespeakers, yards in front of the band.This Audiolab combo sounds evenand all-of-a-piece, injectingadrenaline into the proceedingswithout hurrying it along too much.Treble is crisp, midband open andbass is taut and tight. Indeed, giventhe modesr price, there's nothingyou can seriousiy criticise -perhaps the M-P\AIR's depthperspective is a little curtailed, butyou have to remind yourself of theamp's modest pricing.

Only when the volume really goesnorth does the M-P\AIR show anysigns of mortaliry; by and large it

keeps itself very much in theshadows, happily making musicwhenever it is tasked so to do. ButHerbie HancoclCs Rocklt at 24/88.2,played at very high levels sees thelittle Audiolab move towards the edgeof its performance envelope, provingunable to serve up the crashingdynamics that rhrs jazz/ funlVelectroclassic demands. There is no sign ofstrain, it's just the amp can't go theextra yard with those very loudesttransients. This is expected at itsmodest price, of course - and inpractice you'll be able to run it as agrown-up power amp unless you havea listening room the size of a tenniscourt, or have roadied for Motorheadin your earlier life.

GonclusionAudiolab's new Q-DAC,zM-P\AIR is acracking little combination. It lookslovely in its own way, is really wellscrewed together and finished, andcomes packed with handy featuresand plenty of power for the job inhard. The USB DAC implementationis excellent, meaning it's an idealpartner for anyone serious abouthi-res computer audio. Best of all isthe sound, which gives nothing awayto anything else at the price andbetters many costing more a

OUR VERDICT - o-onc

Ihere's no dinct rivalforthiscomSoqraprice basig firtin termsof size, eEonomicsandf unctionality ther€'s astriking parallel - theNaimDAC-VIDAC(€1350)andl{APl(x}poiveramplifier (€65O)(May 2Ol3 isoue), Whllethe lU|P lfi)coots onlye|somore,rbeDAC-vtisa pdcietafiair- hrtfunctionality b prettyclose. SonicallytheNaim comboisbetter,r.dthmorcdetail,subtlety, musicalityand a sligh{ sreeter,darker tonal balance,Afthoughtftequotedpower rstinglqofthetwo ampaarc similar.the Naimdrocrsmoregrace under pressuraYou'd neverknowtherewese €1,fitoprice capbetwn th*iedynamioduoe -ardthaisthe

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pulls ahead noticeably when you'reusing balanced interconnects, whichof course the Q can't do. Both DACsprove to be excellent partners for thedinky linle M-PWR, turning in a verydetailed, open and musicallyenjoyable performance at the price.

\y'{hat you get is a clean and slightlytonally dry sound, one that'sunmistakably solid-state in origin, yetstill impressively open and musical.Kicking offwith a TEAC CD transportvia the coaxiai in, I'm encouraged bythe sound offered by what'seffectively a f900 DAC,zamplifier

E€ ssumds *vftffi*se* al{-*€-*-pfie*e*ire$*ctimg sdres€***ne$effi* prm***dfi*agscombinarion. Saint Etienne's Hug MySoul shows a wonderful buoyancythis classic slice of elecrronic popbouncing out of the speakers with aninfectiously rhythmic gait. Basslinesare fast and snappy, percussioncaptivating and the Audiolab comboseems to really be enjoyrng itself - asindeed am I!

Next I move to altogether richer andloucher programme material - IsaacHayes'Souhville is a fat, thick slice ofrare groove and this wee duo lets meknow all about it. Suddenly - thanlato this far superior early seventiesrecording - there is warmth, air andspace. The recorded acoustic dropsway back far behind the plane of thespeakers, giving a beautifullyimmersive qualiry to the music.Hayes'distinctive voice - as rich as

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ONTEST

IN-DEPTH

Q&APeter ComeouDirector of qcouslic design, IAG

DP: W hat were the overall aims oftheQ-DACandM-PWR?PC: M-DAC has been a huge successfor Audiolab, thanks to its innovativequalities and we felt we could offerthe majority of the performance ina more cost-effective form byremoving some of the 'luxury' items.The form factor of M-DAC looks neatwhen shelf-mounted, and we thoughtthat customers would like a poweramplifier in the same form factor tomake a complete mini system by justedcl inn cnaeluorc

How doas the Q - DAC diff er f romtheM-DAC?ln terms of circuitrv thev share mostof the same design configuration, theonly saving here being a slightly morecost-effective version of the Sabre 32DAC - 9016 instead of 9018. There'sno difference in functionality hereand only the most subtle change inthe performance.

What are the special f eatures oftheM-PWRdeign?M-PWR is a Class AB design. We donot feel, at this cost, that Class Ddesigns offer anything special. lt usesmodular lC power output devices,soeciallv chosen for their excellentsignal-to-noise ratio, extremely lowdistortion and noise floor, as well asstrong output capabilities with up to1OA of transient current delivery intolow imoedance loads. Thus we canbe sure that M-PWR wil l dr ive avarietv of loudsoeakers without lossof oerformance into all loads. Wedesigned a special toroidaltransformer for M-PWR, which offerslow magnetic leakage and a highpower output (up to 200W) so thatthe power supply has plenty ofreserve for music transients.Although we only rate M-PWR as40W continuous into Bohms, thecombination of a high-reserve powersupply and the high-current modularlC oower devices we have chosenallows peak outputs of up to 135W.Circuit layout was carefully designedto minimise noise and crosstalk andto reveal the high-performancecapability of the output devices. Allcapacitors have been chosen foracouslrc Iransoarencv.

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AUGUST 2013 Hi+iohoice 19