Musical Fidelity V-Link

OK. Overdue review. Was travelling and sick for the past week.

So, MF distributor offered me to review this unit as it has just arrived in his stock 2 weeks back. Yes, the unit is actually on the market for a while now but just officially brought into Malaysia.

So what does it do? It basically offer a solution for those USB 48kHz/16 bit limited bandwidth input on any existing DAC, including my M1 DAC.
Its commercial name: 24 BIT 96 kHz ASYCHRONOUS USB TO S/PDIF CONVERTER WITH COAX AND OPTICAL OUTPUT

Connect the unit to yr PC/laptop USB port (using A/B USB cable), it then upsamples it to 96kHz and feed this signal constantly to your DAC via optical or coaxial. Just as long as your DAC coax or optical can receive 96kHz signal and above, you are good to go.

My M1 DAC detects the 96kHz easily as shown in the picture. Then the DAC upsamples it further to 192kHz. Not sure whether this repetitive upsampling is actually good or not. Hehehehe.

So my findings:

Build

As it comes under MF's V series, the built is as expected to be lightweight, mainly to make it affordable. But nothing to complain about. It is however bigger in size than I expected. Light but sturdy with all the connections to be solidly placed and does not wiggle when you try to push in that coax cable in. You have to push your coax cable all the way in before it can output the signal.

The 'Lock' and 'Power' LED however is a tad too bright as you can see above in comparison the M1 DAC LEDs.

Power

No external power supply is required. It takes power from your PC/laptop via the USB cable.

The Session

I did not do any serious comparison apart from an A/B comparison between the following:

1. Laptop connected directly to M1 DAC USB input
2. Laptop connected to VLink and to M1 DAC via coax

Tracks used:

1. La Mer - Kevin Kline
2. Time to Say Goodbye -Andrea Bocelli
3. My Hero - Foo Fighters

First impression of Vlink - Bold and bass heavy. It sorts off amplified the overall digital file.

Volume wise, there is definitely a different between straight USB connection than via the Vlink. At the same volume level on the amp, the Vlink produces a louder sound.

Details however, I cant seem to hear much difference between the two connections above. Maybe because both are upsampled to 192kHz anyway.

I would however give credit to Vlink for creating a livelier music experience. It does inject some air into the digital music. It might just be my mood that night but the La Mer definitely sounded more emotional and the vocals by Kevin Kline sounded so near to me.

Verdict

For the given price, it is to me a well worth upgrading route for PC based music lover with limited bandwidth USB input on their DACs. Or even for DAC without USB input.

For me, I am not a hardcore PC-based music lover. I do stream my music across the house using AE, but I dont really measure their SQ. As long as there is music in the background I am OK.

So, its your pick.

Musical Fidelity M1 CLiC

Ok 24 hrs review:

So I got a message from distributor that the unit has arrived to Malaysian shores on Monday 11th July. So collected the unit the next day. Only 6 units were brought in the first batch which I have booked mine since last year

Came home and immediately set it up into my system. Of course, being my normal lazy self, didnt bother with the manual reading.

What's included?

1. The unit itself
2. 3 pin plug power cable
3. Wifi antenna with extension cable
4. Network cable
5. Manual and warranty card
6. Personalised letter from Anthony Michaelson

Built

The unit is similar to the other M series. Although putting it side by side with M1 DAC, it looks slightly higher. I love the black granite finishing. Adds a sense of class.

Its a compact unit which weighs next to nothing. Very light but sturdily built.

The screen, to me is just the right size where contents can be easily read through.

The power button is of soft touch nature. Press it and the unit will be on standby mode for 10 seconds before it boots up.

Remote: Aaaaahhh this is a bit sad. The remote, although feature packed, feels a bit el cheapo. It reminds me to one of my old VCD player 15 years back that cost RM99. The unit can only be operated by remote control, so dont loose it.

Whats the buzz all about?

This unit is an ALL IN ONE digital (7 inputs) and analogue (3 inputs) preamp, music streamer and internet radio. Once connected to the network (wireless or wired), it can detect your stored digital music (and pics) and details will come out on the screen. You can then choose and control your music using the remote.

Inputs:
1. 2 coax input
2. 1 optical input
3. 1 USB input
4. 1 USB/iPod interface input
5. 3 RCA analogue input

For output:

1. 1 pair RCA variable pre out. Can connect direct to power amp and use the CLiC to control volume

2. 1 pair of RCA fixed out. Can connect to any input on your integrated amp/another pre amp.

What can it handle?

The CLiC will accept the following formats:

• FLAC (up to 24bit 192 kHz on wired LAN and up to 24bit 96 kHz on wireless LAN)
• WMA/9 (up to 16bit 48 kHz)
• AAC, HE-AAC (up to 24bit 96 kHz)
• LPCM (up to 24bit 192 kHz on wired LAN and up to 24bit 96 kHz on wireless LAN)
• Ogg vorbis 1.0 (up to 16bit 32 kHz)
• MP3 (up to 16bit 48 kHz)

The seven digital inputs are configured as follows:

• 2 x digital ipod/iphone, memory stick, USB disc drive
• 2 x coax inputs (SP-DIFF up to 24bit 192 kHz)
• Optical (up to 24bit 192 kHz)
• USB input
• Network connection

How does it fair with the claim above?

Connectivity - Superb. I tested the whole day with wireless connectivity. My wifi route is downstairs and this unit is in my hifi room upstairs. It can detect the signal easily. Only 2 bars on the signal icon though. Keying in my wifi password was easy. The remote comes with mobile phone-like keys. Repetitive pressing on button to select the alphabet.number you want. I only had to set it up once and voila, within 5 seconds, its fully connected to my network.

First, I scrolled to media server on the CLiC and found my NAS with over 8000 digital files. All grouped to usual Tracks, Artist, Albums, Genres etc. Next I booted up my laptop, and again within a few seconds after the laptop has been booted up, the CLiC detected it.
For my iMac however, it could not as I have not installed a Twonky Media.

Next I tried the connectivity for internet radio. It automatic goes to Malaysis directory and found 6 stations. Tested all of them within a span of 30 mins and no signal dropout at all. However, these are not the most famous local radio stations. So tried with London and US radio stations. Again, no issues of drop out signals at all.

How about connectivity to iPod/iPhone?

So I took one of my Apple docks and connected the Apple provided USB/iPod cable to the CLiC. The USB/iPod connection is not interchangable with front USB connection.

But, it could not detect my iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS. A note came out on my iPhone saying 'Could not operate 2 connections' or something like that. Ahhhhh this is when I started to open up the manual hehehehe.

Sooooo, I cannot connect it to a dock. Thats what went wrong. It can only be connected directly to the iPhone/iPod. reason being, the dock also have its own remote. Thats why the note came out cannot operate 2 connections.

Once I connected the iPhone directly to CLiC, it detected all my the songs on it and also the playlist within seconds. Its just then a matter of choosing the music you want using the remote.

On the screen, the song, album and artist is shown together with and also any picture/art cover attached to the song. It can be easily readable from about 3 to 4 feet away.

How about the other features?

1. I tested one of the coax connection using my Wadia 170i transport. It definitely produced a different sound compared to my previous connection via MF X-DAC that does not upsample. The sound is also different compared to the direct digital connection to iPhone. Definitely more uplifiting and airy I would say.

2. Also connected my BRIK Audio BT stage to one of the analogue connection. It does inject a sense warm and mellowness to the music.

The listening session

I connected the CLiC unit to my M6i using the fixed output with Cambridge Audio IC.

Now that everything has been set up, its time to play the music.

I first tried the digital files I have on my NAS which most of them are ripped to either 320kbps MP3s at 48kHz or Apple Lossles. I also have a few FLAC files.

This is where the CLiC really excels. These digital files which previously was played via Airport Express fed into my old but trustworthy MF X-DAC, sound very very alive. The presence of tracks played was definitely more involving.

Changing tracks manually in shuffle mode will take about a 2 seconds pause. But if you just leave the unit to shuffle on its own, there is no gap in between changing tracks.

It can also handle all the types of files listed above with no issues.

I am not comparing these with CD player SQ as it is different approach to music. I love the idea of accessing all my digital files with ease and without the need of turning on the PC/laptop.

One improvement that I would suggest is for the unit to show the rate of the signal coming through, similar to the M1 DAC.

I dont have much comparison to other similar units. The ones I can think of are Bryston and Olive. I have listened to both. IMHO the CLiC provides the most flexibility, multiple format adaptiveness and its feature packed. For that price, I didnt think twice to pre-ordered it since last year.

Now, where is that credit card of mine?