Well. I don’t know anything about electrical engineering, but it sure is obvious that’s a dual mono design, lol.
I like the fact that Bricasti signals the dual mono design with visual cues, too. The case top is even split in half with symmetrical vents, shouting to the world “I’m dual mono!!”
That’s the Bricasti M3 and here are the internals:
The fit and finish of the Bricasti products looks kind of underwhelming on the web but I must say it feels very impressive in person. All the panels are smooth and flush with each other and there
are no sharp edges. Coming from Denafrips it’s a nice jump in build quality.
My initial impressions of the MC1 coming from the Pontus II are the following. Chain for the majority of the listening has been pi2aes with linear psu → Bricasti MC1 (spdif, linear filter) → Flux Volot → LCD-5.
Whenever I upgrade to a new component it always seems like I’m hearing new things in my favorite tracks and this was true with the MC1. Things like layering and subtle details seemed to be more apparent. The timbre of instruments seemed more realistic to me and I found the bass to be well extended with good presence. I also think I’m hearing more decay to notes. Depth might be a bit less than the Pontus II but stage width is about the same. I had been EQ’ing the LCD-5 occasionally, mainly to help with the bass quantity and slam, but didn’t feel a need to do that as much when using the MC1 as opposed to the Pontus II.
There are only two filters on this dac, minimum and linear. I’ve been mostly using linear as I asked a different forum and that was what they recommended and there are some Bricasti dac owners there. m0n recommended minimum so I’ve been trying that too but it’s been tricky to detect much of a difference in the filters.
After getting this dac I’m already thinking what’s next which is a problem for me, I have a hard time just listening to and enjoying what I have. My point here being that I’d really like to try the M1 SE or just M1 at some point to see and hear what the difference is between the MC1, a pro level dac, and the M1 a consumer product with more filters and flexibility. The dealer I got the demo MC1 from has a home demo available for the M1 so that’s on my to do list but for now I’ll try and just enjoy the music.
Have some answers for you @MazeFrame.
1: AD5913 9CPZ 090Z Singapore
2: AD9951 YSVZ 0608 841217.1
3: ADM708 ARZ #020
4: ACT125G P8NM08 (This was the hardest one to read, not sure about it)
5: Xilinx XC2C32A VQG44AMS2013 D6134233A 6C
6: AD1955 A #2004 4805162
7/11: AD843KN 4731081
8/9: 98A9RCV DS90LV 048AT
10/12/14/15 (left): 3111 83T CEQ3G4 (Texas Instruments based on logo)
10/12/14/15 (right): 3111 12T AEDXG4 (Texas Instruments based on logo)
13: 8512A #2020 5576
On the DSP board the XMOS chip says: U30881C10 GT192402 PNGP61.00
I can’t guarantee that all of these part numbers are 100% correct but that’s what I see on them to the naked eye. I still can’t seem to capture a picture of them with my phone even though I just got a new phone since I last took pictures inside the dac.
End of this month I’m going to ship or hopefully drop off (since I live close by) my MC1 at Bricasti for the network card upgrade. Price for the upgrade is 1500. They say it will take 1-2 weeks + shipping which I’m hoping to work around as I live about 40 minutes away. It seems that this is the only upgrade that the MC1 accepts apart from the MDx which I already have.
Joe, who works in the service part of Bricasti sent me this PDF which describes the upgrades they offer but is more relevant to the consumer models (m1, m3, m21). Can’t seem to upload a PDF so here’s a screenshot of it:
I look forward to comparing the network card to my pi2aes with linear power supply
Just dropped my MC1 off at Bricasti in Shirley MA. Got to meet Joe who handles support and some of the other employees including their machinist. They have two buildings there. The first one is a smaller shop with circuit boards and transformers everywhere. Lots of partly assembled units. Things I saw were part of a M28 monoblock, some of the reverb units, the M5 streamer, and lots of M1s. The other building is larger and has about 5 CNC machines. Joe showed me the raw materials and the backplates and top covers that they get turned into. All the machines were in use so it seems the main delay with getting an upgrade done is finding machine time to change the back panel. In my case I need a network port milled into the back.
Didn’t expect the tour but it was fun to see what goes on at Bricasti. Also I may be able to pick up the MC1 later this week assuming they can get the port milled. Looking forward to hearing how it sounds. In the meantime I’ll be using the Pontus II which I’m curious to see what I think now that I’m used to the MC1.
Network card install is finished and tested. However, the weather in Massachusetts is preventing me from picking it up today so am having them ship it back to me. Hopefully will have it Monday or Tuesday and put up some impressions then.
I wasn’t allowed to make another reply since it was more than 6 in a row lol so I’m adding the post here.
MC1 just got delivered and all is working well so far. Just plugged it in and got it running again. Was easy to set up with Roon. It saw the MC1 right away and I just enabled it. No impressions so far as things are still warming up and I’m testing at the moment with the Ether CX but will listen later with 1266. Here are some pictures:
Roon Ready shit is just wonderful.
I love the concept i hate what it means i have to do for my setup given as I have only one ethernet drop in my room and can’t connect to my work network. I’m jealous of yall that have good ways to use streaming 
Anyone know if the MDX board something you buy and install at home? Or does it need to go to the factory?
Before I got my M21, it was sent in for the mdx upgrade, so I’d assume it’s something you have to send in
Ive got an M1se (no mdx) on loan. Anyone know what warmup time is like? Trying to figure out if its woryh it to take it to a mini-meet if it will only have a few hours on total
Generally I thought it was most of the way there within a few hours, at least with the 21 and memory of the 1 (now that I think about it, I haven’t actually heard a mdx m1, only a mdx m21 and m3). But it wasn’t really that long, nothing like a berkeley for example (only mentioned since using the same chips lol)
Super late response to this but I tried to get them to let me do the MDX upgrade at home and they said no pretty much. Swapping out the digital board is easy enough, you just remove the ribbon cables, and remove a few screws. But there’s software that goes along with the MDX board too.
It’s my understanding that the MDX board uses an newer processor for dsp stuff and rearranges things a little bit but the software update is what helped improve the clocking performance. I actually have an old M1 digital board in mine but with new MDX software since there’s an issue with the current MDX and clicking on the network input. I couldn’t really tell a difference between MDX w/ new software and old M1 digital w/ new software but it’s not something I heard side by side.
This is all based on a conversation I had with Brian (the owner) a month or two ago when I went to their HQ cause some weird power glitch at my house bricked my MC1.
Yeah like M0N said I don’t feel that it needs much time to be sounding it’s best. Maybe an hour or so. Although it does seem like it takes the chassis a little while to get up to temperature. But after a few hours the chassis seems to reach a constant temperature to touch.
Can anyone explain the M12 to me? Is it both a streamer and a pre-amp? Cause thats what it looks like and that seems like a super weird combo tbh. Is there a dac in it that Im missing being mentioned anywhere?
It has a dac.
From the bricasti page
“ The M12 builds upon the proven design of the M1 SE D/A converter”
Realy not sure how i missed that. Looking more closely it doesnt have digital out either.
Yeah the way I see it is that it’s a M1 dac with a better preamplifier. Obviously the chassis is taller and it adds analog inputs. Found some internal shots but the pink bits are covering what I assume is the preamp modules:
Yah, makes way more sense knowing its a dac. I think I was thrown off cause they called it something weird on their website
