For combined MHDT Labs and MHDT Audio dacs
Can anyone comment on how the Atlantis compares to a Gumby MB?
I never owned them together, but I found the Gumby to be very bright and incisive. It has incredible bass, but I don’t care for the rest of the Schiit supermegacomburrito filter sound signature.
The Atlantis was very tight and punchy, had wonderful musicality, and was a joy to listen to, but it’s not linear due to the tube, so depending on what you’re looking for or if you already have a lot of tubes in your chain, it may be too much tube.
Of all the current MDHT DACs (Pagoda, Orchid, Atlantis), it was easily my favorite.
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Thanks for the response. I’m running a WA22 and an IHA-6. So I’ll see how I fair. The Atlantis just popped up on my radar. From how it’s described, it sounds good on paper, but I haven’t much experience with that kind of DAC. And my Gungnir has been my reference for a while now. However, from getting a few IEMs and running them on my Mojo, I realised that I don’t really know what I want, or how to articulate it. So I’m keeping my eye out for different. This Atlantis sounds different.
When I first started in this hobby, I tried loads of mid-fi, but again, I didn’t know what I was after and just focussed on resolution when auditioning them - that’s all I was listening for. That and what ever I considered to be a correct frequency response. Plus, I let reviewers colour my impressions…
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I wasn’t quite sure where to put this, Exogal or MDHT thread, so I thought is as good a place as any since there’s slightly fewer impressions/comparisons of the Atlantis compared to the Comet Plus.
Local FLAC/WAV > SU-1 > Exogal Comet Plus / MDHT Atlantis (WE 357) > WA22 (GEC U52, Valvo 6SL7GT, Tungsol 5998) > HEkse - all using half decent cables.
Initial impressions, hard to discern between the Comet and Atlantic in terms of spaciousness (I guess the first thing my brain was listening for). I have a few different tracks that are mixed very differently that help display differences in spaciousness and holography. Kacey Musgrave, Deeper Well, Hamilton OST, Alexander Hamilton, Smashing Pumpkins, Cherub Rock and Tool, Lateralus.
After these four tracks, I thought that the Woo was probably colouring the sound too much, and that’s what was making identifying differences clearly more challenging. Although I’ve only had the Comet for a few days, I have listened to it a reasonable amount. It’s headphone out struck me as quite neutral, almost boringly so, so I thought that may be the fairest fight. I plugged the Atlantic into the analogue inputs of the Comet and switched to my SuperMix 4. The difference was much clearer.
In short, the Atlantis is roughly as wide, but not as deep. It’s not flat, but the Comet does do depth pretty well, so this was the first thing that stood out to me. The second thing was the bass and the transients. The bass on the Comet is tight, controlled and precise - very well judged. In contrast, the Atlantis has a more mid bass and there’s a mild bloom too it. Nothing overbearing, but just a little more relaxed, warmer presentation. I switched to my HEkse and continued through my test tracks. The sonic images are a tad less-well defined/hazier on the Atlantis. Not too say that they’re not well defined, just less so than the Comet. There’s a higher noise floor on the Atlantis, nothing I’d worry about while listening to music. The thing that I would give the Atlantis over the Comet is greater vocal texture, as the vocals are slightly more forward. The transient attack on the Comet is brilliant, again, with the Atlantis being more relaxed.
This kinda feels like I’m shitting on the Atlantis, but I’d like to clearly state that I’m not. I have just somewhat accidentally bought two new DACs and it is clearly an unfair fight, MSRP £3500 vs. £800. However, these are just my initial impressions and I have really enjoyed the sound of the Atlantis. I think that the Exogal pairs really well with my WA22, as it is more of a neutral-sounding DAC, that is then coloured in just the right way by the Woo. The Exogal is obviously more resolving, but, given how much I love listening on my Chord Mojo with fairly inexpensive Chifi IEMs these days, resolution matters less and less to me. I understand that it plays a part in stage depth, image definition, etc., but it’s more holography and dynamics that get my attention. I want drums to sound more holographic and so that is what defines whether I like a piece of kit or not.
Although I like the Atlantis, I prefer the Comet. I don’t think the Atlantis is the right DAC for my WA22 either. If I had a range of amps, I would audition it some more and may very well feel different, but I just want to spend more time with the Comet right now. I won the Atlantis in an auction from a hifi store here in the U.K.; that means I can return it, so I’m going to do so. However, I got it for £400 with a few different tubes; I think that’s a decent price. If anyone wants to buy it off me, please let me know in the next few days, I’ll pull the trigger on the return at some point this week.
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