Playback Designs MPD-5, User Manual

Page 1: ...Version 2 5 MPD 5 Music Playback D A Converter USER MANUAL ...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...TION TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK DO NOT REMOVE COVER NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated dangerous voltage within the product s enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock ...

Page 4: ...se owner will be responsible for all shipping charges to and from Playback Designs International customers must deal with their local dealer or distributor For all warranty claims a copy of the original invoice must accompany the product Opening the product or modifying it in any way by the owner including but not limited to cryogenic treatment will void any warranty Please contact Playback Design...

Page 5: ...d to the unit should match the voltage rating indicated on the rear panel Do not place the converter on the amplifier or any other equipment that generates heat As the converter may become warm during operation always leave sufficient space around the converter for ventilation Always allow adequate air circulation around the player When moving the converter make sure to turn off the power and disc...

Page 6: ... to Windows based computers for sample rates up to 48kHz Before connecting to PC make sure that PC input is selected on MPS 5 and the PC is turned on so that the PC can enumerate the link Subsequent changes of selected inputs on MPS 5 are then possible without disconnecting the USB cable However when powering down the PC the enumeration is lost and the link has to be set up again as described abov...

Page 7: ...lects the TosLink input for conversion to analog Selects the PlayLink input for connection to USB X Selects the USB input from PC Not used The first time this buttons is pressed the alpha numeric display indicates the absolute phase for the analog outputs If it is pressed again within 5 seconds the absolute phase is toggled Press and hold this button to enter the setup menu and to display settings...

Page 8: ...NTERFACE Again the MPD 5 is equipped with an internal USB port that only supports PCM in 16bits and 44 1 48kHz In order to guarantee the best sonic performance of the MPD 5 when playing from other sources connected to other inputs or from its internal transport the USB port is disabled This makes it necessary that when a PC is booted the USB PC input is selected on the MPD 5 BEFORE connecting the ...

Page 9: ...ured with drivers and processes by the manufacturer that cause such dropouts and others are user installed with additional software that do not allow flawless real time playback of audio Fortunately there is a free utility software that allows you to test your PC for real time capability 1 Go to http www resplendence com latencymon and download the utility program LatencyMon There is also a good d...

Page 10: ...nstall the driver necessary to communicate with the Playback Designs products via USB 4 Once your computer is properly configured power on the MPD 5 make sure the optical cables are connected as explained in the previous paragraph and connect the USB cable that was included with the MPD 5 between USB X and your computer Since the USB X interface is powered by your computer but receives the clock s...

Page 11: ...SIO Some players may need a plug in for ASIO compatible playback 8 For Mac users only launch iTunes 9 For best performance and bit perfect reproduction make sure to set all volume controls in the computer playback software Windows OSX control panel to exactly 0db wide open turn off all operating systems sounds effects or equalizer that might be running in your playback software or Windows OSX Cont...

Page 12: ...iver software and MPD 5 hardware are designed to support playback of DSD files at 2 sample rates the standard 2 8224MHz as used on all SA CDs and the double rate 5 6448MHz as supported by some professional recording equipment You will need a playback software running on your computer that can read DSD files and play them to the USB driver On the Mac platform you will have to use a playback softwar...

Page 13: ...ed by the computer via the USB cable but the clock signal is coming from the MPS 5 So every time you turn off the MPS 5 you will have to unplug the USB cable from the computer and plug it back in once the MPS 5 is powered up again 2 Make sure that the driver is properly installed PC only See step 6 under driver installation above for instructions for how to check successful installation and connec...

Page 14: ...utput Format the optical data output supports PLINK or SONOMA formats PLINK is a proprietary format used to link to other Playback Designs products for multi channel or multi room setups SONOMA is used to connect to professional recording equipment This function is only programmable for the MPS 5 5 Optical All Channels when using PLINK output format set this off for multi channel configuration or ...

Page 15: ... closed in 2 50 150 Hours The sound will open up a little bit but can still sound a bit brittle 3 150 350 Hours Midrange will start smoothing out and clarity will increase but highs might continue to remain recessed At this point there probably will not be much change in the bass You will probably wonder how the Playback Designs converter will ever sound like others have described but we assure yo...

Page 16: ... proceed as follows to change the fuse 1 Locate fuse compartment on power connector on rear panel 2 Use a small screw driver to pry open the fuse holder Fuse Compartment Prying open with a small screw driver 3 The fuse holder contains 2 fuses The top one is a spare and can replace the blown one at the bottom 4 Replace fuse holder into power connector by making sure that good fuse is at bottom Repl...

Page 17: ...time for the MPD 5 to execute a command before receiving the next one Char 0 Char 1 Char 2 CR Char 0 100ms phs Toggles phase inversion on and off mte Toggles mute on analog output on and off don Turns front panel display on dof Turns front panel display off unit keeps operating aes Selects AES input for playback rca Selects Coax S PDIF input for playback tos Selects optical TosLink input for playb...

Page 18: ...n digital input 2 48kHz detected on digital input 3 88 2kHz detected on digital input 4 96kHz detected on digital input 5 176 4kHz detected on digital input 6 192kHz detected on digital input 7 352 8kHz detected on digital input 8 384kHz detected on digital input 9 DSD detected on digital input 10 DSD 2X detected on digital input 15 no lock bit 7 1 when audio phase inverted on analog outputs Byte ...

Page 19: ...yet to the PC 2 Launch the supplied application PDSetup exe on your PC and closely follow instructions on the screen Connect your MPD 5 to the PC only when told so But before then hitting the NEXT button wait until Windows confirms that the driver is fully installed and operational Only then hit NEXT 3 When you reach the following screen make sure to point the field File to Transfer to the file su...

Page 20: ... the above screen directly 4 Proceed from here as for the first time installation IMPORTANT NOTE THE ENTIRE UPDATE PROCEDURE CAN TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT INTERRUPT POWER TO THE MPD 5 NOR DISCONNECT THE USB CABLE NOR TURN OFF THE PC DURING PROGRAMMING OR ELSE YOUR MPD 5 WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BOOT NORMALLY In case the programming has been interrupted accidentally please fol...