Made In The USA: Grace Design 9XX Massdrop Edition (Short Notice)
I've spent the past two days driving the new BMW M2 back-to-back with everything from a factory-prototype BMW 1M Coupe to a perfect E30 M3 and a Fiesta ST. In other words, I've been on the move constantly. But I wanted to share something else with you, maybe a little bit before I should, because there's a limited amount of time for you to take advantage of what I think is a pretty neat deal.
Over the past year, I've shared all sorts of USA-made items with you, from towels to motorcycle gloves to titanium wallets to boots. Today, however, marks the first time we've discussed a piece of audio equipment that's made in the United States. Grace Design builds professional audio equipment in Colorado. Most of it is aimed at recording engineers and professional musicians. Recently, however, they partnered with the Massdrop group-buying service to offer a consumer-grade device that does just one thing and does it exceptionally well.
That one thing is actually two things; the Grace Design M9xx is a DAC and headphone amp in a single sleek box. What's a DAC? Well, it's a way for you to convert digital files to analog music. When you listen to an MP3 or a CD or a FLAC file on your computer or your phone or your iWhatever, there's a DAC involved. However, that DAC is typically a really tiny and cheap chip tucked on the side of a circuit board somewhere. I guarantee you that your laptop or phone or tablet doesn't have the highest possible grade of DAC built in for the same reason that the free toys that come in a Happy Meal tend to not be heirloom-quality items. It's free, so how can you complain?
The M9xx is designed to rectify that. It takes the digital audio file via USB and carefully creates a higher-quality audio signal than your computer can be bothered to create. It then sends that audio signal to the other half of the M9xx, a top-notch headphone amp. Yes, your laptop can also run your headphones. If, however, you have a really nice set of "cans" chance are that the sound won't be that great. Good headphones take a lot of power to run. Even the Sennheiser HD280s that I use on a daily basis sound better when you give them enough clean power.
The difference between listening to a set of "Beats" or Skullcandy headphones powered by your phone or laptop and what you get from true high-quality 'phones plugged into an M9xx is immediately noticeable. The M9xx also has a variety of features that are meant to reduce the ear and mind fatigue that occurs when you listen to headphones for extended periods of time.
Last week I asked Grace Design if I could borrow an M9xx for evaluation, and they were kind enough to send one along. I'd like to tell you that I've had the chance to listen extensively to the M9xx. The truth is that I've been on the road with just a set of Grado SR125e headphones available. My ears are also heavily fatigued from hours of driving at 100+ mph with the windows down. But even so, I'm already convinced by the obvious build quality and feature set of the M9xx. So I'm going to buy this evaluation unit and give it a detailed listen at home in the upcoming weeks.
The problem is that if you want to join me in the ranks of M9xx owners you don't have a lot of time. The $499 group buy for the M9xx ends in just one day. So you'll have to act fast. I don't believe you'll regret it if you do. Not only will you have a high-quality DAC/amp that has gotten rave reviews from existing owners, you'll own a piece of American-made audio equipment. The Massdrop buy is limited to 250 units; as I write this, 197 are already spoken for. Clearly, I'm not the only person who is excited about this!