Darlington Labs MM-6 USA Tour

Turntable is a Denon DP-A100 and the cartridge is an Ortofon 2M Blue.

I don’t have a trained ear, but I will say that things seem much more clear and seperated with this pre-amp. It’s not that it changes the sound of records, but it allows me to hear “more” of the music that I already love. Maybe it’s because I was actively listening for differences or not, but there are minor things I noticed that I hadn’t before on songs I know really really well.

For instance, in Sultans of Swing, there’s a cymbal that hits a few times throughout the song that sounded much more pronounced, but also far away and left in the mix. I had never noticed that. New York City Serenade by Springsteen, I swear that I heard him move away from the mic at the end of the line “Straight from the church notes ringing” that I had never noticed before.

I listened to Freewheeling Bob Dylan and disc 1 of the Analogue Productions Elvis - 24 Karat Hits both with the Mono switch on/off and heard no discernible difference. Not to say it doesn’t do anything, it’s just not noticeable with my setup.
 
Update on my impressions.

On Saturday I spun mostly old rock records. Springsteen, Dylan, Floyd, Boston, stuff like that. Played some newer records like the new War on Drugs. Handled them all amazing and sounded great. Much clearer than my pre-amp.

Yesterday I spun newer Pop, Dance, and beat driven music. The clarity was superb. The electronic aspects on albums like Dua Lipa, Daft Punk, and Janelle Monáe sounded great. The low-end seemed really weak, though. I’m going to plug in the old pre-amp and test a few records out to see if I’m just imagining things. Specifically, Childish Gambino - Because the Internet. When I bought it I remember that album hitting pretty hard. Yesterday I heard the low bass, but definitely didn’t feel any of it hitting. I could crank up my Sub, but that would throw off any digital or movies going through the receiver.

Nevermind everything I said about low-end, I’m dumb. 🤣 I had set my receiver to DIRECT (which was shutting of the Sub). I’ve set it over to STRAIGHT and all seems right in the world. Whoops.

The one thing that stands out the most, so far, though is the reproduction of human voice sounds. The setup of the 2m Blue, The Denon, and the Darlington really makes voices sound authentic. It really stuck out to me on the Bob Dylan, Elvis, and Janelle Monáe records. The way it picks up small changes in their voices during words really made me able to close my eyes and picture a person singing into a mic right in front of me.

Tomorrow I’m going to throw some distorted/fuzzy guitars and hard drums at it. Probably old metal records and stoner rock stuff.
 
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Skeletonframes said:
Update on my impressions.

On Saturday I spun mostly old rock records. Springsteen, Dylan, Floyd, Boston, stuff like that. Played some newer records like the new War on Drugs. Handled them all amazing and sounded great. Much clearer than my pre-amp.

Yesterday I spun newer Pop, Dance, and beat driven music. The clarity was superb. The electronic aspects on albums like Dua Lipa, Daft Punk, and Janelle Monáe sounded great. The low-end seemed really weak, though. I’m going to plug in the old pre-amp and test a few records out to see if I’m just imagining things. Specifically, Childish Gambino - Because the Internet. When I bought it I remember that album hitting pretty hard. Yesterday I heard the low bass, but definitely didn’t feel any of it hitting. I could crank up my Sub, but that would throw off any digital or movies going through the receiver.

The one thing that stands out the most, so far, though is the reproduction of human voice sounds. The setup of the 2m Blue, The Denon, and the Darlington really makes voices sound authentic. It really stuck out to me on the Bob Dylan, Elvis, and Janelle Monáe records. The way it picks up small changes in their voices during words really made me able to close my eyes and picture a person singing into a mic right in front of me.

Tomorrow I’m going to throw some distorted/fuzzy guitars and hard drums at it. Probably old metal records and stoner rock stuff.
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I’d maybe adjust for any difference in gain between the two phono stages.
 
kvetcha said:
I’d maybe adjust for any difference in gain between the two phono stages.
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Messed around with the dials on the Sub and speaker settings in my receiver for awhile, only realize I had it set to a setting that bypasses the Sub. Yipes.


The girlfriend works tomorrow and Friday, so I’ll give it some good hours of play and then ship it off to either @HayesWeighsIn or back to Darlington Labs. Whichever I am directed to do. Will probably ship out Saturday morning.
 
One more night of spinning. It’s Jazz and Old Fashioned night. Out of Woodford and Buffalo Trace, though, so I’m going to have to try some new Bourbon and bitters combo tonight. I’ve got a handful of the Blue Note Tone Poet pressings, so I’ll be spinning those, mostly.

I’ll be boxing it up and shipping it off tomorrow, so @HayesWeighsIn are you set up and ready, or should I email Darlington Labs and get an address to send it back the them?

Update and overall thoughts: Amp is shipped back to Keith at Darlington Labs. I really enjoyed my time with it. The clarity was phenomenal. The soundstage was nice and wide on my setup. I didn’t notice any really deep, far away sounding instruments, but there was a definite wide presence from left to right. Listening to some jazz yesterday I was able to picture exactly where an instrument was being played from.

The tone or sound wasn’t different overall to my existing pre-amp. It didn’t sound much warmer or anything to me, but the crispness and exactness of instruments and, especially, voices was miles ahead of my current pre-amp. Voices sounded extremely natural and in some instances it sounded they were coming directly from a person in front of me.

The one record that had the biggest change, for me, was Flaming Lips latest album American Head. The dynamic soundscape made it feel like listening to a whole new record. I hadn’t remembered so much going on in that record, and can’t wait to get my own unit to listen again. Perhaps in headphones this time.

Oh yeah, I bought an MM-6 on the second day of having it in my possession. I’m pretty much the target audience; someone that hasn’t invested thousands into their system, but would like to make that next step. The only problem I have is that this may have awoken my curiosity to how much more I can hear. I didn’t expect to notice much difference, but even my untrained caveman ear couldn’t miss the better quality of sound I was getting. At the pricepoint that Darlington Labs is selling the MM-6, it was a no-brainer for me after just a couple hours with it.

Thanks Keith at Darlington, @HiFi Guy for setting this up, and @dansomeone for directing me to this thread. Now’s the hard part, waiting the few weeks or so for my own unit to arrive. Cheers.
 
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Skeletonframes said:
One more night of spinning. It’s Jazz and Old Fashioned night. Out of Woodford and Buffalo Trace, though, so I’m going to have to try some new Bourbon and bitters combo tonight. I’ve got a handful of the Blue Note Tone Poet pressings, so I’ll be spinning those, mostly.

I’ll be boxing it up and shipping it off tomorrow, so @HayesWeighsIn are you set up and ready, or should I email Darlington Labs and get an address to send it back the them?

Update and overall thoughts: Amp is shipped back to Keith at Darlington Labs. I really enjoyed my time with it. The clarity was phenomenal. The soundstage was nice and wide on my setup. I didn’t notice any really deep, far away sounding instruments, but there was a definite wide presence from left to right. Listening to some jazz yesterday I was able to picture exactly where an instrument was being played from.

The tone or sound wasn’t different overall to my existing pre-amp. It didn’t sound much warmer or anything to me, but the crispness and exactness of instruments and, especially, voices was miles ahead of my current pre-amp. Voices sounded extremely natural and in some instances it sounded they were coming directly from a person in front of me.

The one record that had the biggest change, for me, was Flaming Lips latest album American Head. The dynamic soundscape made it feel like listening to a whole new record. I hadn’t remembered so much going on in that record, and can’t wait to get my own unit to listen again. Perhaps in headphones this time.

Oh yeah, I bought an MM-6 on the second day of having it in my possession. I’m pretty much the target audience; someone that hasn’t invested thousands into their system, but would like to make that next step. The only problem I have is that this may have awoken my curiosity to how much more I can hear. I didn’t expect to notice much difference, but even my untrained caveman ear couldn’t miss the better quality of sound I was getting. At the pricepoint that Darlington Labs is selling the MM-6, it was a no-brainer for me after just a couple hours with it.

Thanks Keith at Darlington, @HiFi Guy for setting this up, and @dansomeone for directing me to this thread. Now’s the hard part, waiting the few weeks or so for my own unit to arrive. Cheers.
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Awesome. Sorry for the no response, I’ve been away from N&G for a bit. I’ve learned plenty from everyone’s takeaway on this thread!

Everything’s taking longer than anticipated, name of the game with everything right now!
 
This thread is great, thanks all. I'm thinking of getting a sub-$500 phono stage to upgrade from my ART DJ Pre II. Looking at the options for the MM6, and I'm not sure I will ever need a mono switch. Is this purely used to play mono records? I doubt I'll spin anything that old, but I'm tempted to just add it just in case.
 
MacDonals said:
This thread is great, thanks all. I'm thinking of getting a sub-$500 phono stage to upgrade from my ART DJ Pre II. Looking at the options for the MM6, and I'm not sure I will ever need a mono switch. Is this purely used to play mono records? I doubt I'll spin anything that old, but I'm tempted to just add it just in case.
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There are plenty of mono reissues depending on what you listen to.
 
dansomeone said:
I upgraded from the MM-6 to the MP-7. I noticed two things doing a/b comparisons:
(1) The MM-6 was a little harsher at higher volumes during louder passages
(2) The MP-7's bass is definitely tighter, more in control
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This is good to know, but I'm not sure this is enough for me to got to the MP-7.

The quality issue I'm chasing is a muddy midrange during active passages. I feel that some of this is coming my preamp, and also from bookshelf speakers (Wharfedale Diamond 225) that I want to also upgrade soon (potentially to B&W 603 S2).
 
MacDonals said:
This is good to know, but I'm not sure this is enough for me to got to the MP-7.

The quality issue I'm chasing is a muddy midrange during active passages. I feel that some of this is coming my preamp, and also from bookshelf speakers (Wharfedale Diamond 225) that I want to also upgrade soon (potentially to B&W 603 S2).
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Darlington offers a 30-day money back guarantee, and a 60-day full credit trade-in option towards an upgrade. So you could try an MM-6 and see what you think. When I upgraded to the MP-7, Keith gave me full credit for the MM-6.

Frankly, had I not done the comparison, I would be quite happy with the MM-6. I didn't really notice the MM-6's shortcomings until I compared it to the MP-7.
 
MacDonals said:
This thread is great, thanks all. I'm thinking of getting a sub-$500 phono stage to upgrade from my ART DJ Pre II. Looking at the options for the MM6, and I'm not sure I will ever need a mono switch. Is this purely used to play mono records? I doubt I'll spin anything that old, but I'm tempted to just add it just in case.
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I have the ART DJ Pre II, so if you gander a few posts up at my thoughts, they are directly referencing differences I heard between the Darlington and the DJ Pre. After sending the test amp back I've realized that I have way more Mono records than I thought I did. Kinda makes me wish I had ordered one with a Mono switch to test further, but out of the handful of Mono records I did listen to during my time with the Darlington, I didn't notice a huge difference. My amp is to be delivered shortly and I'm super excited to plug it in and remove the DJ Pre for good. I didn't notice a huge sound difference in the mid-range between the two, but it is definitely more clear and a better reproduction of the real-life instrument and voice sounds. I don't get the same muddy mid-range from the DJ Pre, so that may not be the culprit for you, but also, I am not trained in any corner of audiophilia. I will say that the MM-6 is more than worth the money for the upgrade in listening experience that it gave me over the DJ Pre.
 
Skeletonframes said:
I am not trained in any corner of audiophilia. I will say that the MM-6 is more than worth the money for the upgrade in listening experience that it gave me over the DJ Pre.
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Thanks for calling out your review as a direct comparison to DJ Pre. I'm strongly considering a pre-amp upgrade, and a fully loaded MM-6 seems the way to go. Still mulling it over, but it's my lead option.
 
HiFi Guy said:
Someone over at SH compared the MP7 ($600 give or take) to the Manley Chinook ($2700) and the Parasound JC-3 ($3000). The more expensive units lost in direct comparison.

@krichard2496 is supposed to be sending me an MP7 to check out at some point. I’m looking forward to it.
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We are planning on sending you that demo unit around mid-January. Sales picked up and we did some work on the upcoming matching SU-7. More production capacity is now online.
 
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