Mola Mola
Kattegat 8
9723 JP Groningen
The Netherlands
+31 50 526 4993
[email protected]
www.mola-mola.nl
Makua
the preamplifier
User’s Manual
Page 1: ...Mola Mola Kattegat 8 9723 JP Groningen The Netherlands 31 50 526 4993 info mola mola nl www mola mola nl Makua the preamplifier User s Manual ...
Page 2: ...st Your product was shipped with the items checked below Please verify that you find all items mentioned in this list before you start setting up Item Qty Shipper s signature Preamplifier 1 Power Cord 1 Standard Remote Control Unit Premium Remote Control Unit Phono Option internal DAC Option internal ...
Page 3: ...st circuitry This allows us to build products that are purist without cutting back functionality So we decided that our preamp should be complete Very complete The basic Makua Preamplifier is an extremely transparent gain stage and a programmable routing matrix The chassis has ample room to fit in optional extras most notably a DAC and a phono stage The 6 preset buttons are programmable via Blueto...
Page 4: ...Premium IR Remote Control Operation 13 Standard IR Remote Control Operation 13 Android and iOS 13 Advanced Control and Programming 15 Signal Path 15 Programmability 16 The Mola Mola Remote app 17 Setting Up and Controlling the Phono Stage 25 Roon 29 DAC 31 Drivers and Updates 32 Troubleshooting 33 Audio performance data 34 Audio performance data Phono Stage 35 Audio performance data DAC 36 Technic...
Page 5: ...r panel overview 8 Figure 2 Front panel overview 9 Figure 3 DIGIN module overview 9 Figure 4 Sketch of the internal signal path 15 Figure 5 The start up page 17 Figure 6 Home Page Preset 1 is selected 18 Figure 7 Preset Page input 1 is selected 20 Figure 8 About Page 23 Figure 9 Phono Stage Page 25 Figure 10 List of Phono Stage EQ Curves 28 Figure 11 The Makua will show up on the Audio settings pa...
Page 6: ...roughout this document some aspects of operation that have a potential impact on safety or reliability are noted with the words Warning and Caution Take particular care reading and understanding these items Paragraphs marked with Warning explain safety measures required to maintain your personal safety Paragraphs marked with Caution pertain to danger to the equipment itself or to connected equipme...
Page 7: ...y warm when operated normally Operate in a normally ventilated area 14 CAUTION Do not install near any heat sources such as radiators heat registers stoves or other apparatus including amplifiers that produce heat Avoid exposure to direct sunlight 15 Use only with a cart stand bracket or table designed for use with audio or music equipment In any installation make sure that injury or damage will n...
Page 8: ...2 Analogue inputs unbalanced 5 stereo pairs 3 Analogue Outputs 2 parallel stereo pairs for bi amping 4 Trigger Outputs 4 programmable outputs 5 Mains power input 6 Chassis ground terminal For turntable grounding 7 Option module void cover 8 Un Balanced toggle switch One for each input pair 9 Serial control port connection Table 1 Rear panel overview ...
Page 9: ... 1 LED white or dim red 3 Preset indicator LED 6 LEDs white 4 Presets 6 push buttons Table 2 Front panel overview DIGIN module optional Figure 3 DIGIN module overview Function Notes 1 AES EBU 2 Optical Toslink 3 USB type B USB audio firmware updates 4 Network Only functional when network module is fitted Table 3 DIGIN module overview 1 2 3 4 ...
Page 10: ... been made It is usually best to plug the product directly into a wall outlet Avoid the use of extension cords A heavy duty multi tap power outlet strip may be used if it and the wall outlet are rated to handle the total current demanded by the components connected to it Your preamplifier has a universal input power supply allowing it to operate anywhere from 90V to 240V mains If you are going to ...
Page 11: ...k fine Keep in mind that pin 2 is hot signal and pin 3 carries the reference potential cold Trigger outputs The four 12VDC trigger outputs can be used for various purposes The most obvious one is making the power amplifier turn on and off with your preamplifier Another is lowering a projection screen when a particular source is selected Any standard 3 5mm jack jack cable will do mono or stereo Alt...
Page 12: ...o you directly by a previous user If like most users you only have a handful of line level sources you can just go ahead and use the device in this way Front Panel Operation Powering Up So long as mains power is applied the power LED can be in two states on or standby In standby mode it will light up a dim red barely visible in daylight bright red standby LEDs lighting up the room at night is a pe...
Page 13: ...ck of the volume setting Standard IR Remote Control Operation The standard issue RC unit works slightly differently The button in the middle of the quadrants turns the preamp on or off hold 1 second for off Press this button once for mute or unmute Pushing on the left and right quadrants of the ring cycles through the 6 presets The top and bottom quadrants control the volume The two lower buttons ...
Page 14: ...Makua Preamplifier User s Manual R6 14 Mute Click on the speaker indicator to mute or unmute The speaker indicator and volume slider bar will turn red when muted ...
Page 15: ...etch of the internal signal path Everything that can be switched or changed in the above diagram is under software control XLR RCA switching Source selection Routing of any input through the optional phono stage Variable loading gain and EQ of the optional phono stage Polarity inversion of left right or both Mono summing Volume Balance independent control of left right volume DAC option Phono opti...
Page 16: ...tically cut with obviously a non RIAA curve You can then assign yet another preset to the same input with the same loading and gain but with one channel s polarity inverted and mono on and with the EQ that applies to these records As a final example although the RCA XLR selection is normally controlled using the toggle switches it can be overridden In the unlikely case that you have 6 sources you ...
Page 17: ...ong as it is within reach and plugged in Also ensure that the Bluetooth function of your mobile device is enabled The app will auto connect when there is only one Mola Mola device available The app will turn the preamplifier on during the connection procedure when it is not already turned on In case you have multiple Mola Mola devices select the device you wish to operate and click on Choose devic...
Page 18: ...e the slider at the bottom of the home page to change volume The and buttons can also be used to adjust the volume in small steps Click on the speaker indicator to mute or unmute Figure 6 Home Page Preset 1 is selected To program a preset tap the button of the preset you want to change and click on the edit preset button in the top right corner ...
Page 19: ... Status DAC If a preset with a digital input is selected the status of the DAC will be shown above the volume bar on the home page Input type shows the incoming audio format PCM or DSD Sample rate shows the sample rate of the incoming audio ...
Page 20: ...age Here you can select the input channel and whether the XLR or RCA inputs are to be used Usually you will want to leave the latter option at switch so that the toggle switch on the rear panel controls this Figure 7 Preset Page input 1 is selected ...
Page 21: ...t panel will turn off become red while the LED above the active preset remains on Direct mode is not available when a digital source has been selected CAUTION Absolutely only select Direct if the source is volume controlled Direct mode amounts to making a direct connection between the source and the power amps It is also nearly equivalent to turning the volume all the way up Engaging Direct mode w...
Page 22: ...ttons off The four Trigger buttons correspond to the four trigger outputs on the rear panel They are always on by default which is the best setting if you only use them to turn your power amplifiers on Should you use one for other purposes say to lower a projection screen when you select an A V source simply program this output to be on only when that source is selected ...
Page 23: ...ome page will direct to the About page Click on the Check for updates button to check if there is new firmware available Figure 8 About Page Balance is not normally needed unless an acoustic oddity or asymmetrical speaker placement consistently pull the sound stage off centre If you only have a consistently off ...
Page 24: ...ing Mode Use this mode if you want to perform A B testing If this mode is selected the switching time when changing presets is minimal In case the DAC option is fitted the DAC will be kept locked with the last used digital source when switching to a preset with an analogue source This functionality is only supported on Makua s with hardware version 2 2 or higher ...
Page 25: ...g Up and Controlling the Phono Stage If you marked the source as Phono clicking on phono settings on the source page will land you at the Phono settings page Changes made to the phono setup only effect the selected preset Figure 9 Phono Stage Page ...
Page 26: ...tion or recommendation but by all means feel free to experiment around with sensitivity and load resistance Termination and Sensitivity of MM Cartridges Moving Magnet cartridges have a fairly high output voltage but also an extremely high output impedance in particular inductance meaning that the input stage has to be optimized for current noise Also both load resistance and capacitance are critic...
Page 27: ...ble to support switchable EQ in the analogue domain The EQ drop down box lists all combinations of record labels and periods that we could obtain EQ data of courtesy of Russell Fischer www shellac org and Larry Robinson midimagic sgc hosting com If you can identify a particular record by its label just pick the corresponding option and the numbers in the remaining four boxes will be set correctly ...
Page 28: ...Makua Preamplifier User s Manual R6 28 Figure 10 List of Phono Stage EQ Curves ...
Page 29: ...ound If there are no presets with Roon as input then preset 6 will be configured for Roon After selecting a preset with Roon playback will start automatically First time use Before you can use the Makua in Roon it must be enabled first To do this go to Settings and then select the Audio page The Makua will show up within a minute after powering up as a Roon Ready device figure 12 Click on enable a...
Page 30: ...the information symbol and then click on Configure Device figure 14 Figure 13 Click on Configure Device to go to the Makua webpage Or you can enter the IP address in your browser The IP address of the Makua is visible under Audio Device in Zone Settings or on the Audio settings page If there is a update available a update button is visible in the Makua webpage Figure 14 The Makua webpage ...
Page 31: ...ive DSD Native DSD is not supported with the Mola Mola USB Audio Driver for Windows MQA is not supported A resync delay of 1 second is recommended for playback of DSD files Function PCM support DSD support 1 USB type B Up to 384 kHz 32 bits DoP up to DSD256 Native up to DSD256 2 Optical Toslink Up to 192 kHz 24 bits No 3 AES EBU Up to 192 kHz 24 bits No 4 Network Up to 384 kHz 24 bits DoP Up to DS...
Page 32: ...te The DIGIN module and the PWM DAC module contains firmware which can be updated The PWM DAC module can only be updated on Makua s with hardware version 2 2 or higher The update tool is available for download on the download page of Mola Mola www mola mola nl This update tool is available for Windows 7 and up and Max OS 10 6 and up How to update is described in the help file of the update tool Be...
Page 33: ...cted input This may have been re routed using the Mola Mola remote app Verify any such switches on your power amplifier too and make sure it is on and wired correctly When in complete doubt restore the factory preset by holding down the middle two buttons for more than one second Note though that this erases any programming you may have done including phono settings Loud and distorted sound even a...
Page 34: ...ut Impedance Zout 44 Ohm Noise voltage Vn 1 9µ V Unweighted at unity gain Gain range 70 15 dB Gain resolution 0 2 1 dB better than 0 2 dB over normal listening range Bandwidth Fc 200k Hz Distortion THD IMD THD IMD 150 dB Not measurable using current test equipment number is an estimate based on performance of the discrete gain block at maximum signal level Table 5 Audio Performance Data ...
Page 35: ... Input noise MC 0 35 nV rtHz Input noise MM 2 8 pA rtHz Sensitivity 30 5000 µV Distortion THD IMD THD IMD Not measurable using current test equipment number is an estimate based on performance of the discrete gain block at maximum signal level RIAA conformance 0 1 dB Table 6 Audio performance data Phono Stage ...
Page 36: ...30 dB Bandwidth 80 kHz Distortion THD IMD THD IMD 140 dB Not measurable using current test equipment number is an estimate based on performance of the discrete gain block at maximum signal level Integrated jitter 1 300 Ps fs From 10Hz upwards From 1kHz upwards Jitter rejection 80 dB At 1Hz after 20 seconds of lock Table 7 Audio performance data DAC ...
Page 37: ...ier User s Manual R6 37 Technical data Item Value Notes Supply voltage 90 135 180 270 Volt AC 47 63Hz Auto Switching Power Consumption 50 Watt Dimensions 435mm 110mm 340mm W x H x D Weight 18 kg Table 8 Technical Data ...
Page 38: ...ommand Primary Code Alternative Code Mute 12 53 Volume Up 16 51 Volume Down 17 52 Presets 1 6 1 6 Power on off 50 Next Source 54 Previous source 55 Table 9 RC5 Codes 10 consecutive repeats no change in the T bit i e holding the button depressed of Mute or 1 6 powers the device down ...
Page 39: ...ng what the current volume state is is done by issuing command CR For instance sending VOL will result in a reply like VOL 15 3 Command list All commands are read and write with the exception of those already marked as Command Parameters Function FRZ 1 or 0 Freeze 1 or thaw 0 Freeze mode is useful to store a lot of new settings in one go without physically changing anything until thawed VOL 70 0 t...
Page 40: ... 0 or 1 MM 0 or MC 1 cartridge RES 0 to 7 Load resistance selection CAP 0 to 7 Load capacitance selection PGA 0 to 7 Sensitivity 5dB steps PRO 0 to 3 Rolloff RSH 0 to 2 Low Shelf PTO 0 to 5 Bass turnover DSO 0 to 2 RCA AES or USB input DAC 0 or 1 1 if a DAC is fitted NTW 0 or 1 1 if a network module is fitted PHN 0 or 1 1 if a phono stage is fitted FMT 0 or 1 0 PCM 0 or DSD 1 input Note DXD is 352...
Page 41: ...09 2014 R3 Added option checkboxes 28 10 2014 R4 Updated standard remote and screenshots 11 09 2015 R5 Correct imperial free space value Added iOS app Added DIGIN module Added technical data Phono stage and DAC 23 02 2018 R6 Updated Mola Mola remote screenshots Added Roon chapter Updated DAC chapter Updated Drivers and updates Added Mastering mode functionality 11 03 2020 ...
