The Mola Mola Tambaqui
Since the plague arrived, several of my closest audio friends have been chattering and bugging me constantly, not about masks, vaccines, Trump, or Biden but about Bruno Putzeys’s digital-to-analog converter, the Mola Mola Tambaqui. They’ve been sending emails and texts like pesky kids: “Herbie! Have you tried the Mola Mola? Come on man, what’s taking you so long? Is Putzeys’s DAC better than my MSB? Or the dCS Bartók? Or the Holo-Audio May?”
I don’t mind—I like it when people pester me about products they’re excited about. That type of revved-up, need-to-know anticipation is what keeps our shared audio dreams going and growing.
I get extra-happy when they are gushing about DACs. Today, digital converters, both A/D and D/A, define the leading edges of audio engineering, and we need them to keep improving.
Ten days after my second vaccine shot, I visited one of those pesky friends and got a deep listen to the fish-and-ocean–styled Tambaqui. The longer I listened, the more convinced I was that the Mola Mola was clearer and more physical-sounding than any DAC in my previous experience.
I went home inspired. I must obtain a review sample, I thought, then study it carefully and report to my readers.
A large South American freshwater fish
The made-in-The-Netherlands, Bruno Putzeys–designed Tambaqui DAC ($13,400) came triple-boxed. The innermost box was a foam-lined Pelican case. Inside that was the small (7.9" W × 4.3" H × 12.6" D), light (11.5lb) Tambaqui.
The Tambaqui’s Greek-temple proportions, rolling-wave profile, concave face, and Nemo-esque porthole display made every other component in the bunker look boring and conventional. As I sipped my morning coffee, I read the owner’s manual and installed Mola Mola’s iOS app on my iPad.
The Tambaqui has seven wired digital inputs, S over HDMI. It also supports several Bluetooth codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX, LDAC. PCM is supported up to 32/384 on the USB and network inputs and up to 24/192 on all the other wired inputs. DSD is supported natively and via DoP (DSD over PCM), although Native DSD isn’t supported on Windows versions earlier than 10. MQA isn’t supported at all.
