To me, once you come to a certain level of performance and build quality, it all becomes a matter of taste and sinergy, and not necessarily what is best.
In your car analogy, I would never ever pass on a Mercedes to favor a Rolls-Royce. But again, this is just me.
Truer words never spoken. May I add and budget? System synergy within one’s budget as well as personal taste is what it is all about.
Could not agree more
So I was the original poster for this thread. I was looking at the msb reference at the time. My dealer nor did Vince had a reference DAC as a loaner but they did have a select II, with the dual powerbases, pro usb and the streamer. The select II was awesome, I really could find no faults. The only other DAC I had to compare it to at the time was the dsd, and obviously there was no comparison between the two.
I ended up not purchasing the msb because after some thought it didn’t seem to make sense to me to have such a high end piece in my non treated living room. For about the cost of the Select II I was able to retrofit an existing media room into a professionally designed and treated, sound isolated listening room.
While I’ve been waiting on construction to start, I heard about the Holo Audio May DAC and ended up purchasing that. I’ve been so impressed with it that I haven’t even thought about either MSB. There was too far of a time between having the select II and the May but from what I remember they both had a lot of the same characteristics but the msb does take the cake with its modular approach. I would definitely give it a try prior to looking at the MSB given it cost less than the dsd and the msb discreet. It such a hot item that I doubt it would take that much time to sell it on the used market if you ended up not liking it.
If I were looking for a top flight DAC, I’d try the Playback Design first before considering the MSB. I know this isn’t conclusive, but I preferred the sound of the Playback Design DAC, to the MSB, when OCD Mickey and Jay did a shoot out between the two.
Where does dCS fit here ?
Regards,
Sourav
I also have heard a lot about Playback Design. (They are few miles away from my place in California).
But seems like getting in touch with them is a challenge these days. Nobody picks up phone either their direct contact or the dealer in CA.
Regards,
Sourav
What was the conclusion of OCD Mickey & Jay ?
OCD Mikey preferred the Playback Designs DAC, and Jay preferred his MSB DAC. Oh course Mikey is a Dealer for Playback Designs, so that might’ve influenced his preference. But I’m sure Mikey would say the reason he became a dealer for that brand is because it was what he felt was the best DAC for the money, and according to him, one of the best DAC’s period, because of it’s organic and musical presentation.
It is also DSD based. So wondering how TSS dac or DS Sr MKII will compare with Playback design dac.
Regards,
Sourav
TIme will tell, and then trying to get all three in the same space and system.
Hi Sourav,
How do you get to a min price of $49K USD for a Nagra DAC? The Tube DAC is about half that price. You can certainly negotiate… I hope no one pays retail… and you can add the improved power supply and isolation base later.
I haven’t met anyone who has heard both MSB and Nagra prefer MSB. I’m sure MSB is fantastic, but just saying…
Hi All, I have upgraded from Audio-GD Master 7 DAC (PCM 1704-based DAC) to the MSB Premier. Dealer here in Australia obtained a great price compared to many countries outside the US. I was also loaned the MSB headphone amp. DAC has much more detail retrieval with the Grimm Audio MU1 as source. Underwhelmed with the headphone amp SQ. I had planned to upgrade to the DirectStream II back in January!
(MSB Premier has some features which are now standard, c/w 2 - 3 years ago where such features were costly options e.g. 93fs clock.)