Considering Bricasti and Lampizator

Seriously?

Putting Purrin's comments here? I cant take him seriously when he says a PSA PW2 and a Audio GD Master 7 sounds better than a Level 4 Lampi (much less a Level 5). Hell, the Amber will likely beat those Dacs he touts.

From Headfi you can read what AL says. AL has had 7 Lampis pass thru his hands and owns 2 Big7s currently. He also owns the D-Stream, Master7, Mytek, Hugo, MSB Platinum Stack, iDSD micro and a coup,e more I have forgotten. Why not ask him what HE thinks as he has owned them for months/years?

In any case, taste is a personal thing and I guess people have to try for themselves. However, if we are to use opinions of others, better to see what the heavyweights say, like Elberoth and Bruce Brown and the 2 reviewers at PFO Online who awarded Lampi with TWO editors awards in 2014.

Anyone else happen to compare these two great DACs?

PS Audio Directstream is actually pretty good and at a good price, make sure you feed it low jitter input though.

Haven't heard either but will offer another DAC for you to checkout Modwright Elyse tube rectified and 6992 tubes. I use a NOS Mullard 5AR4 and Siemens A frame gold pins, excellent to my ears.

If you like lots of color and excitement, the M1 is probably not your DAC.

The Bricasti is an example of engineering excellence rather than artistic expression.

Take a look at the analogue stages and you'll see that fast AD op-amps are employed to convert differential currents from the dac to balanced and unbalanced voltage sources.
  
This approach is technically sound and will result in good measured performance but is unlikely to please those with preconceptions that op-amps are bad, or those who prefer something more lush or warm, or conversely, hyper detailed. 

On the + side, the op-amps chosen are neutral in character, and particularly well spec'd for high speed integration applications.

On the minus side, the op-amps used are 8 pin DIL so there's never going to be future plug in replacement upgrades, because future op-amps with notably better specs (and unity gain stability) will likely be SMD packaged. Of course it is still possible that Bricasti will offer complete DAC module upgrades in the future, but also likely at a high cost.

 As it stands, the AD843 is probably the best op-amp available for the critical I to V conversion, but  that said, and fwiw, I have actually already experimented and replaced the unbalanced (2nd) stage AD843 op-amps with LME49710's, which are arguably better for this duty, and yes there was an immediate change in character; The the top end opened up and mids and treble became more detailed with just a hint of lushness and mid treble sweetness that made older and grainy recordings more approachable.  In my system it's really worked in a good way so I've left those op-amps in situ. 

Other op-amps would undoubtedly give differing results but  further experimentation isn't something I'm inclined to do in a hurry since I like the DAC the way it is, and in any case, even with a pro vacuum desoldering tool there's still a risk of damage to the pcb's when op-amps are changed, and without such a tool and requisite skills I would never have contemplated it in the first place.