First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

Here is my conclusion on the 006. It most of all provides outstanding dynamics which goes a long way to putting energy and life into the music as if you were hearing a live performance. As I said earlier, this in itself creates the feel of more resolution, especially in orchestral transients and chamber music. I heard beautiful details in familiar recordings that I never noticed before. This sounds like an audiophile cliche but it is not meant in the usual way as if your hearing just got better.and you heard more. You hear more because this DAC punches hard when taut crisp transients are in the music like in real life. If the music has punch you will feel it. It is the most live sounding DAC I have heard. This makes it, in my opinion, better than the 005. It is not harsh per se, but it could be challenging when it comes to system matching. It was for me. Some recordings sounded better than ever, and a few became edgy.

Over the years I have balanced the sound of my system by choosing a smooth and slightly warm amp, a McIntosh Mc402, with a detailed, clear neutral and dynamic preamp, a Hegel P30, and neutral and highly resolving speakers with metal drivers, the Kef Referance 1s. I also use three subwoofers. The 006 made me chase perfection by causing me to try another preamp, a Coincident Statement Line Stage. Ninty percent of my recordings sound better than ever. Ten percent don’t. Neither preamp quite gets me where I want to be, yet a look at the potential of the 006 makes me wan to keep trying. How ya goin’ to keep’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree.

@dbb thanks for your feedback. It looks like the 006 is revealing weakness in rest of your system. This is not the fault of the DAC and more to do with the system matching. Sometimes even a slight extra resolution can throw an offball curve. You might want to take a look at the source you are using and experiment with it. Almost all resolving DACs needs a better source to get the best out of it and if you are steaming than optimizing the network is paramount.

@dbb Perhaps you're expecting too much, no such thing as perfection in this hobby. My Conicident Statement, the one with dual TVC, no remote volume control is not what I'd call warm, simply neutral with a tube presentation. I don't believe the Hegel or Coincident is the issue. I'd go with debit_g and suggest streaming setup, I've had to work for years on getting mine just right. Metal drivers may also expose some anomalies.

In any case, my first listening session with 006 will come on Friday evening, just slightly over 100 hours burn in. This included many starts and stops, heat cycling important for many parts,  and capacitor charging and discharging help to form caps, both important to any burn in regimen. I wouldn't give 006 a final verdict just yet, a variety of  perspectives help in determining any component's voicing.

@debjit_g ​@sns  I agree with you on the importance of a well set up streamer. I have made some progress in this area, using a switch and fiber optic cables before my ultrarendu. 

Also, I have no complaints about the Coincident Statement preamp. It turns out it does not have a remote and does have the Psvane tubes. It is as good as you said.

It might be that when you get to a certain high level some old favorite recordings are exposed as not sounding as good as they did in a previous set up that was at a lower level. I guess I don't want to make any sacrifices. I don't want to chase rainbows either.

I don't understand why you're using fiber optic with UltraRendu, you should be using OpticalRendu, and this with OpticalModule, both with quality lps. Assuming you have wired internet service, conversion to optical done at end of chain, just prior to dac, ie., opticalmodule>opticalrendu>usb to dac. Quality lps, even the DC cables make a difference, I was very surprised to hear the difference in DC cables, pretty much along lines AC cables make. Also, I've found switches to be of absolutely no use, this even with audiophile switch. Fast gaming level router with quality lps, wifi shut off, this will be system router, get second router, daisy chain this router to system router, enable wifi on this second or whole house router. This keeps things simple, quiet. Also quality ethernet cable, I use Audioquest Vodka.

And then the streamer itself is at least as important as dac! I tried a variety of streamers over perhaps ten years, all custom builds in my case. My present custom streamer uses $6k JCAT ATX Optimo lps, this just the power supply, rest of streamer uses all Enterprise level components. Now, you don't need to go to this admittedly extreme extent to get quality streaming. If I were to choose off the shelf, I'd go for Innuous, Aurender or Antipodes, best you can afford. This upgrade should be first for you, other things I mention above can wait, get a first class streamer and you'll be hearing full potential of 006, the rest I mention is icing on cake.

As for your Coincident pre, so you have the dual manual volume control version. This version has the two volume transformers, the other version with remote uses a single volume pot. Remote version doesn't have the resolution/transparency of TVC Statement. I can directly comment to this as I have the exact same volume setup with pot on my Coincident Turbo 845 so I can use as integrated, also has bypass of volume pot, far superior in bypass mode.