MSB vs dCS Bartok

imo if you could get into a bartok without too much pain i’d do it without hesitation. it’s a great long term purchase. dcs strongly recommends using the onboard digital volume control but i remain a little skeptical. the bartok is universally praised and will maintain its value better than any other dac that i can think. of course this is only my humble opinion. 

Brinkman Nyquist Mk2 has a lot of fans and is supposed to sound very good indeed and of course has tubes if that's your thing.

But has always it's about synergy and imho the most important thing I have learned is that you have to demo at home in your own room....

Good luck.

RFC what’s the status with your dealer? Just curious. 

@4425

do NOT count on it sounding better going direct. i’ve personally never found that i would be happy long term with that. there’s always some intangible element missing that makes music special. imho

I have similar experience with the Select, it sounds definitely more lifeless without the preamp in the system.

Following suggestions above, I tried out the Select direct then via pre, hi & low output.

Strangely, the volume set to 100 via pre sounds better than either 106 or 100 in direct & better than 106 via pre. 106 in direct sounds better than 100. Overall, the order is: via pre 100, pre 106, then direct 106 (hi).

No all systems (DAC to amp to speaker matching), no mater how good, will give a good result with DAC straight to amp. It’s not always fault of the DAC or it’s v/c.