Upgrading my Auralic Vega G1 streaming dac

@hlkaye take what audiotroy says with 2 grains of salt, he's just trying to push the 432evo he sells. The Bricasti M3 is wonderful straight up. Heard it many times at my dealer. I've been contemplating getting it and trading my M1 in. 

I have compared the Bricasti M3 and the Weiss. In fact, I have both here right now.

Both are great but very different. There is obviously a big difference in price. The Weiss is more competitive with the M1 than the M3. I have tested a bunch of DACs in another thread and what you are really looking at with DACs is a compromise between detail and soundstage. The M3 is soundstage king in its price class but not be all end all in terms of detail. Weiss is in a different price class.

the M3 is not the most detailed DAC but has a gigantic soundstage. Dead neutral in terms of tonal profile and very musical and engaging. The network card/renderer is far better than you would assume for $1000 upgrade. I have recently had a few folks test this vs some very high end player/server combos and it is competitive with some shockingly expensive gear.

The Weiss is incredibly detailed yet still has a wide and deep soundstage. Without filter/dsp, it is a hair forward of neutral. The player/renderer is every bit as good as the M5 if not better and had a silly amount of features that allow you to fine tune your sound. The Weiss is definitely the better of the two DACs but it is also ~$3k more. The M1 SE would be a much fairer comparison and there itbis a small trade between soundstage and detail.

i can’t speak about the others though I am in process of evaluating Meitner and will be listening to the MA3 soon.

based on your system, I would also look at the Chord TT2 and the Rockna Wavedream Edition as potentially brilliant matches.

I look forward to hearing of your evaluation of the Meitner.  Right now I'm planning on auditioning 1 or 2 dacs at the Bricasti M3 price point (with network card) and one from the higher price point (Weiss or Meitner) to see the increased cost is worth it to me.

So did you try out the Exasound s82? If so, can you post your thoughts on it