Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Matt, hopefully you will end up coming across the Playback Designs Dream Series line. Andreas Koch has quite a resume and was involved in getting PS Audio's engineer into FPGA.

The Playback Designs MPS-5 (flagship SACD player) came to market about 10 years ago, but the firmware has been updated numerous times. Additionally, a fully upgraded MPS-5 includes an improved clock generator. I'm of the impression, and not my own personal observation, that the fully upgraded MPS-5 will beat the Merlot DAC. One wouldn't be reaching too far to believe that it may beat the latest DirectStream.

The Dream Series DAC will have MSRP $22,000. Matching SACD transport $15,000. Would be interesting to get your impressions compared with ultra hi-end units you've enjoyed!

Matt,

I agree!

Matt said "Ricred1- I endeavor to compare apples to apples and try to give all the information I can. You absolutely need to keep price levels in mind and not compare a $4k DAC to a $14k DAC. There are a few excellent performers in each price range. I have heard enough to know there really is no such thing as a “giant killer,” so don’t be fooled. There is no $4k DAC that outperforms the best of the $10k region. There are great $4k dacs that sound better then bad $12k dacs. But no one is going to buy a bad $12k DAC unless it offers something specific that they want.

There are great dacs at every price point. We are very lucky."

Who says folks won't buy that crappy 12k DAC?  Many will buy on price or because someone on the internet told them how great it is (someone who works for said company, lol ;) )....LOL...

sorry, I couldn't help it. ha. Back to the regularly scheduled program.  

Also, I was VERY impressed by Matt's DAC and The Music Server.  What a pair those are.  I have another very close friend who owns both and says the same thing.  It's a great reference and if someone comes up with the next mouse trap that beats those two, then WOW...are we all lucky.

Hey all. Sorry for the slow going. Work has been crazy and the Memory Player went to Sam for some upgrades. 

Havent even been in my room in weeks. 

Anyone want to post a list of their top 5 songs they use to audition components? I’ll put mine up when I get a chance. 

Hi mattnshilp, Thankyou for your post on my behalf,  I apologize to all here by not getting back here sooner,  I have been building a second system,  I put a lot of my building experience into this,  no room for mistakes and sale off and loose money! here is where I'm at,  magico q3 speaker's which I really don't like, but do not hate them to sale them, so,  I put my self up to the challenge to make these speaker's sing like no other q3 speaker's, so I  got the New Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier,  Tara Lab's muse speaker cable's and interconnect's,  Tara Lab's cobalt power cord,  I moved the furutech gtx-Rhodium duplex receptacle's to this system,  I have the NCF furutech version receptacle's on the main system. So I am now pulling the trigger on the ps audio direct stream memory dac and matching transport,  the cool thing here is the speaker's are 4 ohms, without the new digital,  this sounds phenomenal,  I  have close to 200 hrs burn in,  and the cable's are still getting better,  great match for magico!, I believe this is a fix for the speaker's,  @ aolmrd1241, Currious,  may I ask what you are usein for the digital HDMI cable?