DAC - Aqua Formula or Aqua La Scala

Dmance,  we would adamantly disagree with that concept. 

The Chord digital is uber clean, which is not what the Persona 9H need they need a bit of additonal warmth. We had Chord Digital for years, clean, fast, articulate but not on the warmer side of the spectrum, the Aqua Lascala or Formula are both much warmer analog sounding dacs, not as clean as the Chord Dave sound but much more analog like. 

Also the Mscaler can be duplicated with an Innous Zenith which through Roon can also upconvert as well as cross convert to DSD if your dac can handle DSD decoding, and then you will get an awesome Roon Core for the same money as the Mscaler.

We would recommend the STR going it is a great $4k Dac/preamp but not really up to the class of matching product that should be played with a speaker like the 9H. 

MI4 is using the Anthem STR power amp which is pretty good, adding a good tube preamp and then even better digital will make that system really jump up and perform.

We actually have MI4 same system Anthem gear and the Personas. we can setup any major combination.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous, Anthem, Paradigm Persona, Aqua Dealers

Dave and Troy,
I've been fortunate to hear a Chord MScaler+DAC combo with optical isolation on the dual coax interface. When the MScaler (and everything upstream) is on a battery and the TT2 (or even Hugo2) is on another battery you are presenting absolutely transparent dac-direct signals to the ultra linear persona 9H.
I'm single mindedly pursuing playback with zero RF noise intrusion to the DAC or amplification. When I do, any perceived brightness goes away completely.  Everything just sounds amazingly real ...and this is the only criteria to pursue in my opinion.
Dan

Dmance, you heard that combo on your system? Or somewhere else?

We have not heard that specific combo setup exactly as you’ve heard so we can’t really comment on that, the Dave which we have heard and most Chord Digital like DCS goes for speed articulation and transparency, never heard a Chord digital setup that we would say that sounds lush or rich.

Remember one persons’ transparency can be another persons too bright. So it would all come down to system matching.

We would still stick with our recommendations of going tube preamp then the choice of digital can be taken separately.

We had a client who demoed the T+A Dac 8 DSD vs the Chord Dave and was very impressed by how close the T+A Dac was to the Dave.

You should hear one if you can shockingly good digital $4,200.00 then invest in an Innous Zenith which is also your Roon Core and can upsample Tidal to DSD and you will get a very similar sound for less money and have a Roon Core to boot.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Paradigm, Innous, Aqua, T+A dealers

audiotroy - In your experience will moving to a tube pre-amp provide more benefit over losing ARC?

yes, the Anthem Str is a decent preamp and a decent dac but you can get far better results by upgrading to even better electronics.