MSB select II vs all dacs ?

I own the MSB Select II with the dual powerbases and 33 Femto Clock. had if for 2 years now.

as far as direct comparison with other dacs the closest I’ve done is listening to the Select II at shows and then listening to other top dacs in other systems at shows. this was how I originally decided to purchase the Select II as I was trying to hear another dac at shows that could do what I heard the Select II doing at a lower price. I could not so, after 2 years of trying, I bought it.

comparing top dacs directly is a bit challenging, even if you have them both together. for instance, the Select II is modular (customers can easily change modules in seconds) so it has the ability to quickly modify it’s inputs to allow for optimization of various interfaces. a year ago I got the new Renderer V2 which was a step up over USB.

but with digital things change quickly, and a month ago I got a new server, the SGM Extreme. the Extreme has some special optimization for USB. Also; recently MSB introduced a new interface that optimizes USB and adds fibre to reduce noise, the MSB Pro USB. turns out that with the Extreme USB slightly pulls ahead of the Ethernet with the Renderer, then adding the Pro USB there is now a significant step up over the Renderer.

what I’m saying is that comparing dacs also must take into account of all the interface advantages of each particular dac. and the MSB Select II has a huge advantage over other dacs with it’s modularity and in-house development which promotes, in a very timely way, keeping the product at the very tip top cutting edge of digital interface developments.

lastly; what I compare my MSB Select II to every day is my top level vinyl and top level reel to reel tape. those surpass any other digital choice. the Select II pushes the analog to be it’s best. it’s that good.

hello David,

as my Select II sits it would list for $116,450.

other dacs I have enjoyed......in no particular order;

I would not call this second tier; but I prefer what hear from my Select II to what I’ve heard from these. so these are ’less preferred’. I could easily live with any of these.

CH Precision mono dac with clock and 3 power supplies (7 boxes)----it’s more spendy---$150k

Merging Technologies NADAC w/power supply and clock---much better now with the clock and power supply upgrades than my previous experience.----around $60k

there are others I know about but I’ve not heard them recently. I'm doing this off the top of my head. more might come to mind and I will add them.