Bricasti M3

Sorry, yes. I meant without loosing musicality.
Thanks for pointing that to me. BIG MISTAKE on my part.

Also, yesterday I tried the headphones output with a HiFiMan HE1000se and Final D8000 headphones. Both are planar magnetic and not easy to drive. The M3h drove them with ease and sound fantastic. I have a Chord Hugo TT2 as a loan which is a great DAC and headphones amp in the price range of the M3. Both sound fantastic out of the same headphones but I am personally inclining to the M3h sound plus the Chord TT2 does not have the ability to connect directly to the network.

Here is my previous post corrected. I tried to edit it but the system not allow edits after 30 minutes so I delete it to correct it and re-post it.

I own a Bricasti M21, pair of M28s and in another system a M1SE.
I got the M3h (headphones amp option). I can say that the M3 DAC sounds similar to the M21 which is more transparent and detailed than the M1SE without loosing any musicallity.
The M1 is a dual mono DAC in the analog section. That is why it has 3 individual power supplies (one for the digital section and one for each analog channel). The M3 is a smaller box and has just 2 power supplies (one for digital and one for both analog channels).
The rest of the implementation including the network card is the same as found in other Bricasti DACs.

Last night I tried the M3h single ended headphones output with IEMs and it is death quiet which means the noise and output impedance is really low. This is great to match any kind of headphones.

@musicman159 could you elaborate on the aspects that differentiate the chord and bricasti?

I’ve had the M3 for about 6 weeks, so it’s good and broken in! The M3 is my first dac so I can only compare it to an Oppo 203...which is no comparison really!! I think it’s sounds great in my modest system. It would definitely be the highlight!! I would say it’s very musical! Sometimes I catch myself going holy crap  that sounds good!! I have the network card and have been running Roon in to it over Ethernet and using it with USB as well. Its hard to tell the difference sometimes. I upsample to Dsd 128 and then I’ll play it straight up and both are great! I just added some GIK panels and that definitely helped the room! Its a great looking machine and the remote is a chunk of aluminum. I liked dealing with the guys at Bricasti, and that ultimately led to the purchase! I’ll try to answer questions if someone has one!!