Higher End DACs

I am still quite curious if anyone has had meaningful opportunity to check out a single brand - but across the line:

MSB - Premier vs Reference vs Select

i have heard the Reference and Select in the same system at an audio show. i did not hear them quickly A/B. and it was a show system and not my own files and server. but i could hear the differences. you hear farther into the music with the Select, more textures and nuances. less processed. more like my analog. but the Reference does all of those same things, just less by degrees. same family sound and sense of musical rightness.

heard the Premier but not with the other two. similar sound, less by degrees. as you might expect, there is a bigger jump from Premier to Reference, than Reference to Select.....but there is a magic with the Select that is singular. the laws of diminishing returns are legit.....but at the top of the heap there is a prize. :-)

@thelostdutchman @mikelavigne 

thanks for the comparative thoughts within DCS and MSB...

are there general sonic qualities (ie house sound) across brands with this stuff?

At a relative high level there is less color and more transparency and 
Detail being an increasing distinction.
Generally ...
At some level SS (different classes) and Tube Gear (Pre / Amplifier Phono-Pre / DAC / Streamer) become comparatively good.
Until recently manufacturers have / have not offered complete systems.
( 'High End System' being the noted distinction )
PS Audio would be an example. Now developing AN3 Loudspeaker.
End to End Systems.
Some manufacturers Still Specialize. Like DCS.
Listening to different components (variables) while leaving the rest of the 
System (constant) is the best way to discern any differences.
This should be an objective Goal.

@ufguy73 - as far as sonic qualities for DCS...I've copied a couple sections from a review on the Bartok.

" This sounded amazing right out of the box but after a few days, a veil of fuzziness lifted from the Bartok DAC’s sound. It’s hard to describe but it just became more musical. it always had the resolution but everything became more round in a way that great audio offers...."So here’s what we hear: superb resolution of the recording details, a wide and deep soundstage, a gorgeous midrange."  Each step up the range builds on this.

To me DCS offers a very neutral, organic sound that is very musical in its presentation.  The background is dead black which allows you to hear levels of detail that you didn't know existed and the sound stage is great.  Live music feels live.  I'd suggest that you go have a listen as its the only real way to get a true feel for how your brain will hear the music.  If you are close to Dallas let me know and I'll send you the details of the local dealer here that I've worked with building my system.

regarding the MSB ’house sound’, i am only intimate with my Select II. which i compare every day with my 3 turntables and 3 reel to reel tape decks. and my view is that i can go back and forth between all those and expect that the MSB will render the music like those others. maybe short in degrees of suspension of disbelief to those highest level analog wonders.

the MSB is a ’truth’ machine. it gets out of the way of the original recording and allows it to be transparently related. and does this without tipping up or drying out the tonality, keeping it real, liquid and natural. the MSB has that micro-dynamic energy, and textural nuance that comes from not over-processing the musical message from the media. more math is not our friend as music lovers.

hear a piano, or violin, or massed strings with the MSB; things that digital really struggles with, and you can hear more of how they should sound.....to my ears. like how my analog does those things. past digital got relatively called out in comparison.

i hear these same things (in lesser degrees) in the Reference and Premier and their analog volume controls are very transparent, like the Select.