MSB Diamond DAC V

Maybe my ongoing experience with the Select (the current top of the line) with dual power base can help. I’ve had it along with another top-end DAC (Ideon Absolute) at home on evaluation for about a month now.

The MSB is beautifully engineered, easy to set up & use. I am using my local music library thru a MUSICHI player & either a BFA integrated or an SL Kraft class A amp with Borbely Ref pre. Proac speakers. I listen mostly to classical, but in this instance mixed in lots of blues, jazz, and rock. Wherever poss I listen to hi-res files.
The overall effect I’ve had is of loss of frequency extension at both ends of the spectrum. Indeed in the low end, I seem to be missing an octave or so (may be aggravated by the lack of higher frequencies?). There is a euphonic bloom in the lower midrange and the mids are very pleasantly forward, but I lack three-dimensionality and detail in the soundstage, and dynamic punch. A full orchestra sounds somewhat veiled

I have tried changing cables & such & am still working on it; adding a signal reclocker / reviver improved things.
Work in progress, I suppose—or I just can’t get used to the "ladder" sound.
Good luck!

Ouch, totally not what I was looking for. I listen to a broad range of music minus Classical, Country, and Rap. All else is fair game and my next Dac must play well in that arena as well as coexisting wit either solid state our tube.

Thank you for your input.

For the price I would ask to see measurements on it. What's the SINAD? Intermodulation distortion? Jitter noise? Linearity? What you're describing is typical "ladder dac" high frequency roll off and distortion. I would expect that in a cheap R2R implementation not something at this price.