Mojo Audio Mystique EVO

Thanks @veroguy and all for keeping up this thread and for providing the feedback about optimal connections.  I am planning to use AES/EBU out of a Metrum Ambre Roon endpoint.  I used I2S with my Metrum Adagio but AES/EBU sounded just as good.  With the Mystique V3 I have here, USB sounds better than S/PDIF-RCA in my system but I know Benjamin has improved the inputs significantly in the EVO.  I will also try USB with the EVO and will keep an open mind.  I have heard the Adagio has a crappy USB implementation, which may explain why I didn't like it as much with that DAC.    
I am glad the EtM reviewer liked the EVO 21 so much since the unit he reviewed was pretty much exactly what I have on order, i.e., a 2021 B4B inside of a 2020 chassis, including the Class A output stage, Lundahl chokes in the analog power supply, and ERS paper shielding.  Benjamin is also providing the correct sized footer openings to accommodate my Stillpoints that are left over from another project.  I really look forward to hearing it - if it is even 10-20 percent better than the V3 it will be very good indeed. 

Mojo Audio’s motto is "A bit closer to live," which to be honest is a sentiment I’ve never liked. To me great audio isn’t about trying -- and inevitably failing -- to mimic the ideal of live music. No, to me it’s its own thing, a venture in which I try to get closer and closer to the Platonic ideal of pure sound, which to me comes *before* music. Someone once said to me, "You care about the sound more than the music," to which I replied unapologetically, "Yeah, what’s wrong with that?"

I go into this digression to illustrate how amazed I was the first time I plugged in my new EVO DAC into my system. I was coming from the Mystique V3, which I had already loved, but the experience was uncanny. I had vacillated about what to listen to first, and settled on Annie Lennox’s "Nostalgia," because it’s a great recording that is sparse enough to let the sonic elements come to the fore. This sounds like an exaggeration, but I swear it’s true: I didn’t feel like I was listening to Annie live in the audience; I didn’t feel like she was singing right in front of me; I felt like I was *her* singing. I’m a dude who can’t sing for his life, so this was an odd experience, to say the least. I *do* play two instruments: flute and classical guitar, and I can state definitively that listening to good recordings of these instruments on the EVO feels uncannily like actually playing them.

To put it a different way, with the EVO there is no distance between the music and your brain. On headphones, it feels like the music is coming from within you, not like you are listening to it. On speakers the effect is obviously diminished, but it is still amazing. My wife has never appreciated my sound system--she puts up with because she knows it’s important to me. When she wants to listen to music, it’s iPhone speaker all the way. Anyway, I didn’t tell her I got a new DAC (don’t judge me!), but when I turned on my stereo for the first time with the EVO in place, she looked up from her book and said, "That sounds great!" This is the first time she had ever spontaneously complimented my system. I just smiled.

I had always considered PRAT a quality of amps, speakers, and headphones. But the PRAT on the EVO is out of this world. Again, the V3 was already a great DAC I was very happy with, but the EVO makes it sound sluggish and slow by comparison. I find myself unconsciously tapping my foot much more with the EVO. It’s hard to explain what a "fast DAC" means, but the speed and coherence of the sound gives the music an immediate, physical presence. The sound is neither "warm" nor "cool," the soundstage neither "wide" nor "narrow." Those words simply don’t apply to something of this caliber. It’s just pure unadulterated sound. That’s all I can say about it.

Sometimes I just want to have something playing in the background, and it sounds natural enough that it doesn’t demand your attention in the annoying way some audiophile systems do. But when you *do* turn your attention to it, the sound is an endless void that you can disappear into completely. To me the EVO finally bridges the sound with the music, and listening to it is akin to having spiritual experience on tap.

Should I change our tag line to "a bit closer to live acoustic music?"

In any event, the big jump in performance in our 2021 versions over our 2020 versions is the Staccato class A op amps over the Sparkos SS2590 Pro op amps.

If you purchased a 2020 version with the Sparkos op amps we can upgrade you to the new Staccato op amps for only $500.

After all, you did buy an EVO :^)

This DAC seems amazing and would be a good comparison I think to my delta sigma Bricasti M1SE. I would love to do a comparison in how they sound one day. I’ve only ever owned delta sigma dacs, so to hear the difference with my own ears will be interesting.

They are around the same price too.

@taylor02 There's a 45 day trial period for the Evo. I'd love to hear the comparison if you make the plunge.