Bricasti M3 vs. Holo Audio May vs. PS Audio DS

@hgeifman I’m thinking about increasing my DAC budget.   I see you looked at the MSB Discrete.  I don’t think I would need any of the  add-ons, which means it would be  priced pretty close to the Bricasti M1.  Have you compared those two by any chance?  Thanks!

@cosmic_charlie, No, I never listened to the MSB Discrete DAC.

I looked at the MSB Discrete DAC but quickly discovered I need both an AES/EBU and USB connections that were all additional costs. Then, I got REALLY confused with the power supply options. It comes with one power supply box for both channels and, an option, another power supply box so that both channels have their own power supply. I discussed this with MSB (phone call) and they suggested I UPGRADE to their BEST power supply (The Reference Powerbase) for ever better sound quality that really increased the cost. I decided to pass on the MSB Discrete DAC.

https://www.msbtechnology.com/dacs/discrete-dac-features/

I own the Bricasti M21 DAC (MDx board installed) in my main audio system and the Bricasti M3 DAC in my 2-channel home theatre system. Both Bricasti DAC’s are excellent and I like them very much for the excellent sound quality. I hope this helps.

@cosmic_charlie, I forgot something. I previously owned the Bricasti M1SE DAC and replaced it with the Bricasti M21 DAC. 

@hgeifman Got it, thanks!

The Bricasti m3 with current MDX board and with streamer card sound at its best 
not far off it’s big brother the M1 ,  and to make streaming much better the 
uptone audio Ether regen  it truly removes all the noise residing in your digital 
just do a little research , and blue jeans cables their cat 6 bonded pair 500 MHz 
From Beldon is exactly what’s used in many studios and even comes with a bandwidth certification  great values  in quality, performance the 
Bricasti ,how they get it to have so much musicality but with authority 
at   Just over 10 lbs vs 40 for Denafrips terminator , or Holo springs May KTE 
at40 lbs is a mystery no where near as many capacitors ,or a  two box unit but it does have state of the art Shark dual processors  and other things in engineering.
They learned from pro audio mastering which they do around the world.