Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

@sns @charles1dad @melm

it has been fun trying this one out, the piece is a really lovely effort, and for the money, just wonderful performance, and it does let you run straight into a power amp, albeit with a very slight perceived grain at higher attenuation settings

to some of the points made

-- i agree that imaging (or the illusion of soundstage with depth etc) is very much a function of recording quality and mixing, no doubt some recordings have it in spades while others are lacking in this department

-- also agree streaming chain is super important which is why i waited and got a second opticalrendu so i could run 005 vs m1 via identical super clean usb feed, 100% apples to apples... i find that with better dacs like these, the sonic differences are subtle, how they are fed can affect how they sound

-- i can’t comment on image height per se... with my maggies and how they stand and full height ribbon tweeter, they do that very well, ’life-sized’ so to speak, if there is a difference in this specific aspect between the 005 and the m1, i could not hear it in my room

-- one can really only speculate on what drives certain sonic characteristic being heard differentially between units, obviously the produced sound is a result of everything all together, impossible to isolate specific elements (dual mono d/a or analog stages, power supply design, upsampling rates, chip vs r2r ladder and so on... certain dacs of course allow for some features like filtering, os/nos, etc to be toggled in/out, but some don’t)

-- m1 se does not have separate analog inputs, it is functionally like the 005 in it can adjust it own output level - but you cannot port a separate analog source into it/through it (as the msb can...)

@sns 

Good observation and point with regard to the dual function (DAC-streamer) Bricasti M1(Tri function if one considers volume control).

Charles

@sns

I still think the 005 is a fabulous bargain even considering that streaming and preamp are not built in. I had a decent preamp already in the chain as do many others so no extra expense there. Thanks to your comments and those of others, I learned of the benefits of streaming after I bought the 005. Still, spending less than $1000 for the streamer, cables, and optical "filter" probably has gotten me most of the way. I guess my system would fall short short of the best SOTA setups out there. But I would also guess I have gotten 80 to 90 percent there for a small fraction of the cost of the best.

@jjss49 Hope I understand correctly volume control is analog based with Briscati, reason I mentioned possible replacement of preamp, of course, only for single source, that being streaming with Briscati.

@dbb 005 certainly has advantage in that initial expenditure much less, one can upgrade streaming as funds allow.

The important thing here is 005 place in dac hierarchy becoming clearer over time. I seems we are not in fact delusional, imagining sound quality that hits far above it's weight vs far more expensive dacs. Its enlightening to see these comparisons as they give us greater insight into areas of possible deficiency and/or excellence. However one determines it's price/performance value, a larger sampling of users  discovering it is one nice dac.

@sns Yes, I agree that if someone is looking for an all in one box solution then the Bricasti is an option together with the Aurender A20, Mark Levinson, Mola Mola etc.

But we all know that having at least a separate preamp will sound better. The 005 responds very well to high end preamps, which you would think the opposite would be true because high end preamps will reveal all the warts in downstream equipment.

I have auditioned the 005 with some of the best SS preamps in the World, including my own SMC-VRE-1 (out of production), Vitus Audio SL-103 ($30k) and Viola Sonata ($40k).

I have also auditioned among others Constellation, Simaudio and Solution but found the above preferable.

The 005 was never found lacking in any respect which is usually the case with a lower quality product.

It's definitely not "organic" or vinyl or tube like, it's real, warts and all. When did you ever come from a concert and say "Wow, that was really organic!", Never.

Instead it will faithfully reproduce Jagger's Souf London accent and Karen Carpenter's Drawl. Plus razor sharp electric guitar and the greatest cymbal reproduction from ant DAC I've ever heard. Listen to Cream's Toad or some Hi-Rez Jazz.

Getting back to the Bricasti, it's x8 oversampling which I believe will inhibit the use of HQ Player, which I understand to be the best CA program. Oversampling is not  a purist audio feature either. Old school believes the original signal must remain so.

Anyway many people will love the pseudo ML design and built by some ex ML employees, and of course it's American!