Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

@sns Per usual in audio, no absolute winners, wouldn't expect anything else.

Agree 100%
Why the “need” to always have to crown and declare an absolute and undisputed winner. I’ve never found this to be the reality in High End audio. @jjss49 your efforts are much appreciated.

Charles 

I don't see this discussion as a who's best scenario but rather more as a paradigm shift in the industry where most if not all of these highly priced DAC offerings offer little to no performance advantage over Musetec, Holo May and Terminator.

Traditionally price was directly proportional to hi-end sound, occasionally we get a cable or accessory that seriously outperforms, however it's rare.

It's still impossible to build hi-end pre and power amps, turntables and speakers cheaply. DACs on the other-hand mostly use the same chips and are either delta sigma or R2R, take your choice.

Therefore even though the Chinese have tried to copy Levinson, Spectral, FM Acoustics etc., they can't do it. Mainly because the cost of the components and technologies involved.

A DAC is another matter and since many western companies have outsourced to China for years it's no surprise they have a very good handle on DACs.

The 005 has never fallen short or been outclassed in any system I've put it into. 005 users here have recently been discussing how much better performance they can achieve with decent pre-amps. Pairing a 005 with a Coda preamp for example will provide a formidable combination for about $10k, the starting price of these expensive DACs.

Both the Bricasti and Weiss DACs oversample this means you cannot use industry leading software like HQ Player.

Call me old school but I don't want my digital signal enhanced in any way, I want to hear what comes directly off the CD or file or stream.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the understanding of the 005.

Call me old school but I don't want my digital signal enhanced in any way, I want to hear what comes directly off the CD or file or stream.

I share the same mindset and perspective. There is a huge DAC marketplace with many choices and one can find what they want. I thought @jjss49 comments were exceedingly complimentary toward the 005.His opinion does not invalid another's opinion or listening impressions. If High End Audio is anything, it is unavoidably subjective. Which is a good thing.

Charles

Pairing a 005 with a Coda preamp for example will provide a formidable combination for about $10k, the starting price of these expensive DACs.

I have the CODA 07x preamp (their top unit). However, it is now sitting idle because the Benchmark LA4 preamp + Musetec 005 + Benchmark AHB2 monos sound slightly better to my ears. The pre and DAC total around $5600. This is with a KEF LS50 in my office.

I love the LA4 + 005 combo. I am flipping back and forth about selling the CODA 07x and getting a second LA4 and second 005 (almost certain on the 005). The CODA 07x is getting a new external power supply in a few months so I want to try that with the 005 first before I decide.

Once again @jjss49 and @lordmelton have given us very valuable insights into the sound of the Musetec and other DACs. Any of the DACs mentioned together with care in digital signal delivery, I believe, will give the listener a real taste of what digital can do.

I would add only that some of the differences, admittedly small differences, among the several DACs considered can only be accurately understood and evaluated by reference to particular recordings and recording techniques. Consider, for example, the question of how up front or recessed might a soloist appear in relation to the speakers. Close miking would suggest, I think, that the soloist in an accurate system would be on the line between speakers, rather than recessed. Distant miking should reveal a more distant perspective.

A brief comparative review some years ago of my phono pre against another revealed that one of them had a singer up front and the other had the singer further back in the sound stage. The reviewer wrote that the buyer could make a choice based on preference. I recall saying to myself at the time that this doesn’t make sense. Only by knowing something about the recording set-up could one determine that one of the two more accurately revealed the proper spacing.

Here, as in other evaluations, I judge by classical music as there is usually some attempt to make it appear like a real event. So there can still be the close up orchestral perspective of a Mercury recording in Detroit vs. a distant perspective of a Philips recording in Amsterdam. What I seek are components that reveal these differences. The sound of a grand piano on a large concert stage will be very different than the same piano in an average room. Closeness or distance will be but one aspect of the difference. Some recordings put the piano in my room; others have it at a distance on a stage. Similarly for chamber music.

Re another issue consider, for example, the comment of the slightly leaner mid-bass giving a sense of slightly greater clarity. Some of you may know that I’ve been experimenting lately with some very interesting balanced Chinese interconnects. Well, one of these provides to the Musetec precisely what is described here. It works spectacularly well for some recordings. Whether it works well for a great variety of recordings is something that I am currently wrestling with. Applied to some other DAC it may take it too far into the entirely too lean category. I will write more about this cable adventure in time.

All of which is to say that good component reviewing can be very, very difficult. @jjss49 did some terrific work here and some very careful listening. Expressing these sonic issues in words is a tall order. My only demur would be in the lack of musical examples. The difficulty, of course, is that we don’t have a common base of music so that we can all hear what the reviewer hears. I guess I miss the old TAS days when they would chose from a small group of recordings.