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.