Not at all. I tend to look at the ASR ’review’ as I would a Popular Science magazine recommending cheap audio-visual receivers because they have more inputs and/or lights or a bigger remote control.
I bought the 005 a got it a week ago. And although it is breaking in slowly and changes quite a bit from day to day, I can already tell that is a HUGE upgrade over my previous W4S Dac2dsd. I won’t report on final impressions until after several hundred hours.
I thought it amusing that ASR concluded.. "while doing a few things right, there is a lot wrong with design of MH-DA005. They have an excellent core as far as DAC chip is concerned, but they poorly implement the companion circuits. Instead of focusing to get the basics right, focus seems to be elsewhere (battery bank and such)." The dismissive attitude and language reminded me a little of someone who would spend less than half an hour of ’measuring’ a pair of high end tube amps right out of the box, and pronouncing them undeserving of their price or reputation.
My listening so far - even at this early stage - is the exact opposite - Musetec started with an excellent core (ESS9038Pro), and beautifully implemented the power supply, the companion circuits, the boutique parts and wiring, after what was clearly much listening to each of the individual parts and their impact on the musical whole.
Just my opinion.