2. digital
  3. 181351-165315

Has the ASR review/hatchet job on the Musetec MH-DA005 Changed Anyone's Mind?

A little over a year ago, after seeing so many glowing reviews of the 005 on this and other fora, I bought the DAC and thought it made a great improvement over my Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ (which I now use on my #2 system). Recently, I came across the ASR review, which concludes that the 005 is a piece of crap. I know that ASR has a dubious (at best) reputation in this forum, but I wonder if its review has caused anyone to have second thoughts about the Musetec. I confess I was initially concerned by questions like, why hasn't Musetec responded to the horrible ASR review, if it is inaccurate? But, then, every time I listen to my system with the 005 DAC in it, it sounds glorious. Obviously, the guidance, "trust what your hear" is important, but I'm not sure I'd be as trustful of my ears if the negative technical review came from, say, John Atkinson, who has far more professional legitimacy in measuring equipment. I confess I have one more than one occasion refrained from buying a certain item because of his test results. (Where I live, it is not feasible to listen to amps in stores before buying, and one quickly grows weary of buying and returning expensive equipment on line, especially equipment that does not have stellar subjective and objective accolades).  

audio-satisficer
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,578 posts
 

Post removed 
agisthos
457 posts
 

I am happy for ASR to exist, because all the measurement trolls and DBT fanatics have a place to go instead of soiling up the normal audiophile forums with their nonsense like they did years ago. It has consolidated them in one place.

Amir is the high priest of their cult and like any cult leader is dishonest and an outright liar. When he loses an argument or is proven wrong he will obfuscate or use a non sequitur to move the goal posts on to something else.

A strategy that never failed me: avoid like a plague what ASR recommends. And, put in your “watch lists” for auditions what ASR bashes. It works like a charm. Every single time.

Truer words were never spoken @thyname 

 

holmz's avatar
holmz
2,328 posts
 

Never heard it so can't comment on if it has a sound or not. @audio-satisficer , only looked at the review. They show a potential problem running at full volume. May be useful information. The rest of the review makes me wonder if how it behaves is intentional, a bad unit, or bad design. No idea without another one. I can think of no reason for the jitter being bad as an intentional choice. Maybe we just get too hung up on DAC specs and most things are not audible?

Some delta-sigma designed require that the signal stays below -6.1dB of full scale.

I have not read the review, and I am new to DACs… but I usually try to keep a DAC below -6dB just to be safe… and not knowing what is inside of it.

if it is that, then I am not sure there is a problem, unless someone feels that they need to run it flat out.

jerryg123's avatar
jerryg123
3,429 posts
 

ASR says it all. Done.

More to discover