Bricasti Model 1 Series II DAC

@sksos many thanks for the offer. I would have loved to take u up on it but I'm halfway around the world in Singapore. I used to have the Benchmark Dac3b; is Bricasti somewhat similar to that? 

@docroasty have not had the Benchmark in my own listening studio but have heard it several times. It's a fine DAC maybe a bit on the clinical side and not having the transparency of the Bricasti.. Again without having it in a known system it's hard for me to judge all parameters. 

Had an M3 for a few years, very good DAC. Have not heard the M1. Moved to an Ayre QX5, to my ears, a significant jump up from the M3. I try to buy American as much as possible. Bricasti and Ayre are two of the best, quality, build, sonics, support, etc.

@docroasty I went from Benchmark DAC 3 HGC to Bricasti M3. To my ears, in my system/ setup, the M3 is a superior DAC. It is more refined, has more natural tone and overall a better build quality. Its preamp section leaves the HGC in the dust as well. System consisted of Pass XP12 preamplifier and Pass XA30.8 amplifier at the time, driving the Wilson Audio Sabrina.

Benchmark is a good DAC at its price point but it isn’t a competition for the M3. 

@docroasty I owned the Bricasti M3 a year or so ago. And I demoed the Meitner MA3 recently. The Meitner is a very fine DAC. It is very smooth and was to much of a good thing in my system, with my Harbeth 40.2. I needed something with a little more drive and touch less warmth.. Regardless of that, I could still hear the magic in this wonderful Meitner DAC. Very refined and natural. The MA3 is in another league over the M3 and surely more on par with the M1. The M1SE should have a little more in room presence over the MA3. But the MA3 should be the more delicate and organic one. So, smooth, delicate and organic with a great does of musicality, compared to the recording studio quality standards ya get with Bricasti, maybe a touch more accuracy over the personal definition sector of ‘musicality’.