Anyone upgrade to the Merason Dac1 mkii?


I was wondering if any Merason Dac1 owners have upgraded to the Mkii version? 
 

If so, I’d love to hear your impressions. How would you describe the audible differences? Would you recommend doing it? Was it an improvement or simply “different?” 

128x128bluethinker

@wig hi, did you compare the Merason DAC1 mk2 with other dacs in the meanwhile? thanks

@davenrk

I owned a Tube SW1X Dac III DHT for a few years and loved it but the Merason matched its sound quality and added more top end sparkle. The Laiv Harmony Dac was also quite good in my system but didn’t have the transparency or soundstage width/depth of the Merason...

Wig

Your comment is relaxed but your amp and digital cable ,streamer have a lot to say about this as well as  power chords , I have experience playing Jazz you still get the dynamic swings and burnishment of the sax or trumpet ,guitar

playing  Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath ,LED zep,or the Who 

the bass is powerful and defined .

I own aBig 42 lb Terminator  and the Merason only 12+ lbs  but lacks nothing why ?

I looked over the internals all those heat sinks each have matched pairs of Bipolar Transistors ,which give it current on demand several Big Epcon power caps 

12 separate power supplies , 4 big 10 uf Vishay 500v capacitors 

the nosBurr brown 1794A dac chips run in mono vs stereo1 per channel gives a additional 5 db of dynamic range over 130-db which is excellent ,plus Surface mount resistors and  other bits a critical new touch since this judt came out mid 2023 a thick trace layer circuit board galvanically in several areas including the inputs very well designed ,the price just went up $9k retail .my dealer Anthony at Perrotta Consulting Audio is letting me audition it for 2 weeks  since I am not far from him .I am for sure buying it , I am using AQ Niagra 3000 with their patented grounding and power correction for added dynamics their storm series I have mainly Tornado   on the dac and Innuos Zenith Tornado Source just adds to-the synergy with the niagra , and the innuos works very well , Merason make less expensive dacs which I have heard before and solid at their price points  Swiss build quality products.

 

The only gripe I have withZmersson is that rarely in stock the importer should always buy a few extra . I know of2 people That wanted one , and bought the mojo 

as a close choice which I think is a bit more laid back still and I heard their top model at one ofour Audio shootouts a few months back .ifyou can afford the $9k 

the $5500 R model can’t remember the name is very good and can compete with anything in its price class. Very natural more-then laid back like a good turntable 

with better dynamics.