8 Reasons why you should buy an $50,000 DAC

I recommend you spend $95,000 for a DAC  

For example, “The MSB Cascade DAC, priced at $95,000, features a tri-chassis design dividing digital processing, analog conversion, and power supply into three dedicated units: the Cascade Digital Director, the Cascade Analog Converter, and the Cascade Power-base.

It uses eight new Hybrid DAC MKII modules for ultra-high resolution and ultra-low noise digital-to-analog conversion, paired with a custom oven-controlled dual crystal 33-femtosecond clock for precise timing. The DAC boasts a fully balanced, constant impedance, passive analog volume attenuation output stage and accepts analog inputs through a low-noise buffer stage. It uses MSB’s proprietary Cascade-Link optical interface to transmit data noise-free between the Digital Director and Analog Converter.

The Powerbase features discrete silicon carbide rectifiers and ultra-low noise linear power supplies, with the entire system designed to maximize purity and clarity of analog playback. The Cascade DAC also offers advanced streaming capabilities, including MQA decoding, Roon Endpoint, and high-resolution PCM and DSD support. It is available in silver or black finishes with optional custom accents”.  

IMHO, NOT FOR ME!

Sure.  Then put a sign in your front yard that you own a $50,000 DAC, preferably next to your Bentley.  

You work hard you play hard so do your research and enjoy the music.

When you want to improve your system, it is hard to decide what to invest in.  This is my experience.  I have a large room with high ceilings, and with the digital side of my system, I was hearing some harshness  in my system at high volume, which was causing fatigue.   As a modest income guy, that mostly buys used equipment that I could not afford new, I was not too motivated to change out my components...  I was primarily focusing on changing my DAC, thinking I had to go RTR.  In the end,  I decided to focus on where I had skimped before changing components.  First, I moved my speakers farther apart and changed the toe in.  Then, I upgraded all my interconnects, speaker cables, power cables, added footers, changed all my worn reissue preamp & amps "small" tubes to high quality vintage tubes, and added an audiophile grade rack.  Viola !  that fixed it.  What a huge difference !  Everyone noticed the difference, and I can now play at any volume without fatigue.  So, the lesson I learned is that an expensive DAC will probably improve your sound, but, may not fix what you are trying to fix if you have weaknesses elsewhere... 

PS.. although now, I would like to hear what a higher quality DAC will do for me. lol... 

The  real question is a $50k DAC justified in SQ. The answer is NO! There is practically no studio anywhere in the world that uses a $50k DAC. The people that made, mixed and mastered the music don't hear the frequencies, the depth, or the imaging that a DAC like that theoretically puts out. The extra bandwidth that a DAC like this may give you is not mixed or added into the recording at all it is literally noise.

That being said it is off the audiophile world to simply say, cool it sounds great, or my 80 inch sub is amazing you've got to listen to it is perfectly valid but it's just an entertainment and has nothing to do with fidelity.