MSB Select II DAC
 

I had the opportunity recently to audition an MSB Select II DAC in my listening room and compare it with the dCS Vivaldi 2 DAC, Upsampler and Master clock I've owned for the past three years. Until that audition, the Vivaldi was producing the best music I've heard anywhere (dealer, speaker manufacturer, show). The king is dead, long live the king. The Select II easily bested the Vivaldi in detail, ease, density of instrumental and vocal presentations and laser precise imaging. I don't know if it would do so in any other equipment configuration in any one else's listening room. In mine it wasn't even close. I fed it with an ethernet input from my home network using Room as the library management software.

I voted with my pocket book and just took delivery of the Select II with separate AC/DC power supplies, network renderer (MQA capable), femto 33 clock and their balanced analog outputs. I am feeding my D'Ag's direct from the DAC and the sound is splendid. Full, blooming, dynamic. No pre-amp necessary in my opinion.

Other observations. Stupid simple setup. I had a lot of cables left over after the switch from Vivaldi stack. Build quality is off the charts. These are tanks. Value for the money? In my mind, yes. The peace this system (or previous systems) gives me offsets lots of doctor bills and prescription medicines.

While I replaced the Vivaldi, you should not presume this is not a tremendously musical, engineering tour de force. It is the second best DAC I've ever heard. My dealer took it in trade and it is for sale by him. If you have an interest, PM me and I'll give you his contact data. I'm sure he will price it aggressively.

Cincy

Congratulations. I am not in the market for ~$100k digital set-up so I will never be A/B'ing these two excellent products in my home. I have heard both set-up but never in the same room with the same gear. From my experience and without the benefit of such a comparison I would probably lean towards the Select II as you did. As you note in addition to the any benefits in SQ the savings from not having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on cabling for 3 or 4 box dCS stack is a real benefit for most.

What surprised me most about the Select II is how great it sounds with 16/44 recordings. Who needs high rez?

I love the sound of the MSB Select II DAC but at $100k it will never be in my system. Big congrats, I am envious.

Nice!! I had the Ref Dac in for a demo with the 33 clock and single power base. I’ll hear the select II in my system soon. Congrats on some really great gear.

Dave

Congratulations Cincy!
This seems to be the DAC to beat nowadays.

Congrats Cincy! I’m so happy for you. You have skillfully put together a world class system!

My Select II DAC should be delivered within the next 4 weeks. Then we can compare notes! :)

Best,
Ken

Ken,

I've been playing the DAC continuously for a week (without amps or speakers) to hasten the burn in. It has improved significantly from the first listen out of the box. The most incredible discovery I have made is that 16/44K recordings of old jazz records available on Tidal sound as good as my best hi res recordings. In fact, every 16/44k recording sounds incredible. The words that come to mind are dense images that are fully saturated. Percussion instruments (bones, cymbals, vibes, even piano) are indistinguishable from live. As I get to know the DAC, I am spending more time in my room in the sweet spot shaking my head than doing anything else. You will be very happy with your purchase.

Eric

Nice...I like reading about this sort of stuff even though it's outside my affordability point.

Eric,

It's nice to see another M3 owner on here. I am absolutely thrilled, no floored, with the M3's. I am always ear to ear smiling when I listen to them.

I have a full Esoteric/W20 digital complement and am quite happy with it, at the time. So glad to see you are happy with the MSB. I am sure the sound is splendid.

Heartiest congrats on your amazing gear.

I truly understand your feelings. I love the fact that us guys with small rooms have access to a world class speaker designed just for us. Or at least that's the way it seems to me.

Eric

Eric

I am pondering the idea of an MSB select II as well. We will see if it's in my future. As of now, leaving towards Constellation Centaur II monos to pair it with. I will be curious to hear your comments down the line as to how your system sound once the DAC is broken in.

I've got 100 plus hours on it now and all my initial impressions remain. Liquid sound unlike anything I've ever heard. Solid precise imaging. Surreal percussion instrument reproduction (marimbas, cymbals, bones). Startlingly realistic voices. Great dynamics even DAC to amp direct. Bad recordings are better than they were on my dCS Vivaldi but they are still bad compared to a really well recorded disk like Chesky, Mapleshade, Opus3, Telarc, Harmonia Mundi, RCA Living Stereo, et al.

Eric

I now have enough time on the DAC to declare it broken in. With my best files (Mapleshade primarily), the sound is beyond description. My dCS Vivaldi was an engineering tour de force but the Select II has taken it to a different level. The biggest improvement is in the saturation of the sound. It is full bodied and smooth like analog. The details stand out in three dimensions more definitively than with the Vivaldi. As I have said before, the effect I hear is what I would expect from a Reference level pre-amp in the system. I currently am going direct to the mono blocks from the Select II. When you consider what you are getting for the price, it's a little less eye watering (to me, not my wife). Because the number of interconnects required is less than for the Vivaldi, I'm going to upgrade both the XLRs and Speaker cables to Transparent Magnum Opus in the next year. At that point, I'll be done (or divorced).

Cincy

Magnum Opus eh?

that's quite the system you have built. incredible sounding i bet. Looks like your Momentum Amp's are now the weakest link in your system, especially when you get Magnum Opus to cable it through. Maybe it's time to step up to the relentless?

Just curious if you have tried a pre-amp on your system?
I don't know what the best pre-amp match would be for the M400, compared to driving it direct for the MSB, but I'd be curious to hear about your impressions (before adding Magnum Opus into the mix).
Thanks.

I have not tried my current system with a pre-amp in the loop. If I were going to do that, I would use the D'Agostino model.

Eric

Hi Eric,

My experience is that adding the preamp degrades the sound quality of the Select II DAC. That’s why I sold my wonderful ARC Reference 10. Have never regretted it though.

Best,
Ken

Hi Ken,
Did the pre degrade the sound quality in all aspects? I ask because I would trade some resolution for better flow and musicality that I feel my pre added after installation. If I add the select ii, I'll try it both ways. Kingsrule and I have the same amps and he chose the select ii without his HD pre. It would be nice to recoup some of the cost!!

Dave

Ummh... OK, I'll keep an eye on this thread in case you get a chance to try that.
Thanks.

I suppose something like this would be system dependent.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

Nice !
 

Cincy: Nice ! ... Excellent/insightful write-up/comparison.

Thanks for sharing.

pj

You'd likely know better than I, but what about a pair of ML -324/6's (for amplification) ?

pj

Eric: May I suggest the ML No.52 (preamp).

peter

Unquestionably a good alternative. I've owned ML 36/360 in my past and loved them. Right now however, I don't feel like my system is lacking anything without the pre.

Eric

Hi,
Have you tried grounding the MSB powerbases to the amplifiers using the grounding cables provided by MSB?
A few days ago, I connected the grounding cable from my MSB Reference Dac to the Vitus amplifier, and I am amazed how much improvement you get in sound quality. Much less harshness with more details and clarity. Everything seems to be quieter or softer, but more focused and smooth.
Try it yourself if uiu have not done so.