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.
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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 |
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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.
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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. Quote:
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Eric |
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