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Bricasti M1 - where is the music

I had a chance to audition the highly-praised Bricasti M1 at my dealer. The associated gear include ATC 100 passive floor stander, ML pre and mono block. We used playback designs MPS5 for comparison and as the transport. I auditied this DAC hoping to use it as a secondary source to my Klimax.

We used primarily Diana Krell's CDs, including Live in Paris, and violin solo and concertos.

The positive:

M1 is technically excellent. The highs are extended without harshness. Mids are fairly transparent. Bass hits deep with power and definition. M1 reminds me of DAC1 and dare I say it's a souped up DAC1 in every respect (could be a good or bad thing)

The negative:

I would say the biggest weakness and ultimately my dismissal of this otherwise technically proficient DAC is its ulter lack of musicality. For example, human voice do not sound real and organic when compared with MPS-5. When Diana sings, I did not get the imagery of her singing. Like the mids, the highs on M1 leave much to be desired. For example, symbols in Living in Paris and violin solos lack the real life quality associated with those instrument. M1 sounded just like another digital DAC, displaying all the negative aspect of digital music. On the very high notes of violin, all I heard was a monotone sound, without the usual harmonics and woodiness I am used to with Klimax and what I heard on MPS-5. Soundstage of M1 feels contrived and not realistic. I did not hear the complex layering as with he MPS-5, nor did I hear as deep of a soundstage.

I believe if you like how DAC-1 sounds and wants a more refined and upgraded version of that sound, M1 may be a great choice. However, if you value real-life organic sound with music unfolding in a natural way, you may want to look elsewher
e.

Overall I was very disappointed in the M1 when I had very high expectations after reading the latest review in an audio magazine.
chesebert

Showing 5 responses by antigrunge

antigrunge
74 posts
 
Hi Audioengr,

while i have used Modsquad passives before, I am currently set up via my Antelope Zodiac Gold with its built-in attenuator. The Wavac EC 300B is an SET and as such doesn't have balanced connections. I also own a Graaf GM 20 which does but cannot find a benefit for the short cable lengths I use ( less than a metre). I use a rather rare Step-up from Bobsdevices based on Altec TTB 103s on vinyl which through the Zodiac works great on analogue or through Purevinyl on digitized
antigrunge
74 posts
 
I think one needs to be very careful about assigning blame for lack of musicality to the DAC; I run a Zodiac Gold + Voltikus directly into a Wavac EC-300b and find that musicality is much more a function of the server settings than any thing else: depending on how set the mach2music server running Purevinyl, in terms of upsampling, hog mode, memory preaassign, toggle for less-is-more and phase I get to a range of results from absolute state of the art to atrocious and in all scenarios the DAC beats my Audio Aero Capitole SE by lengths, the latter usually being acclaimed as one of the most musical DACs. And beyond that the choice of USB or Sp/DIF cables (in my case USB by Most Beautiful Sound and SP/DIF by Acoustic Revive) adds yet another important dimension. Unfortunately most digital product reviews assign all results to one of the components and that is clearly nonsense.
antigrunge
74 posts
 
I think that having a plethora of filters is nothing other than the designer's abrogation of the responsibility to listen. In the old days having sound filters (albeit in the analogue domain) was seriously snickered upon by serious audiophiles
antigrunge
74 posts
 
i fully agree with Audioengr: compared to jittery servers and bad clocks which are clearly digital issues, sound differences between converters are small in my experience. There is an argument for analogue attenuation, whether passive or via preamp. In my eperience on digital devices, insertion of a preamp is generally less productive than that of a passive attenuator. While I am a great fan of tubes for amplification, to wit: I use a Wavac EC300B, I don't see their benefit in conversion or attenuation
antigrunge
74 posts
 
Hi Audioengr,

while i have used Modsquad passives before, I am currently set up via my Antelope Zodiac Gold with its built-in attenuator. The Wavac EC 300B is an SET and as such doesn't have balanced connections. I also own a Graaf GM 20 which does but cannot find a benefit for the short cable lengths I use ( less than a metre). I use a rather rare Step-up from Bobsdevices based on Altec TTB 103s on vinyl which through the Zodiac works great on analogue or through Purevinyl on digitized
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