Bricasti M3 In the house

I continue to see very positive user reports. @tvad has one and really likes it. His posts are snapchats though and go away after a day or two.  I suspect if you send a pm he'd be happy to tell you what he thinks. He's heard a lot of gear.

teajay:

another killer part of the M3 is it's analog volume control which comes very, very close to the performance of my $6,500 preamplifier.  

Hi!
Would you tell me (us) something more?
Thanks.

@gianlucanegro, The preamp TJ compared to was his CODA 07x. I compared my M3 with and w/o my VAC Sig IIa 2 box tube pre in my system, direct is a touch more detailed, tonal balance slightly leaner, and soundstage not as huge, add in the Sig IIa and lose a smidge of detail, gain more meat on the bones, and stage expands slightly. I thoroughly enjoy the M3 direct, listening to the system that way 75% of the time, for critical listening doing a review I add in the Sig IIa for a shot of tube deliciousness.

klh007
Thank you!

I had your same "impressions" when I listened the "LEEDH volume" (full digital preamplification on a Lumin device) vs my Ayre K1-Xe.

I’m the opposite. For critical listening / going ‘all in’ listing to a live performance, is when I use mine straight to amp. And use my preamp when that extra fullness and soundstage size is wanted over the less colored and more detailed presentation. 

Enjoying the M3 w/network card .  Will the Melco n100 push DSD local files over the network to the Bricasti ? Trying yo avoid USB. Any other suggestions around the +- 2k figure.

Just upgraded my speaker cabling to Townshend Fractal F1. The Bricasti sounds like a whole new player. Also went from single ended Cerious Matrix to Iconoclast  top of the line XLR for a nice bump.

Really excited to hear DSD files. Best I can do is send them DoP from an Oppo 103 thru SPDIF. Not exactly ideal.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Russ

The Bricasti M3 is in my budget but I will use the the DAC with a transport for playing CD's only.  No streaming!  Just CD play back.   Are there any other Dacs in the $5k - $6k range I should be looking at?  Yes I will contact Mike when I am ready.

I just bought a Bricasti M3 (with MDX) and Network card.  

 

One other thing I’d like to better understand - 

I have a lot of DSD64 files and many more of various formatted PCM files.  As I understand a little that the Bricasti has seperate chips to handle PCM and DSD I’m confused about setup

I noticed I could change between NDSD DSD and NDSD PCM… do you have any insight?  when I switch during a song I dont hear any difference.  On a few songs the PCM playing a 16bit / 44khz file it sounded much brighter than my previous Streamer DAC that I upgraded from.  

It same with 1.08 firmware... is it worth the $100 to upgrade?

@garynospamm, please call Bricasti customer support and ask these questions. Please ask them to explain the upgrade options.

I had an M3 for a few years. Very good dac. Moved on to an Ayre QX5, a better dac to my ears. I mostly used roon straight iinto the Ethernet cards on both dacs. These are two of the very best made in usa high performance audio companies. Can't go wrong with either. 

I moved from a PS Audio w/streamer to a Bricasti M3 w/streamer.  Everything I look for got better.  Sound stage expanded, more separation better bass and all my streaming issues disappeared. No more connection issues, drop outs or pauses.  The Bricasti added “life” back into my system.  I could not resist and moved up to the M1SE w/streamer and then upgraded to the SII.  Everything got better. The upgrade path, working directly with Bricasti, was a great experience.  No issues, quick turn around at a very reasonable cost.  What really shocked me was the capability hidden in my speakers.  The only DAC change I would consider would be an upgrade from Bricasti.  Bricasti is a great US based company! 

klh007 -  I have a VAC Signature Mk2 SE, going to a PassLabs X250.8 to B&W 803D4's.  You have me very curious to try how it will sound if I go straight into the amp.

I just got the M3 a week ago, and today received the firmware 1.14 upgrade.  When I install this weekend, I will also try connecting direct to amp.

Did you consider selling the VAC if the SQ is so close?

@garynospamm, The M3 does a great job driving my VanAlstine M225 monos, for evaluations and reviews and weekends I'll take 2 minutes to put the VAC in the system for that extra tube flavor. I think you will be surprised how well the M3 solo will drive your amp.

@garynospamm 

Hello,  I just got my M3 about two weeks ago.  I use it mostly for streaming Qobuz and ripped CDs from my Innuos Zenith mk3 and Innuos Phoenix USB.  
 

My unit has MDx 1.08 firmware.  I see you just updated your M3 to 1.14.  I’m curious as to what is the nature of this upgrade, what did it cost, and how did you update your M3 with this firmware?

Thanks.

Contact Bricasti. They will send you a SD card with the firmware upgrade. Easy install

@drlou77

I think the upgrade was $100.  They send you a chip. You need to remove the top of your unit and put in the chip and it updates the Bios. It did add a few more configurable filters to choose from (which have very minor differences, but I cannot tell which I prefer).  it was pretty easy.

 

 

They did not charge me