Has Anyone Auditioned an LKS MH-DA004 DAC?

From the EVS site:

5-15-2016: I have a friend in Pocoima who has one of these and we have been tweaking them at the same time. He has a great turntable system ($20,000 worth) and he says that playing 16/44 from his Beatis server through coax and then through modified IFI spdif Ipurifier and then through modded LKS is at least as good as his turntable system!! No upsampling....nada....just great sound.

Hardly unbiased, as it is by or about the guy that did the mods.

Not saying the DAC is bad, but consider carefully the source of all these comments.

Does seems odd to me that a Baetis server (~$4-5K, and nice but nothing special, you can build the same or better at home for ~$2K, I did <look online for the photos of Baetis servers that have been taken apart, very revealing> ) is used to feed a $1500 DAC. And a "modded iFi unit"? Whatever......

My opinion, I sincerely doubt this would be better than a Berkeley or DCS DAC. Not in the same league at all. Not likely to find a real comparison either, as I see the owners’ of these DACS to be mutually exclusive. And no real reviewer is likely going to write-up a DAC handled by the DIY crowd, for obvious reasons.

That said, I’m still interested in the DAC and finding unbiased objective reviews or comments on the unmodded unit from sources that are not part of the DIY crowd and from someone with sufficient listening experience to make meaningful comparisons with other DACs.

@melm Which Berkeley, which DCS? Whichever one @gareneau was referring to.

Yes I’m being sincere in my opinion about beating these top DACs. But nowhere near as bombastic as the posts claiming it could be the worlds best DAC. Blows away others no matter the cost. Now THAT’S a crazy statement.

But sincerely (ha!) I do hope it turns out to be a really good DAC that can compare favorably with ones maybe in the $2000-$4000 range.

Be sure to read the Denafrips Terminator post for a completely different POV on ESS / delta sigma DACs.

Relax! Just my opinion, for which I’m not accountable to you. Thanks!

" ...the fact that a Chinese firm is able to design, build, and direct market a quality full-function DAC with high-end sonics/construction/feature set at a selling price 50% (perhaps up to 90%) less than past or even current established-brand products with comparable sound quality."

Comparison with DACs at 50% to 90% higher price will be needed to prove this to be true. Direct comparison, in the same room, the same setup, and at the same listening session. That’s the only way. Any takers?

@dlcockrum   Yes, hope we can see this at some point.