MSB Select Dac vs Vinyl



http://glv.co.kr/data/editor/201810/15395687063080.png
(This the same room with slightly different setup)


On Dec 6th, 2018 I had attended Launching event of YG Acoustics Hailey 1.2 speakers in Seoul, Korea.

MSB Select II Dac  and Pre was connected to Viola Legacy Mono Amplifier to drive the speakers.

Nordost Valhalla cables were used.

The system gave wide and deep soundstage with tight and tuneful bass.

There is no doubt it was top notch system in every way with the total cost of component over 200K $.


http://glv.co.kr/products/MSB/images/top_image_06.jpg


http://www.kronosaudio.com/images/kronos%20pro%20big-crop-u963_2x.jpg?crc=3796245212




At the end of show, we decided to do interesting comparison between MSB Select Dac II (85K$) and vinyl system using Kronus turntable.

Kronus turntable was fed to Octave phono amp and Viola Pre amp,

MSB Select was used as Pre and Dac.


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hvAKhEyIL.jpg
We selected above Vinyl and 24/96 network media.


I got surprised to find that MSB and Kronus gave very similar sound.

MSB Select provided slightly more dense sound with little bit more details.

Kronus gave slightly more relaxed sound.


If I had to choose one, I would take Kronus over MSB on this music since I like relaxed sound as I get older.


But it could change with different music.

Unfortunately we could test only one music.

Other people may have different opinion.



Despite this conclusion, MSB Select II gave one of the best sound from any DAC that I had ever heard.
128x128shkong78
Way out of my price ranges, so of limited interest to those of us who don’t have the ability to audition the stuff.
  I also don’t really know how to respond when people compare digital to vinyl.  Regardless of the cost, all vinyl rigs have inherently limited dynamic range compared with digital, so people who prefer
vinyl to digital have that preference based on non musical factors.  I would have been more interested if you had compared the DAC to a dCS stack...
The MSB Select II dac is very good by all accounts, though i've only heard the MSB Reference dac so I couldn't specifically comment. MSB sounds natural and very smooth. The most analogue sounding transport/dac i've ever heard however is the APL Hifi DTR-MR transport & DSD-MR tube dac. That is the best sounding digital i've ever heard.

OP,

Steve Hoffman Forum is the LAST place I would seek advice on High End Audio.  90% of the people on that board think PS AUDIO and Parasound are as good as it gets. Audiogon, AudioShark, Audioaficiondo sites are some of the best places to ask....but still a limited number of people own stuff in that price range.

@ mahler123

Kronus turntable also cost 40K$.

I never felt it lacked dynamic range compared to MSB Select II.

I would not spend more than 10K on front end right now.

Somehow I felt my current system is much more musical than this 200k$ system.

@ melbguy_one

MSB Reference Dac is no slouch with the price tag of 45k$.

I wish to have a chance to compare it with Select II Dac but I could not.

Overall I felt my system more musical than the system using MSB Select Dac in the show.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/the-most-musical-sound-in-my-40-year-s-audio-history