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How good is MSB Discrete Dac?

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 $.





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.


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.

But Select II with price tag of 100K$ is out of reach for most of people.



Base Model of MSB Discrete Dac is under 10k$.

It is much affordable.


Now the question is how good MSB Discrete Dac is.


If possible, I would like to audition MSB Discrete Dac at my home.

But I could not find any dealer around Seattle area.

The closest one is located on Vancouver, Canada.


I welcome input from who experienced MSB Discrete Dac.
shkong78
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
Add one module, either Renderer (Ethernet streaming) at $1,950, ProUSB module with Converter Dongle (also $1,950 for the set that includes the fiber cable), and with the optional second PS you are looking at $13,400. Not cheap, but well worth it.

I had both Renderer and regular MQA USB modules on trial (this one is $1,595), and opted for the MQA Quad DSD USB module, as I felt it worked better SQ wise with my Innuos ZENith MK3 as a streamer USB out to MSB.
smodtactical
986 posts
 
How does it compare to other dacs like DAVE or Bricasti M1 SE ?
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
It totally smokes / blows Bricasti out of the water! I guarantee you that. 
shkong78's avatar
shkong78 OP
1,490 posts
 
I heard Dave with or without Blue II transport at the shop last week.

Without upsampling with Blue II, Dave is just good not extraordinary one.

With Blue II, Dave sounds very nice with deep and transparent soundstage although not in a same league with MSB Select II.

Please note that Dave with Blue II will cost more than 20k$.


It will be hard to compare Dave with MSB Discrete.

It is up to personal taste and system.


I have an appointment to audition Trinity Dac, Golden Atlantic and MSB analog at the shop coming this Sunday.

I will let everybody give my impression.


shkong78's avatar
shkong78 OP
1,490 posts
 
While staying in Seoul, Korea for dental work, I made an appointment to listen to MSB Premier and Discrete for comparison on 23rd Thursday.

Seoul is much better than Seattle to audition high end system with access to all major brands.

It may be one of the best city to audition high end at the same level as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore.
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