Musical Paradise MP-D2 MK3 DAC

I’ve owned an MP-D2 for over four years, the original and now a Mk III Deluxe. They are great DAC’s for the money and allow for limitless experimentation with caps and tubes. Don’s praise for this DAC is justified. I own one of his preamps too. Looks like the stock was just replinished.

I have the mk2 version. I’m under the impression it could be modded to mk3 status with a board swap, but honestly the performance is so good, I don’t feel the need. If my Mk2 died today, the Mk3 would be at the top of the list for replacement. 

Modestly priced, high value gear doesn’t receive as much attention here as other audio forums, and as mentioned earlier, Garry doesn’t really advertise much.

If you’re considering the mk3, these DACs really benefit from NOS tube swaps. In my experience, signal tubes, followed by the rectifier tube make the largest improvement. I landed at a pair of NOS Amperex signal tubes and a new production Psvane 5u4g rectifier. Cap upgrades offered negligible improvement in my system.

I have been very interested in this dac, but I find it difficult to see which price tier it compares too, can it compare with the PrimaLuna dac 100, the higher end Denafrips models and the higher end Chinese Sigma dac’s ?.
Would be interesting to hear if anyone has downgraded $ vise to this dac because it sounded better !

garry's $1000 dac is an interesting head on competitor to jian's mhdt dacs... similar organic coherent natural sound, treble is presented effortlessly, not like it is shot at you through a fire hose

garry uses modern ess or akm chips, jian uses old tasty r2r chips - both with output stages with beautifying tubes -- i personally like these dacs (and vlad's audio mirror) more than denafrips, which, while well built and discrete r2r, use ss output stages and thus present music with a bit more of solid state amp clean and lean signature with slightly elevated treble

Would be interesting to hear if anyone has downgraded $ vise to this dac because it
sounded better !

I have moved through a few DACs and this one is definitely something special.
I’ve owned DACs that have costs over 6 times this one and I cannot say this one is any worse.
There is this sense of Organic Nature to the sound and background is very quiet.
I listen with headphones and find the soundstage depth to be such that they are placed somewhere in between each other just like our planets in the Solar System.
In my opinion it’s one of the best kept secrets in audiophile world.