Too many choices for R2R DACS--opinions appreciated

grist for the mill -- some points to add given my extensive travels in dac-land in the past couple years

-- audio gd may or may not deserve a bad rap... asr b-s aside -- i picked up a master 7 dac for fun for a grand used, it sounds excellent, built like a tank (easily the equal of the pontus 2 in both respects)

-- at the 1 grand mark i think mhdt’s dacs, with some tube upgrades, are the ones to beat for musicality and coherency of presentation, with the soekris units close behind (i have not heard the musician pegasus, which i believe is a cost engineered facsimile of a lower denafrips dac), superior to border patrol, schiit, rme, musical paradise, topping etc etc to my ear, in my system

-- while i haven’t yet had one in my own system, i understand from trusted sources that the holo may is a major step up from the spring, i would take the sonnet morpheus over the spring at the 2-3k price point if for no other reason than the features set and small form factor, it is best at the usb input though... the may, otoh, fits in well with the 5 grand competitive tier

The Holo May, wonderful though it seems to be, is simply out of price-range for me. I suppose if I wait some time (possibly a couple years) it'll come down, but for now, I need to concentrate on the $3K range, where the Spring 3 and the Morpheus live. It's kind of difficult to sort through all the reviews, and some of the videos on Youtube can be a bit of a slog to get through, though the information is extremely useful, once you get there. I found this one (it's LOOOONG) very helpful, but you sort of have to tease out the relevant parts:

It was a big help in my decision to drop the Denafrips Venus II from my list, and in reinforcing my preference for the Sonnet Morpheus. I'm kind of leaning in that direction right now, but haven't totally committed. Stay tuned--I'm nearly there...

Update: I've pulled the trigger (finally) on a Sonnet Morpheus which I found on another site for a very attractive price. It should be arriving in a couple of days (the seller is pretty close to here), and I'll share my impressions of it once its up and running. I had a choice from different sellers for either USB or I2S over ethernet cable and I've opted for the version with USB which will be more immediately useful, as I don't have any I2S sources (yet...). Someday I might add a network streamer to the mix, but that's a future project.

The Morpheus arrived on Friday, and it’s been going through its paces all weekend. I’m informed by the seller that it’s had plenty of time in his system to reach its full voice, so I assume that’s what I’m hearing.

Initial impressions: everything they say about the imaging and detail retrieval is true. Spatial cues are vastly improved over my previous DAC, and while the higher frequencies are brought a bit more forward, the Morpheus maintains solid control of them, so they never sound shrill or glassy (unless the source material sounds that way). Voices, in particular, sound natural. Bass frequencies are also very present and well defined. These qualities are very impressive.

However (and yes, there’s a BUT here), there’s a tradeoff for all of this compared to my AMR DP-777, and that is the fullness and roundness of the musical events. While the Morpheus is certainly not what I’d call analytical, there’s a relative thinness to the notes, as if the music has been slightly deflated and spread. That’s where the AMR DAC exceeds the Morpheus: in presenting the image as a unified event. It’s not as precise in its presentation as the Morpheus, but to my ear, it’s more appealing.

So all things considered, I’m impressed but not exactly in love. I guess unless I’m willing to spend some really big bucks, there’ll always be some sort of tradeoff. I’ll live with the Morpheus for a good while and see if my tastes/ears adjust to this new soundscape.

op

if you haven't already, be sure to try the morpheus through its different inputs... in my time with the unit i found they performed rather differently