Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

@batvac2 

I am happy with your answers, it is just what I expect from the followers of poor amir.

it is easy for me to be able to reiterate the gaps that your reasoning presents, let's start.

We know that the poor amir, in his own right, reviews DAC: the new products come from Chinese low cost (Topping in the front row), the remaining products (with costs much higher than low cost) are provided by the readers of the forum and no one can guarantee on their actual goodness.

This first aspect already casts doubt on the goodness of comparisons.

as for the measures you say that they describe the goodness of conversion from digital to analog, I wonder are you just ignorant or are you a gullible?
without using complicated metaphors, it is as if, based on the technical data of a car, you could establish how it behaves on the road without ever trying it.

going back to the origin, if you don't have a MUSETEC what are you doing here?

are you jealous by chance?

Would you like someone here to say that the filth that Topping produces is better?

know that it will never happen, not because we are followers of MUSETEC, but because it actually sounds GREAT!

You are taking me away from listening to music - I will respond to you but not americanspirit as he/she makes no logical sense. I have listened to enough gear to know that I like sources and speakers that are "straight up" but amplifiers that add a little cream to the coffee - either big class A or tubes. 

You're right - there were no measurements of the Ars when I purchased it - I relied on the speaker designer himself using this amp to voice the speakers and present them at shows. I am fairly confident that in my nearfield setup, moderately sized room, and easy load speakers, this 30W amp pushes out the requite 5-10 watts needed for 75-85 db listening with low distortion and a little room left over for dynamics. I recently brought home a lovely sold state Luxman integrated for comparison and got to experience all I am missing and gaining from this tube amp.

IF measurements showed this amp to have an obvious engineering flaw - frequency modulations, gross distortion at moderate power, excessive power supply noise - then I would be pissed. It bothers me that expensive gear may come with "scratches and dents." A $10,000 amp recently measured in Stereophile had a 2 db channel imbalance and other measured anomalies that were linked to a cold solder joint. 

Can audio components be designed entirely by ear- exchanging capacitors in the circuit based on the sustain of a piano in one recording or the input jacks based on one singer's voice? I don't think so. Maybe there is a rare unicorn with the requisite skills, absolute perfect pitch, and access to reference recordings. Otherwise,  engineering and measurements are important pieces to this puzzle. 

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

@batvac2

Can audio components be designed entirely by ear- exchanging capacitors in the circuit based on the sustain of a piano in one recording or the input jacks based on one singer’s voice? . . . . Maybe there is a rare unicorn with the requisite skills, absolute perfect pitch, and access to reference recordings.

Well, not a unicorn exactly. Just a trained engineer--caring more about audio design than marketing--with a fine ear, a love of music, and the requisite skills. Perfect pitch not required. He would not be the only one in the history of high-end audio.

You seem to have put together an audio system that deserves better than the Topping as your source. Sooner or later you’ll want to trade up. By your selections, I’m guessing that you look for good value. Having hung around here for a while, the Musetec must be tempting. The testimonies here and elsewhere surely suggest that it is in the category of DACs costing far more. I’ll leave it at that.

Always comes down to a very simple question. Who is one trying to please, measuring bot or oneself?

I have Merlin VSM-MM as second speakers, I purchased based on a number of listening sessions at audio shows and speaking with Bobby. Yes, Bobby generally partnered with Ars Sonum, and I did find pairing alluring. Bobby chose this pairing based on his listening preferences, measurements played role in that he understood what was required of partnering amp. Virtually any solid state, push pull tube could adequately power the Merlins, Bobby chose Ars Sonum based on subjective listening tests.

And speaking of capacitors and ability to hear differences with this particular part exchange. Merlins originally came with Hovland caps in both speaker crossover and BAM, I was perhaps first to mod VSM with Duelund VSF caps. Result was far more natural timbre, greater transparency, resolving powers. I called Bobby with great enthusiasm for mod, Bobby not too happy with me, but could detect a fair amount of curiosity in regard to mod. And so, a few months later, Bobby comes out with new iteration of VMS with Duelund VSF caps!  Point of this is, some are very familiar with certain sound qualities of systems and/or components, small changes can be extremely salient with this level of familiarity. These are not differences you're going to hear in double blind tests or short term listening with just a few recordings. Long term listening with wide variety of recordings in static setup required to detect these differences.

Musetec used above method to arrive at final sound qualities of 005, designer and/or designers used their ears and sonic preferences in voicing this dac. Assume measurements sacrificed for particular sound qualities.

Lastly, I would hope every designer of quality audio components has at least one audio system, preferable a number of them to voice those components. And the quality of that system, and the sonic preferences of designer certainly play a great role in final voicing. When preferences of designer and listener align we have sympathetic match!

Measuring bots and I not sympathetic match!