2023 DAC comparison: MSB Select vs dCS Vivaldi Apex vs Wadax Atlantis Reference

Mike Lavigne ran the MSB Select before moving onto the Wadax and has given a full write up of it on WBF. I wouldn’t be surprised if he replies to this thread he still participates here on occasion. 

Looking at DAC’s on your list, why not line up a home audition through your dealer. While opinions and direct experiences of others may provide some perspective, a home audition at this level is the only way to go IMHO. 

we have a demo t+asdv 3100which ranks up therewith rhe best of the bestdacs we had a meitnertrade in dac2  and the t+a was far  superior

Dave and Troy

audio intellect nj

former t+a dealers

compares are not trivial to do. to start out you need a system sufficiently sorted out to give you good feedback, and maybe some analog references in the system for context. then you need a very trusting dealer, or dealers, to loan the gear. helps if you already own one of the products, so you only need to acquire one other product.

in the case of dacs and servers, you need the ideal server for each dac, fully optimized, or you won’t get a true result.

it is a lot of work. if.....you desire a reliable result.

which is why you rarely see properly executed direct compares, even by reviewers, for dacs and servers at the tip top of the food chain.

i did do a direct compare in my system, with my own MSB Select II using the Taiko Extreme server, compared to a loaned the Wadax Reference dac and Reference Server. at the end i did buy the Wadax combo, and sell the MSB and Taiko Extreme.

i did a through job and had plenty of analog references on hand for checking things. i also had multiple other listeners participate in various stages of the compare. i compared the Wadax dac and the MSB dac both using the Taiko Extreme server. then compared the MSB and Extreme to the Wadax dac and server. then i compared the MSB dac to the Wadax dac both using USB into the Wadax server. then the MSB dac on the USB into the Wadax server compared to the Wadax dac into the Wadax server with the Akasa optical interface.

left no stone unturned. if i was going to go big $$$’s for the Wadax i needed to know the score.

and the MSB had been in my system for 4 years and was fully optimized, the Wadax was the new kid and not optimized, until some months after the compare was long over.

read about it here. 1010 posts. the first 20 pages (of 51) are about the compare, the rest is about my optimizing the Wadax over a number of months after i owned it.

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/wadax-reference-dac-and-server-arrive.34173/

others have done more casual compares with Wadax combo to the MSB and other dacs including the dCS Vivaldi Apex with similar but not as clear cut results.

and know that the MSB now has a new piece, the MSB Digital Director, which likely does for the MSB what Apex did for the dCS. and you have Intona, and Lampi Horizon, and Merging Technologies NADAC to consider. and maybe some others.

i’ve heard them all as stand alone products and my 2 cents is that none of those does what i hear the Wadax combo does, but this is just my casual opinion.

all these products are worthy, and will do a fine job of making great music. no losers here. for myself, i wanted digital that can look my very excellent vinyl and tape in the eye and be fully satisfied in that realm. now 15 months later, i’m very happy with the Wadax. it's 60-70% of my listening even with 3 great turntables and 2 great tape decks.

YMMV. good luck.

FYI: the wadax combo along with some $150k reference loudspeakers were in one of the worst sounding rooms at last years Axpona according to multiple reviewers/sources. 
In the past, years ago, I preferred other dacs to the at the time best dac MSB offered for quite a bit less money. 
I would never use the faulty usb protocol into a dac. Every review I have read and in my own experience, usb sounds worse than i2s or Ethernet.