Can I ask which speakers do you use in your demo room?

I see a lot of nice touches and details here but at the same time a few things seem quite disappointing: 1. After having mentioned several ways of how they were able to cut down costs (e.g. maximize use of LEDs without any waste, getting 3 instead of 2 blocks for the same costs in chassis) all the key parts of the system seem to be exactly what used to be in the outgoing models. From an enduser perspective it seems like price indeed just went up by 20k from the old 3-box reference solution but since the sonic gains of separating the rather noisy digital section put it sonically above the old select II it works out marketing wise that "cost has been cut down for the end user". They clearly say that all these things stayed the same, just a complete redesign to put everything into different places. 2. It actually shows how much damage all the digital processing, from upsampling to all those digital filters actually does compared to NOS R2R DACs which simply don't produce all that noise in the first place. The whole cost of digital creator chassis on top of that is also necessary while having to live with the artefacts introduced in the digital processing. There is a reason it's called noise shaping. One may only try to mitigate the negative effects as much as possible when going down this approach (which MSB seems to be doing probably the best job out there right now in the industry) but it questions the viability of this whole approach in general. Every single processing step introduces some delays in the critical time domain (jitter) and while this DAC certainly does as much as possible at the highest level to mitigate this it makes the overal approach questionable. There is a reason a lot of other highend DACs intentionally chose to go for NOS R2R. 3. The massive power supply section is using heavy filtering to make the measurements "really good" and "calm everything down". Massive filtering exactly does this, like has been seen on all those massive filtering AC conditioners in the past. This approach harms a key concept of a good system, the dynamics are compromised. There has been a huge shift in how many top hifi companies approach good power and that's why we have so many highend passive power delivery systems which intentionally don't put massive capacitors and such into the path but instead rely on passive filtering effects which keeps all the good stuff in place only killing the noise. Just look at what Ansuz Mainz does in their power distributors or Boenicke Audio among so many others. Many people get rid of their active filtering power conditioners or distributors (in which they do active filtering like this, so basically the same) to get their dynamics back. I don't doubt for a single second that the noise floor is really low, it's calm, smooth and measures like crazy. But did you also measure dynamics? I am not sold on this massive active filtering I see here. Transients is what make music alive and believable after all, not single note pitches. Can someone from MSB maybe go into detail on the cost side of things and why they use this approach of going nuts on digital processing and the way they filter the power with those massive capacitors? It seems like a mixed bag of some sort. On the one hand some pretty crazy engineering and attention to details is put in but the approach seems to introduce tons of issues which then have to be all solved really well. Tidal Audio intentinoally using NOS R2R and don't filter in their crazy Tidal for Bugatti DAC, SW1X is not doing it in their DAC X silver for 140k, Lampizator Horizon is not even dreaming of it, Stavros Danos from Aries Cerat explained in intervies why they believe that this should not be done and can be seen in their whole lineup not only in their Ithaka and Homerus DACs. These types of products sound extremely dynamic. I would love to see a section going into details on why they actually choose their approach.

With such a dramatic voice I’ll rush to the shelter and won’t bother with hearing music

how does it compare to Aqua Audio Formula from Milan Italy❓

@OCDHIFiGuy have you heard the new Cascade DAC? If yes, how does the MPD-8 compare? The Cascade seems to offer a much more emotional experience over the Select DAC.

Wow this is a very bad dac, it makes you stop breathing.

There are two possibilities here: either this DAC is indeed needed for a true to source representation, in which case this hobby sucks since you need 100K in order to listen to some good sound quality music, or this DAC is not actually needed and can't surpass normal (priced) DACs in terms of SQ, in which case you gotta be nuts to pay such a premium price just for the looks. Either way, it is not OK for a DAC to cost this much.

Just curious, what speakers are you using in your listening sessions ?

Only $95,000.00. Yikes! I could get a great car at that price.

People make DAC's because they can't fix loudspeaker problems. Problems with loudspeakers are the most difficult to fix which is why companies like this make products that pretend to solve lots of problems when the problems in loudspeakers still exist no matter how expensive their DACs are !!

Make a lower price DAC!

The production quality looks excellent. I'm really interested in the difference in sound quality compared to the 1000-1500€ dac. I wonder if all the engineering effort really makes a huge difference in sound quality?

Will I be able to choose a sound profile like analytical/neutral/musical? Not all listeners have the same favorite characteristic in music reproduction.

Hope all these cost savings will be passed on as a more affordable product.

Why not MSB build in a streamer into the DAC?

I hope to own the MSB primer headphone setup one day. Keep up the great work, and please have more dealers in Sydney, impossible to find them for demo.

Amazing to hear the background of all the industrial design and manufacturing considerations and the strong drive for optimization and efficiency.

I love the new design! Does it have user selectable output impedance?

Wonderful. Can't wait to hear it. I just auditioned a Premier in my system and was fairly blown away. I have a DCS Vivaldi Apex now and couldn't believe first that the Premier was indeed better, and then that it was so much better in almost every way. This was in my system and to my ears, of course, ymmv.

I wish I had money to buy this.

So is the best or the Select or Reference? Ooops answered later....

The european dude sounds like Rose’s cousin Sven from The Golden Girls… WOOWW… 🤣😂🤣

i love my MSB DAC, the best.

. Aaahh........ there they are, vindication & the fiber connection.

So in time there will be some trickle down to the Discrete end of the MSB DAC scale?

As simple as putting the links and the umbilicals one below the other so that one can connect them like a human being:(

Problem with MSB they make you pay 💰 too much at the bottom entry point to buy their DACs which after buying the base model you still have to pay 💰 more for basic upgrades. I’ve have listened to them multiple times and it is a love it hate thing. Now the TOTL was pretty impressive but basically only the so called 1% can buy them.

$95K ? If so, I would rather buy 2 SUV's. Perfect example of the madness of high end audio... There is NO WAY the engineering of a DAC is more complicated than the engineering of an automobile...

Very smart design! I do like the Select II look better, but nice to further isolate the digital processes, and reduce the number of PSUs in the system (vs with Director).

GM☕️👍 I admire this setup..tho I personally can do without the preamplifier … Now if you could only break that price point …I just got my probable last DAC ..so I’m good . Great unit , I wish you continued success 🥂

The build quality of Msb Dac is awesome. Looking forward to a demo whenever a store is nearby.

Over 100K for this. or $1,000 for a good vinyl (true analog))setup that beats this.

Hello, from an engineer prospective you didn't mention anything in regards of improvements. Moving away digitial and analogue section may sound great for some people, but there are many good highend examples out there saying exactly the opposite: keeping everything as close/short as possible. Keeping transformers, toroidal isolated does every DAC, even for 2k ... so I hope just having new display, fancy feets and adding another box is NOT the most innovation 😉

Rather than adding a DAC to the top tier, IMO, it would have been smarter to prove you guys can make a better DAC for $10K than anyone else. Of course, only if you were truly confident you have the technical chops to pull it off. Remember, most people logically think most manufacturers with a sky is the limit budget can make a great sounding DAC.

Cost? Where can I purchase?

Is this now the top of the line DAC?

An absolutely high class reference audio device. Stunning, amazing, probably one if not THE best. But seriously, one of the dumbest decision you have could made is to place the Select/ Volume Knob on the top. Weirdest location ever. Out of sight, hardly visible, even more difficult to control. Sure, you can use and operate by RC/App, but thats not the point. Somehow I'd like to control it directly at the device itself too. That for, AVM made a better solution. Veryyyyyy smooth and good response when operating. So, bcs of this case, its certainly just 99% perfect.

Quite an update when you're used to Haas. Looking forward to receive our new Grob G352 in summer.

wonder how this dac compares to the aqua la scala mkll

Amazing machining process. Your explanation of the process is excellent. I love the fact you explain each aspect very clearly, most videos skip the explanation. Thanks for posting

Nothing runs like a GROB ❤ 💪 Beast Machines and accuracy on a High End Level 🎉

Great vid, very clear instructions!

How can you get older MSB DAC serviced? I have an older Platinum Link. Thank you 😊

Great story and what an investment. These GROB's are incredible.

Great looking amps! Has anyone here heard either MSB amps in comparison to more well known amps such as CH Precision, Gryphon or D'Agostino?

killer setup

Yes I know packaging doesn't affect the sound, but this shows a level of detail which is outstanding! Great job

One Farad of filter caps? Holy cow, that’s a lot. I bet the transient and dynamics slap hard, and are fast. I take it this amp is tuned for 2nd order harmonics to give it that tube sound….

❤ 🎉

amazing! congrats for the great work!