Forget technology. They just figured out there are some folks that feel better spending $60k for a dac than $40k, especially since the competition is hitting this price mark, so you need a product to cater to this segment. All we need are some reviewers and no compromise users to declare this unit the new top dog.
MSB Diamond DAC IV Reviewed By Stereophile
- Thread starter catastrofe
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Forget technology. They just figured out there are some folks that feel better spending $60k for a dac than $40k, especially since the competition is hitting this price mark, so you need a product to cater to this segment. All we need are some reviewers and no compromise users to declare this unit the new top dog.
Anyway, this new MSB DAC will probably give John Atkinson an opportunity to reappraise the comments he made about the MSB Diamond in the Marantz Reference NA-11S1 Network Audio Player review.
Wasn't that John Atkinson, who declared that Classe CT-M600 monoblocks sound almost as good as anything out there ?
It only confirms, that the term 'almost' may have a very different meaning to different people.
With all due respect to JA, but I stopped reading any of his source components / amps reviews. It seems that MF has much more experience with the current Stare-of-the-art digital than JA does. Which, if you think about this, is kind of funny !
+1
There are many audiophiles that will not even consider evaluating a component unless the price is high enough. At $60k MSRP, it will look much more like a contender to similarly priced Trinity DAC or $110k Vivaldi stack ($70k sans transport).
Can you consider that they found that an higher budget could allow them to pick up selected components and use more expensive technologies to reduce noise? After all, it is mainly what the people at Trinity do in their DAC to reach high performance. MSB are a known manufacturer with a good reputation, do you think that they will risk jeopardizing it making a more expensive and equal sounding, although less bloody
, top version of their DAC? IMHO, if there is space in the market place for a more expensive unit some one should try to use this money to improve the SOTA. And until now, the cases where more money resulted in an inferior or equal unit in manufacturer catalogs are mainly exceptions, and quickly disappear without any trace, except for a few unhappy and angry buyers.
Can you consider that they found that an higher budget could allow them to pick up selected components and use more expensive technologies to reduce noise? After all, it is mainly what the people at Trinity do in their DAC to reach high performance. MSB are a known manufacturer with a good reputation, do you think that they will risk jeopardizing it making a more expensive and equal sounding, although less bloody
IMHO, if there is space in the market place for a more expensive unit some one should try to use this money to improve the SOTA. And until now, the cases where more money resulted in an inferior or equal unit in manufacturer catalogs are mainly exceptions, and quickly disappear without any trace, except for a few unhappy and angry buyers.
Agree.
I think our comments are tongue in cheek. Many manufacturers do EXACTLY the same. EMM DAC2X a perfect example at 2x the price.
Plus many on these threads throw around best or better than without really comparing apples to apples.
Well I would recommend you try their UMT+ with the galaxy clock in your DAC as that is exactly what it does.
No doubt the best sound possible out of an MSB
Both bits would start life travelling as packets over ethernet, and be converted to I2S at some point. Other than that - different architeture. Having the steaming capability build into the DAC would be a more direct signal path. An ethernet interface card for the MSB DAC would be the functional equivalent to PS Audio's bridge - which turned out to be a very difficult piece of engineering.
I would not make that assertion without trying the (forthcoming) Blue Smoke USB to I2S pro converter. I see not technical reason why it could not be better. Only an A/B comparison will tell.
Can you consider that they found that an higher budget could allow them to pick up selected components and use more expensive technologies to reduce noise? After all, it is mainly what the people at Trinity do in their DAC to reach high performance. MSB are a known manufacturer with a good reputation, do you think that they will risk jeopardizing it making a more expensive and equal sounding, although less bloody
IMHO, if there is space in the market place for a more expensive unit some one should try to use this money to improve the SOTA. And until now, the cases where more money resulted in an inferior or equal unit in manufacturer catalogs are mainly exceptions, and quickly disappear without any trace, except for a few unhappy and angry buyers.
I am a MSB user and all along admire their products very much.
Hope that Diamond Select's USD20k increase in price over a Diamond IV Plus+Galaxy clock+USB can be justified by a significant sonic improvement.
Is Diamond Select now the most expensive DAC in the market?
Until it is a "product" the UMT+ remains the best I have heard from the MSB.
The issue comparing with BlueSmoke will be how each buffers and clocks which I am assuming the BlueSmoke will (and hope) it does.
I hope the BlueSmoke turns out to be what they claim. We obviously have similar wants. I was just making a comment "at this time"
In each case (UMT+ and Blue Smoke) those transport / converters are clocked from the MSB DAC via I2S Pro input, so the clocking point should be moot.
That is correct. My comment was really about buffering. My understanding is that BlueSmoke is using an MSB ProI2s card. How they handle the data we will see??
I just got the UMT+ for an evaluation and am thrilled with the comparison to my server with LightHarmonics USB cable. Best I have heard my Diamond Plus sound.
It is a sad, but all too true, state of affairs in the world of high performance audio. Sometimes the more unattainable a product appears because of its lofty price tag the more units one can sell.
How about the 'The Beast' from ReQuest Audio?
Wizard wrote a post on it a few days ago : http://cybwiz.blogspot.hk/2014/01/request-audio-beast-luxury-music-server.html
It seems to be a Linux computer/ripper/server with a MSB IV series dac board.
Wizard wrote a post on it a few days ago : http://cybwiz.blogspot.hk/2014/01/request-audio-beast-luxury-music-server.html
It seems to be a Linux computer/ripper/server with a MSB IV series dac board.
It is designed & made by the Swiss branch of ReQuest Audio so shall not be cheap!
Maybe Wizard can have some info on its price.
The current model looks simpler than the prototype shown in hifi shows last year.
The prototype in Swiss ReQuest Audio website seems to be for home theatre use: http://www.requestaudio.com/index.php?id=77
Unfortunately, it doesn't. It uses a board designed by MSB, which looks like an AnalogDAC equivalent. The Beast's aluminium box is killer looking though !
I have the image of that board somwhere on my desktop computer.
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