MSB Diamond DAC IV Reviewed By Stereophile
- Thread starter catastrofe
- Start date
Could be a lot closer than one might imagine.
May the Force be with you young Luke
When someone pay 40,000 Plus for a DAC I would always assume the parts are already hand selected and measures best. Only to find out another 20 Grand at a price tag of 60K US for hand selected parts is starting to get silly. So that leaves all those who order the standard Diamond DAC with less inferior parts and components compared to the select Series. Something to wander upon.
Bassfeen, I agree with u. I just got mine a month ago & I would expect the parts to be excellent but its seems it is not true.
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Im sorry to hear that, from what I can tell you might have ended up with parts which don't measure so well. As the ones which measure well in stock are reserved for higher paying clients in the 60 Grand Region Select Series. Its a shame MSB had to go down this path and splutter it out all over there site. Makes you think a 40,000 Grand DAC is not using the best parts MSB can source is a dam Shame.
The way to look at it is this. Let's say 90% of galaxy clocks are within +/- XX percent of accuracy specs. The five percent that is below the accuracy range gets rejected, and the 5% that is above accuracy range makes it into the "select" series. this does not mean the clock going into a standard Diamond is not "excellent".
The site is pretty clear:
Includes hand selected Galaxy Femtosecond Clock
Includes hand selected Diamond DAC modules
Includes our best USB input module
Includes hand selected volume modules
Includes a select Diamond Power Base with reduced noise (no transport supply)
They just selected the core components with most impact on sound quality and picked the outliers in the performance range. The only thing that could potentially have a change in design in the select Diamond power base. I have a hunch they just eliminated the transport supply to be able to position it as a "different" powerbase.
It is $60K, but this includes a bunch of options, the powerbase and galaxy clock. You'd have to do the math to find out how much premium you're really paying over a standard diamond with the same options. I suspect around $15K.
IMHO This list of 'improvements' mentioned in MSB website is hard to convince audiophiles that the USD20k increase in price is justified.
Will there be a MSB demo in CES that a Diamond Select is compared directly with an usual Diamond IV Plus (with Galaxy clock & 384USB) to demonstrate the superiority of the former?
Does MSB dare doing such a shootout in open?
IMO that will be the task for the dealers. If it doesn't sound any better, then they will probably not sell many.
My math may be a bit rusty, but I belive the price difference is $15k for the similarly equipped DAC IV Diamond, which sells for $45k.
Hi Adam,
The Diamond Select has the Galaxy clock & Signature384 USB onboard.
Therefore, for a similarly loaded Diamond IV Plus : 27995 + 5995(Diamond powerbase) + 4955(Galaxy clock upgrade) + 1395(Signature384 USB) = US$40340
http://www.msbtech.com/products/dac4diamondDetail.php?Page=platinumHome
It also has the volume control option and the new heatsinks are also an option, so it is a little more than that. Why they would bundle it with the USB when they are positioning streaming through the UMT+ as the best way to do computer audio is a bit of a puzzle to me.
Thanks edorr,
A fully loaded Diamond IV Plus : 27995 + 5995(Diamond powerbase) + 4955(Galaxy clock upgrade) + 1395(Signature384 USB) + 2995(volume control)= US$43335.
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