Thanks Marcus! The intent is to add the MPT-8 transport. I still play sacd/cd’s. And essentially have it act like the Digital director (and more since it also does reclocking in addition to other digital filtering duties). I will also connect my music server/streamer to the MPT-8. As you had mentioned the “plink” is key to isolate the DAC from the digital sources with an optical link. So once you add the MPT-8 to the MPD-8, you start getting closer to MSB Ref + Director pricing territory. Granted still not quite $70K (new) yet, but there is something to be said about MSB new prices (I think they are overpriced) esp considering their used prices (usually well over 50% less than retail) whereas PBDs (current models) hold their prices pretty well in the used market. And I do hear (reasonably consistently) that the PBD is more musical (and connects you to the gestalt of the music) even though it does not excel in the audiophile attributes the same way the MSB does. The emotional connection is more important to me than excellence in all the audiophile attributes. All boils down to preferences.
With regards to Master Fidelity, my current DAC is the Merging stack (with power), so I am somewhat familiar with that team. Also, currently, at least in the US, the DAC will not be sold standalone. They are only selling the DAC with the clock as a combo together putting them at $51K. There are some reasons (not because of the pricing)why I am hesitant to go down the Master F path at least at this time. Need to see more longevity in that brand first. Happy to connect more on additional reasons over PM.
Thank you for pointing me towards Wadax Studio DAC, and others have also pointed to the new Taiko Olympus server (with analog output card/DAC card). But those are out of my budget at this time (esp when I still have to add a sacd/cd transport), but will definitely research more about them for future reference.
