MSB Reference Transport - the first home audition

[Kingsrule]

Yes Ken it plays and decodes common audio formats from HTTP streams outputting direct to IS2. The clock is synchronized by the very low jitter DAC master clock and all grounds are isolated and dedicated clean power is provided. It is extremely hard to beat. Oh and the new version is Roon and MQA compliant.

What new version? Until there is a product, there is nothing......

The MSB Roon renderer has been promised for many months (like since last June) and I didn't know a renderer had to be" MQA compliant". If the wait is due to MQA then MSB is making a foolish mistake IMO

 

[Pb Blimp]

Our home network is full of noise. Effort has been spent to avoid the noise getting into the dac.
Optical Isolation in CAS has been adopted widely by CAS desktop computer DIYers in Hong Kong for many years.
One of the best product lines is Adnaco : http://www.adnaco.com/products/
Both multi-mode and single-mode transceivers and fibers are available.

My room is fed with fiber optic line from my network router and the inroom media converter is powered with a custom linear power supply from YFS with 0.1mV ripple noise. If the goal is the elimination of electrical noise I can conceive of no electrical filter, transformer, or grounding scheme that would be superior to eliminating electricity entirely. Glass conducts digital light pulses exclusively not electricity.

 

[Pb Blimp]

What new version? Until there is a product, there is nothing......

The MSB Roon renderer has been promised for many months (like since last June) and I didn't know a renderer had to be" MQA compliant". If the wait is due to MQA then MSB is making a foolish mistake IMO

Well the image I originally sent is of the Renderer that has been out and running flawlessly for a couple of years now with the performance characteristics I referenced (other than Roon and MQA) so I am not sure of your point. By "compliant" I mean the it will be able to decode MQA. (Not sure your point there either.) Roon and MQA are coming with some additional performance improvements in the new version. In case you haven't noticed the guys at MSB have been a bit busy lately.

 

[Kingsrule]

Well the image I originally sent is of the Renderer that has been out and running flawlessly for a couple of years now with the performance characteristics I referenced (other than Roon and MQA) so I am not sure of your point. By "compliant" I mean the it will be able to decode MQA. (Not sure your point there either.) Roon and MQA are coming with some additional performance improvements in the new version. In case you haven't noticed the guys at MSB have been a bit busy lately.

Yes, I've been talking with Vince for months. Might know a bit more than u.......

 

[Alpinist]

Well the image I originally sent is of the Renderer that has been out and running flawlessly for a couple of years now with the performance characteristics I referenced (other than Roon and MQA) so I am not sure of your point. By "compliant" I mean the it will be able to decode MQA. (Not sure your point there either.) Roon and MQA are coming with some additional performance improvements in the new version. In case you haven't noticed the guys at MSB have been a bit busy lately.

Thanks Paul for all the info. Since MSB builds these components in-house, they can get better results than others who use readily available parts. For this reason, it’s well worth the wait in my opinion.

Best,
Ken

 

[Kingsrule]

Thanks Paul for all the info. Since MSB builds these components in-house, they can get better results than others who use readily available parts. For this reason, it’s well worth the wait in my opinion.

Best,
Ken

U know this for a fact with the upcoming renderer?.....

 

[Pb Blimp]

Yes, I've been talking with Vince for months. Might know a bit more than u.......

I am a tad slow, can you explain what that means?

 

[asiufy]

What new version? Until there is a product, there is nothing......

The MSB Roon renderer has been promised for many months (like since last June) and I didn't know a renderer had to be" MQA compliant". If the wait is due to MQA then MSB is making a foolish mistake IMO

No, the wait is not due to MQA. MSB has carefully evaluated all Roon-compatible OEM solutions (like just about everybody else uses, dCS, etc.), and decided to create their own. There'll be a full-fledged server built into that tiny module, and as such, it involves miniaturization at a level they can't manufacture in-house. So they have to design, send it out for manufacturing, wait, test, re-design, etc. Just for reference, in that tiny module, they'll be about 4000 board traces. And that's just the hardware part, they also have to write the software that'll go in it...

So yeah, MSB could've done the easy thing like everybody else does, and gone with an OEM the module. But they're rolling their own, and that takes (more) time.


cheers,
Alex

PS: There *IS* an existing Renderer module, that supports the UPNP protocol. I've used it extensively, and it sounds brilliant. But it doesn't do Roon or MQA, thus the new development.

 

[Kingsrule]

Yes, u have posted this before but there is much more to it than u say.....

 

[asiufy]

Yes, u have posted this before but there is much more to it than u say.....

OK then. There isn't, but you're welcome to think otherwise.



cheers,
alex

 

[Pb Blimp]

Yes, u have posted this before but there is much more to it than u say.....

I am a tad slow, can you explain what that means?

 

[moby2004]

Hello
I'd like to know if anyone recently listened to the reference transport with and without a msb dac ?
Thanks
Alex
PS: I raised the same question in another msb thread

 

[Armsan]

Hi moby
I’m listening to mine since 3 months ago with the Select DAC...
Cheers.

 

[pke10000]

I listened the reference transport yesterday at GLV which is an msb dealer in Korea.

Of course its cd playing is best in SQ. but I noticed its network quality comparing with Aurender W20.

As a function, Msb handled well the ext. 2.5" 4tb hdd,
Dlna worked well, in korea, Bugs streaming is popular which supports flac streaming by Dlna.
Roon server was not ready, so I used bubble upnp to test tidal. It was not so smart, I think it is a network problem of tidal, Korea is not their regular service area.

As an Sound Quality, I think it is in same league with w20. W20 was more stable, even Msb was more detail. I tried some tweak to network hub and cables, it was better for msb but worse to w20.

My result is : if you have w20, msb transport is not needed as a network source. But if you have Msb transport, you don't need any other network player.

Thanks

 

[asiufy]

If you can, listen again with Roon. The Transport is Roon Ready. And besides, if you like Roon, the W20 is useless.

 

[pke10000]

If you can, listen again with Roon. The Transport is Roon Ready. And besides, if you like Roon, the W20 is useless.

It's interesting.
Roon needs a lot of computing power, I think it is hard to be better than W20 even it has better UI and convenience.
Can you recommand any of roon server ?
If possible, I will try to use it when I compare msb's transport and renderer at summer.

Thanks

 

[asiufy]

Roon needs MEMORY, not CPU power, unless you have hundreds of thousands of songs and/or wants to do any form of DSP.

If you want simple, robust and relatively inexpensive, Roon's own Nucleus should do the trick. If you want to fancy it up with extra features, Innuos has a nice line of servers, with CD ripping, automatic backup, etc.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that comparison, between W20, MSB Transport and MSB Renderer.

cheers,
alex

 

[CKKeung]

I visited Pacific Audio (the Hong Kong MSB dealer) 2 weeks ago with a friend who was a diehard MSB fans.

We were able to do the following comparison (dac used was MSB Select II, directly into the M204 monos) :
1. Reference Transport via ProISL
2. Reference Transport via AES
3. Reference Transport via AES and with clock signal supplied by Select II
4. Signature Data V cd transport with Diamoond Powerbase via Pro I2S connection

The Reference Transport was supplied by its included desktop switching power module only.

Playing similar CDs, the performance was :
1 >> 4 > 3 > 2
When listened more carefully, 4 and 3 were very close. The former was very slightly quieter and more continuous sound.

After audition, my friend placed an order at once, not for a Reference Transport but the not-yet-launched Select Transport!

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I visited Pacific Audio (the Hong Kong MSB dealer) 2 weeks ago with a friend who was a diehard MSB fans.

We were able to do the following comparison (dac used was MSB Select II, directly into the M204 monos) :
1. Reference Transport via ProISL
2. Reference Transport via AES
3. Reference Transport via AES and with clock signal supplied by Select II
4. Signature Data V cd transport with Diamoond Powerbase via Pro I2S connection

The Reference Transport was supplied by its included desktop switching power module only.

Playing similar CDs, the performance was :
1 >> 4 > 3 > 2
When listened more carefully, 4 and 3 were very close. The former was very slightly quieter and more continuous sound.

After audition, my friend placed an order at once, not for a Reference Transport but the not-yet-launched Select Transport!

CK,

isn't there a new 'dual' Pro ISL interface that is optimal? were you able to listen to that?

 

[CKKeung]

CK,

isn't there a new 'dual' Pro ISL interface that is optimal? were you able to listen to that?

View attachment 42529

Your attached photo is the optical ProISL connection socket of MSB. It needs a dual-LC type of optical cable.

This is the newest transport-dac connection of MSB.
Similar to the past ProI2S, ProISL is an I2S format, conducting the various clock signal and music data simultaneously.
ProISL and ProI2S are also bi-directional. The MSB transport will be slaved by the clock signal sent from MSB dac.

This ProISL utilizes high speed single-mode optical conduction with lower latency and electrical isolation between the transport and dac.