For those of you who think I'm not serious enough, the MSB Select DAC may be for you.

[JonMarsh]

IMG_0137 by Jon Hancock, on Flickr

Appears to be a cosmetic re-design, based on this Stereophile picture

• Includes new and sometimes experimental features and parts
• Includes our best DAC modules and clock
• Includes our best USB input module
• Includes higher power rated connectors and cable
• Includes a select Diamond Power Base with reduced noise (no transport supply)
• No charge for custom color, extra inputs or options

• Includes a 10 year replacement warranty
• Includes free upgrades for one year
• Includes an upgrade guarantee for 10 years (you only pay the difference in price)
• Fully burned in at MSB
• Ships from stock in matte Black (no charge for custom colors but requires 6 week lead time).

Oh, did I mention the standard Tariff is about $89K?

Makes my TotalDAC and external re-clocker look pretty high value / low budget in comparison! :B

[TEK]

Jon, could you please come up with a DIY design that cost less than 1000 usd and outperforms this in all possible ways?

[JonMarsh]

In my dreams, if I were a legend in my own mind, sure! Alas, my humble skills are not likely to be up to that task at that price point.

The closest I expect one can get would be the Yiggy or the AURALiC Vega- I'm looking forward to doing some bench testing. One problem is that having a rubidium clock involved alone will add close to $1K to the total system cost, even just using a Mutec 1.3 as the basis. (A DCD-8 is about $1200 without the Rubidium oscillator; the Mutec is about $600. )

[wkhanna]

i see HERE at the bottom of the page one of options for this unit is their Femto 33 Clock for a mere $10k.

Jon, would you care to comment on this little widget?

[TEK]

There are other options as well.
Look at this - you can get an extra output for just 4k. It's like they are just giving these plugs away, almost for free.

Add RCA Subwoofer Outputs (uses one input slot) Add $3995.
Add Balanced Subwoofer Outputs (uses one input slot) Add $3995.

Would be onteresting to open it up and have a look at what's inside those plugs!

[JonMarsh]

Man, they must have gross profit margins better than Apple!

[bigburner]

For that price they should throw in a new pair of ears...

Nigel.

[JonMarsh]

i see HERE at the bottom of the page one of options for this unit is their Femto 33 Clock for a mere $10k.

Jon, would you care to comment on this little widget?

Well, there are a number of DAC systems now offering better than pico second stability for clocks, including the AURALiC Vega. I'm wondering how they integrate the clock into the whole system, and how it interacts with the incoming clock data stream embedded in S/PDIF and AES/EBU data. either they have to be completely sync'd by PLL, or one has to buffer the incoming data and re-clock it, or you have to use SRC and let that take care of the timing and sampling rate issues. SRC is a tricky thing to do really well- the standard chips for doing that have their limitations, and in my experience don't work as well as a dedicated DSP with the right code. (think Berkeley Alpha DAC vs. Benchmark- BADA does their own code on a DSP).

Now, typically, I'd prefer not to spend more than $10K for the whole shebang, so $10K for a clock upgrade is well out side my life style. The interesting question would be, how does this thing with all these gizmos stack up on the bench versus something like a Berkely Alpha DAC RS, and how does it sound in comparison? The RS isn't cheap- about $16K, but they're selling all they can make, with hardly any reviews out there, other than Computer Audiophile and The Absolute Sound.

Here's the typical kind of thing you read online about the RS in forums:

I got to listen to PS Audio DirectStream/Memory Player combo, Lumin S1, and Berkeley Audio Alpha Reference Series DAC/Alpha USB combo in my system this weekend. I have friends that own each unit, and we did a formal shootout this weekend at my house because my wife and kids were out of town. It was a magical Saturday and Sunday of musical madness. I probably shouldn't use magical and madness in the same sentence, but I'm not a writer. My system is comprised of a Rogue Audio Stereo 100, ARC Reference 5SE, Daedalus Audio Argos V2 speakers, and JPS Labs SuperConductor XLR interconnects and speakers cables. A PS Audio P5 provided the juice to all the components. The USB cable used was a WireWorld Silver Starlight 7 USB 2.0, and Wireworld Gold Starlight 7 AES/EBU connected the Alpha Reference DAC to the Alpha USB. Computer used was a 2013 MacBook Pro running JRiver, and a Synology 412+ NAS.

I will preface all this by saying I'm not an audio reviewer, so your not going to get that. This is just some thoughts about what I heard from these three sources this weekend. I liked all three sources, and would be happy to own any one of the three.

The PS Audio combo is game changer for PS Audio. The DirectStream is a real leap forward compared to the PerfectWave DAC, which I owned for a couple years. For an entry price of of $9,000(DAC/Transport), this might stop ones quest for better digital playback. This was some of the best redbook playback I've ever heard. Once PS Audio gets the new network bridge out, the DirectStream will be an even better value. I can understand why Steve is really enjoying this combo.

The Lumin S1 is the best network streamer I've heard, period. It retailed for $12,500 when my friend bought his in August, not sure about now. I love it because you don't have to have the damn computer in the room with your audio gear. You use the Lumin iPad app to access the music on your NAS, and your good to go. The Lumin S1 plays almost every audio file format (DSF, DIFF, DoP, Flac, ALAC, WAV, AIFF) and supports audio sample rates of (DSD 64 and 128, PCM 32bit/384kHz). The soundstage from the Lumin S1 is off the charts good no matter what file type or sample rate it played. The people at Pixel Magic should be extremely proud of this product. As an added bonus, it looks beautiful.

The Berkeley Alpha Reference Series DAC/Alpha USB combo retails for $17,895. It doesn't do DSD playback, it is PCM only. Once you listen to it, you won't care about DSD playback. Holy you know what is all I can say. This is the best DAC I've ever heard, and it really shows the potential of computer based audio playback. This is the best 16 bit/44.1 kHz playback I've heard in my system. I don't know what the guys at Berkeley Audio are doing, but the Alpha Reference does it right.

Once again, this is just the opinion of a guy with some good friends that have some really cool playback sources.