A totally evasive non-answer, Keith. If you know so much, why not try to communicate your knowledge? And yes, I have read most of the 200-page thread on the MSB Select, but that is beside the point.
Unless you try to define what you mean by 'just doesn't sound digital' compared to other DACs, it is a meaningless statement. Completely and indefensibly meaningless. Better scrap it from your vocabulary.
And remember, I am not the only one who complained.
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As for Analog DAC vs. Yggy, I have heard the Analog DAC too. But at this point I won't get into the question which one is better.
after hearing the MSB Select II 3 years ago at an audio show (after it was suggested to me by a few WBF members I needed to hear it), I was a bit stunned and affected. I then spent a couple of years trying to find a more affordable alternative that could relate the continuousness, solidity and ease of the music with challenging material like piano and other acoustic music. a couple times a year I would hear the MSB Select II at a show, and go around and sample all the other digital and my experience was that over these multiple samples (as well as my own formidable acquisitions in my own system), that it was the MSB Select II, and everything else. so finally last year I went and listened at the LAAS one more time, and pulled the trigger.
as far as it not sounding like other digital; sure......that was exactly my experience prior to buying mine. it stood out as 'something' more......not exactly vinyl......more like tape.....but not really sounding digital. and getting it in my room I feel even more like that. then I added a second power supply.....and that was a big boost. I tried the internal passive pre......but my dart was a little better (but the dart is considered by many the best active preamp so that is no dig). I added the Tripoint Elite with Thor SE ground cable......another jump up. now it's got the Taiko Tana active under the dac and SGM server. I keep finding more and more information.
so yes I do feel strongly that it rises above other digital and avoids the need for coloring forgiving output circuits (it actually does not have any gain stage and outputs directly from the dac itself), and also avoids any sense of flattening or grain, or threadbare presentation. it's just music. like my vinyl and tape is just music. and previously I could not say that.
while I appreciate that there have been a number of direct comparisons to other top level digital (including Vivaldi), and I appreciate the efforts of people reporting these perceptions, for me the only compares that matter are that I can quickly jump from the MSB to my vinyl or tape and focus on the music, and find it fully there. I see the feedback on those direct compares as data points, but will wait until I have the opportunity to do a direct compare before I draw conclusions. I've not heard everything, and I especially have not done meaningful direct compares with everything.
these past 2 days I had out of town visitors (why I've not posted on this thread till now) and we did have a few hours of redbook listening. they were quite amazed. does that or anything I wrote prove that the MSB is superior to others with redbook? no. do I happen to believe it is unique? sure. this next weekend (Saturday June 2nd) I will have 35 members of my local audio club in my room for a few hours for a meeting. looking forward to more people being exposed to the MSB Select II.