I cannot comment on Audionote versus MSB, but I can versus Emm Labs in my own system
I have an original that is AN dac, with burr brown chips in it, and tarted up
I also have Emm Labs DA2 v2 which also doesn’t use off the shelf chips, and is also long time manufacturer of professional adc dsd recording equipment of which I own three.
I have to admit, that even though the Emm labs is more transparent and modern sound, the audio note does do a lot of things very well
I would not say it’s tarted up with special material, but seems to have concerntrated on how it sounds over what specs it has
It really is very enjoyable to listen to
I have an old friend who has spent 20 years modifying these old dacs and the sonic results are pretty spectacular with good input from a great transport
I am sure if people like Mike Love the msb it is spectacular, but I cannot deny that the Audio note DACs, do have some unique qualities that are very appealing
These include
1. Natural timbres
2. Excellent soundstage, and presence
3. Lack of digital artifacts
4. Excellent PRAT
I am not sure though that the top tier AN pound for pound have the same engineering tech as the MSB, nor would I pay that much for one to be sure, in fact I would for much less buy my friends one, which have greatly improved power supplies and clock and output stages, over the top of line audio note DAC
I recently heard the Kassandra which use 16 of the same DAC as the audio note, but also does dsd and high resolution pcm