I prefer 'optimized' for dsd so far.
agree at the Show it was a significant difference.
MSB Select II arrival
- Thread starter Mike Lavigne
- Start date
I prefer 'optimized' for dsd so far.
agree at the Show it was a significant difference.
Thanks.
There are so many great products out there to choose from and clearly Trinity is one of the great ones, even though I have never experienced it, but so many whose opinions I trust speak to it's amazing capabilities.
As I age, I just (not going religious here) feel blessed to be able to afford and appreciate what I have. Like all who post on this site, one of the true joys we all experience is listening to the music. I was into high end back in the early 80s when I became a dealer in NYC while doing a residency in radiology. I had some great brands and actually was the first importer for Siltech all the way back then, when people said, "no one will ever buy a cable over 10K". Funny thing was that I couldn't get enough of them as they were literally flying off the shelf. I was always a vinyl guy and when I moved to FL I built a custom room had some amazing systems, all vinyl. I found the evil of good was better and decided to "upgrade". Without going into all the details, it was my undoing of high end for awhile and I decided to get rid of it all. Well I moved to a different place, decided "computer audio" makes sense to me and the new march BACK into the high end began. I was really fortunate in this house, despite my preconceived notions, to have a truly amazing room, 24x38 with 12 foot ceilings that needs very little treatment for my Nola Concert Grand Golds. I haven't changed much in my system over the last 4 years and truly just love listening. Every once in awhile a new product does come along which takes you to a new level.
it's a 'hybrid' dac which does both PCM and DSD at all resolutions natively and you feed it 'bit-perfect' files only.
http://www.msbtechnology.com/dacs/select-features/
and my ears tell me I'm getting the full goodness of both formats at their very best. I'm hearing easily the best Quad dsd I've heard and the best dxd (352 and 384 PCM) I've heard. redbook is mind blowing.
Are you going to add the mono power base Mike ? It would seem a no brainer having gone this far. How much extra ?
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if you add it to begin with it's an additional $19,950. adding it later is $23,940 (info on the website).
my piggy bank is a bit depleted for now and I'm in hog heaven with what I'm hearing, I already did choose to add the Femto 33 clock (over the standard Femto 77) which I'm enjoying and a $9950 upgrade.
i might add the second power supply at some point......who am i kidding?.......it will probably happen when i build back up some wife points which I've over-drawn (as previously discussed in this thread).
Wow Howie!
an amazing room........ 24' x 38' with 12' ceilings that needs very little treatment that the big bad Nola Concert Grand Gold's just happened to work in....in a home that you just happened to move to. how cool is that?
and I keep telling my wife I had no designs on the barn as an audio room, it just happened to be sitting there innocently after we moved in. I figured why not put my audio room there, otherwise it would just go to waste.
enjoy your excellent room. sounds like a perfect spot.
Wow Howie!
an amazing room........ 24' x 38' with 12' ceilings that needs very little treatment that the big bad Nola Concert Grand Gold's just happened to work in....in a home that you just happened to move to. how cool is that?
and I keep telling my wife I had no designs on the barn as an audio room, it just happened to be sitting there innocently after we moved in. I figured why not put my audio room there, otherwise it would just go to waste.
enjoy your excellent room. sounds like a perfect spot.
Mike,
Thanks. In my last house I built a listening room from scratch, with the help of Jeff Rowlands and it was great. Poured concrete bricks, etc etc. Much time and $ dollars went into it. As chance would have it, this game room, that no one uses that I never thought would sound good turned into one of the best rooms I have ever heard. When I went up to the Concert Grands I was just amazed. Serendipity and luck in this case was much better than time and money.
Funny thing was this house was supposed to be temporary house as it was more than we needed for our time in life but then the big bad financial crisis hit and my audiophile craving went haywire so it all just worked out, from an audiophile standpoint. Not sure what happens when I decide to retire in the next 1-3 years. I'll cross that bridge when the time comes.
I'm in a similar spot being 65 years old and knowing that retirement is near. my plan is to keep living where I am, but I got to stop buying too many toys.....at some point.
I'm in a similar spot being 65 years old and knowing that retirement is near. my plan is to keep living where I am, but I got to stop buying too many toys.....at some point.
Just turned 64 here. I know what you mean. I keep saying "this is the last toy". I will likely be moving to a smaller place in either Tampa or Amelia Island from Palm Beach County for my 8 month/year home and have my Montana home for the other 4 (plus skiing if still able). The Concert Grands unfortunately will have to go when I make that move so I know there is at least one more toy in the next 1-3 years when I retire and make the move.
My last toy? Stacore passive isolation platforms
Then again I'm "only" 53, so hoping to have a few more earning years ahead of me
I'm dreading the new flagship Zu Experiences finally being released
On the basis of how stellar my current Zus have optimised in my new impvd acoustic, I may be forced to buy
Then again I'm "only" 53, so hoping to have a few more earning years ahead of me
I'm dreading the new flagship Zu Experiences finally being released
On the basis of how stellar my current Zus have optimised in my new impvd acoustic, I may be forced to buy
in the context of this OT 'last purchase before retirement' thread detour, likely a page full of 'roll eyes'
......would not quite measure up to the reaction of any claims of such by me to my wife, or even to my friends.
honestly it's just a rationalization used as justification......with certain significant investments we do search for mental peace and comfort that it fits our life view.
I wanted it bad enough to buy it. period. then we see how things play out. maybe when a product is held up as a 10 year answer to digital technology advancement and obsolescence then from the outside it can appear to be an end-game move. but we really don't know what we don't know.
one side benefit of this acquisition for me I did not anticipate is that my mind has now moved on from viewing my digital direction as 'in-play'. and observing my own brain landscape I now see that I've had this sense of 'searching' and being actively observant of alternatives, and a degree of critical listening has been a part of my digital listening. that has now just shut off. and the music yearning can now take it's proper place in that space. (more rationalization?)
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Mike, I'm at least half serious re end game feeling
After having spent a small fortune, 12-18 months without music putting my room together, and this week getting an absolute rush from superior acoustics, power and currently vibration isolation, I've hit a rare synergy and enjoyment beyond anything I could realistically have hoped for
Apologies to our fearless co-leader Ron for such hyperbolic hyperbole, but it's true
Now Mike, this doesn't mean I would say no if you donated yr new MSB Select 2 to me on permanent trial
But system synergy and ancillary performance busting developments mean I'm really going to have to be convinced by any component upgrade to spend on new gear
I truly believe ongoing spend on Stacores to progressively isolate cdp, pre, monos, even spkrs will give me more bang per $/£/€
But it's great you're in a position to investigate both Taiko Tana isoln AND fantastic toys like the MSB
For me, the only component changes I'm half considering is poss new tt, and to be released Zu flagships
But I can say honestly at this point if I had to choose btwn fixed budget on new tt plus Zus, or same budget on Stacore-ing out my pre existing components, I'd happily choose the latter
Anyhow, returning to the current topic, I'm skeptical that any dac can ever be an end point, w so much upward trajectory moving developments
Mike, is yr opinion the Select 2 is not just better than the usual suspects you've owned and/or are at the cutting edge (eg PD, GG, Trinity, Formula, AN, Aries Cerat, Dcs Vivaldi stack, Origine etc), but a quantum leap better, in a way that means you're truly confident you're unlikely to look past this unit for several yrs?
After having spent a small fortune, 12-18 months without music putting my room together, and this week getting an absolute rush from superior acoustics, power and currently vibration isolation, I've hit a rare synergy and enjoyment beyond anything I could realistically have hoped for
Apologies to our fearless co-leader Ron for such hyperbolic hyperbole, but it's true
Now Mike, this doesn't mean I would say no if you donated yr new MSB Select 2 to me on permanent trial
But system synergy and ancillary performance busting developments mean I'm really going to have to be convinced by any component upgrade to spend on new gear
I truly believe ongoing spend on Stacores to progressively isolate cdp, pre, monos, even spkrs will give me more bang per $/£/€
But it's great you're in a position to investigate both Taiko Tana isoln AND fantastic toys like the MSB
For me, the only component changes I'm half considering is poss new tt, and to be released Zu flagships
But I can say honestly at this point if I had to choose btwn fixed budget on new tt plus Zus, or same budget on Stacore-ing out my pre existing components, I'd happily choose the latter
Anyhow, returning to the current topic, I'm skeptical that any dac can ever be an end point, w so much upward trajectory moving developments
Mike, is yr opinion the Select 2 is not just better than the usual suspects you've owned and/or are at the cutting edge (eg PD, GG, Trinity, Formula, AN, Aries Cerat, Dcs Vivaldi stack, Origine etc), but a quantum leap better, in a way that means you're truly confident you're unlikely to look past this unit for several yrs?
I've had the MSB Select II in room for less than 3 days. I've heard nothing that would suggest it's not going to exceed all of my most positive expectations. I've never heard any digital close to this. but it's too soon (and is it ever the right time?) for pronouncements or anointing anything. we have enough people throwing those terms around that we don't need me to do it. and I've not heard a number of the suspects on your list such as the Aries Cerat, Origine and others. while I've heard the Vivaldi stack at shows it's been a few years now and I've not heard the v2 upgrade. and then there is context and all that so the whole 'which is best' is a troubling thing to get into. obviously I did 'vote' with my checkbook, so there is that.
and I have much work to do here to find the best of the Select II. I need to compare inputs between the XLR and RCA, then need to compare the USB and Ethernet approaches too, and then optimize the cables for each of those choices. then i'll be where I can see just what it can do.
and honestly; for me personally the only test that matters to me is the real one; how does it stack up against the truly big guns?.......my vinyl and tape. none of those other digital choices matter.
right now it's easy for me to say that what I've listened to these last three days exceeds the performance of any digital I've ever heard by a good margin, including the Select II at shows. but that does not really help us to answer your question. and even the Trinity dac did not have the same server so that is a variable.
yesterday I spent 5-6 hours straight just listening to redbook. and it was revelatory.....remarkable. and this is simply bit-perfect files from the SGM through HQ Player and Roon. it was stunning really. this is with a generic USB cable and modest interconnects. it's said that with the MSB transport and their i2S interface that discs outperform files. but they don't have an SGM/HQ Player to compare. so that also is a question I need to resolve. are discs better or not?
Mike
why do you feel you still need HQP with the Select ll? After all they are bit perfect files from your DAC
why do you feel you still need HQP with the Select ll? After all they are bit perfect files from your DAC
While you wait to get the funds, you can get a few small bicycle inner tubes and put them under sand filled boxes with a good slate platform on top. Although they probably will not be as performing as Stacore they do wonders in Mossbauer spectrometers!
I'm a passenger at this point with the SGM, HQ Player and Roon relative to the Select II......watching the SGM team work on optimizations. the target is to exceed the performance of the up-coming Roon and MQA MSB Ethernet Renderer. they work their magic directly with the SGM from the Netherlands while I'm at work. I'm told that HQ Player has benefits even with 'bit-perfect'. but I don't personally know any of that stuff.
does a great (the best?) server and OS make a difference? well.......if the general consensus is that Ethernet is better but it turns out that the SGM betters it then we have an answer to some degree.
so this has to play out in a month or so when I get the Renderer. my son (the network engineer) will configure the NAS to work with the Renderer, and we will compare.
so to answer your question; we don't know yet.
and if you have read my posts over these recent months, this whole USB/SPDIF server verses Ethernet has been on my mind and I want to know the answer. I do feel that the very best USB server out there is the SGM and their team. they are amazing and so easy to work with. can they beat the tip top renderer?
Perhaps Mike
I just cannot believe that using HQP with the Select ll will give better sound but we are all waiting to hear what you say. So what are your-sampling everything to before it reaches the DAC? Are you still using upsampling to DXD as you had with the Formula
I just think that if I had the Select ll playing bit perfect files it couldn't get better than that. I would like to hear how native rate compares to upsampling via HQP
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