(I accidentally deleted my last post lol… so retyping and reposting it again)
I have never owned a MSB DAC before but I was so attracted to the MSB design philosophy. I got lucky recently to get a near pristine used Discrete (with single PSU and Renderer V2) to work with my Wilson Sabrina X speakers and Accuphase E-800 Class A integrated amplifier. I also ordered a second PSU separately through a dealer. As soon as my Discrete arrived, while my second PSU is still on the way, I could not wait to set up and test it through Roon.
OMG, I knew it would be good, but I never thought it would be this good. When I sit down and press play, the gear just disappears. The soundstage is simply so natural. It doesn’t feel like sound is coming from the speakers — the whole room just fills up with music. The sound is smooth, transparent, totally effortless. There is zero harshness at all, and I never get that sense of fatigue no matter how long I listen. What really gets me is actually the silence. The pauses feel like they have texture, like the hall is breathing, thus making an ultimate representation of nothingness. The dynamics is fabulous, but I am even more impressed by the extremely revealing micro dynamics, revealing even the smallest yet subtle detail. The transience is just so good that I feel the music was signing. The bass has so much authority now it feels like I secretly added a subwoofer — it is not just the punch, but rather the magic that connects the music together.
I am a classical listener. I believe MSB DAC is absolutely one of the best DACs for classical music. I have listened to some DACs with great artificial wow effect, which dealers tend to use to impress customers and make them pay. But the Discrete is never artificial. It rather reveals what is musically there and reproduces sound in a way as if the gears are pure conduit for music, making me feel that I am there instead of sitting in a room. I think the most challenging job for any audio system is not making flashy sound but rather playing a Mahler or Bruckner adagio, where wow effect has no place and all it matters is the ability to put all that is musically relevant together, in dynamics and in tranquility. That requires extraordinary transparency, micro-dynamics, and soundstage. The Discrete does this job exceptionally well.
I cannot wait for the second PSU to arrive and see the huge improvement. I can’t imagine how good Premier, Cascade, and not to mention Sentinel are — I am jealous of those who own them! I will share my system once I finish all setup. Thanks to MSB team for producing all these extraordinary gears!
