So, after almost ten days with it, I can now finish my personal review of the new MSB Cascade (in my system).
I have just (very carefully lol!) dismantled it and placed the three separate components that together make up the Cascade unit (DAC, Digital Director and power supply) back in their shipping boxes, ready to be driven to Guildford (UK) where tomorrow the Cascade will be set into a system broadly similar to mine but the next level up (a much bigger dedicated room, currently an MSB Reference DAC, the bigger Bayz Counterpoint and the bigger MSB 500 amp) and I can’t wait to listen to the Cascade in that system: it already sounded utterly incredible in mine (despite my current cable loom definitely not being entirely up to it) so I can’t really imagine what it will sound like in the very top system where it’s going to be placed next - and I am looking very much to experiencing that too!
So, while still waiting for my new used Reference to arrive, I have reconnected my Premier DAC, which i very much love and which in my humble opinion is a truly beautiful sounding machine and a worthy endgame DAC for many high end systems. Granted, the Premier has been disconnected for over a week and I started to play it from cold so it will get back to its full potential only in a few days. Yet, the very first impression that I had when getting back to the Premier sound was that of going back to listening to music through a digital radio (!), certainly a very good one at that but … what a stunning, incredible difference a Cascade makes lol!
Nothing else to add other than I have been very spoilt indeed by being able to listen to the Cascade DAC in the comfort of my room and my own system. And I am very grateful for that.
Lucky, very lucky the ones that will be able to afford one: I really think that the Cascade is a state-of-the-art, digital music reproduction end of the road. And I think it will be for a while!
@Lu62 , I had the same reaction going from the Cascade back to the Select DAC! The good news is, you can adjust after some time. You won’t be ruined forever The Cascade is really something else, can’t wait for more folks to get the chance you had. You have to hear it to believe it.
@Daniel_Gullman
Indeed. However … All of a sudden… without the Cascade in it and back to my beloved Premier, my system now sounds as if a little ‘muffled’
But as bad as this affirmation of mine may ‘sound’ , I guess that’s also the biggest compliment I can make to the MSB Cascade. To completely outclass the Premier in such this astonishing way is not really what I was expecting it to do!
I will indeed always remember it as the greatest recorded music reproduction piece of kit I have ever had the pleasure to experience. Totally unique - and alone - in an entirely (new) class of its own - what an incredible experience it has been
well @luca.pelliccioli - I guess that is fantastic news for the MSB staff reading my totally unbiased confirmation of how exceptionally good the Cascade is (if they ever needed that, because I am sure they know very well that they have just created a new very hard to beat masterpiece) but bad news for us who don’t have a Cascade (yet) lol. However my soon to arrive Reference should hopefully sooth some of the pain lol
Luca yes I am sure too (I have already had a Reference in my system for four months just before buying the Premier), so I know it very well (and I love it) and it is going to be very very very good for me (endgame probably, at least for a good while lol) and I honestly can’t wait to get it back now. As good as the Premier is, the Reference is quite some more. So we both know how extraordinary the Reference can be (and it is). But. The Cascade. It is The Next Level. It really needs to be heard to believe.
The Premier with a Digital Director would have been an interesting comparison with the Cascade DAC, that could have given us a better idea, as the DD is sort of now inbuilt with the Cascade!
@cat3600 if I do get the chance to try a DD on the Premier in the very near future I will, although I am now waiting for a Reference to replace my Premier (thus it is now actually much more likely that I will try a DD on the Reference). Obviously I do not know what difference would a DD make to the sound of the Premier, but I suspect, unless the DD turns out to be so great to be ‘miraculous’, the gap between the Premier and the Cascade would still be big. I wasn’t expecting it but I was really surprised at that gap when I went back to the Premier after 10 days with the Cascade. But don’t get me wrong, I was not disappointed, to me the Premier remains a top DAC regardless, and I would never tire of recommending it. It’s just that the Cascade was indisputably a lot more.
Thanks for all your inputs for the Cascade, I have a Premier hence my question. I have no doubt the Cascade is superior but was wondering how much the difference would have been with the DD with tbe Premier. All the best!
All there want the best out of there digital system need to have one and whit a good streamer in front it is same level as reel to reel and im not alone to feel this.
The Cascade is really something else, can’t wait for more folks to get the chance you had. You have to hear it to believe it.
, I guess that’s also the biggest compliment I can make to the MSB Cascade. To completely outclass the Premier in such this astonishing way is not really what I was expecting it to do!
well