So happy for you @crwilli !
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Everything felt when I put the Cascade into my system. Itās brilliant stuff.
Thank you for the excellent review. I am patiently awaiting my order. I ordered a Pink Faun Scion to compliment the upcoming arrival. The PFS has exceeded all my expectations by large margins for a streamer. I am hoping for the same with the Palisade. Lets all hope cardboard Santa visits our neighborhood as expected .
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Itās worth the wait!
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I had a friend over today for a listen. āIncredible,ā ābeautifulā and āwonderfulā were his words. 
I then had him help me compare the Block Audio Line Stage with the Palisadeās line-stage section. To make the comparison as equal as possible, I turned off the subs and pulled the plugs from the Kharmas rear ports.
We used:
- āDuendeā ā Bozzio Levin Stevens
- āAnnaā ā Antonio Forcione and Charlie Haden
- āTake Fiveā ā Time Out
- āWhat a Wonderful Worldā ā Eva Cassidy
The short version: We could hear differences between the presentations of the two line stages, but we could not determine that one was better than the other. They both sounded great, with essentially the same tone and soundstage.
My friend thought he heard slightly less reverberation through the Palisade and wondered whether that was making its presentation sound a little clearer. Overall, though, it was very closeāand impressive company for the Block Line Stage.
The Palisade clearly is a step or two above the Premier in this aspect.
This comparison also made me think about how compelling the Palisade could be at the center of a much simpler system. I could easily imagine someone buying a Palisade with the Renderer module, pairing it with one of the new generation of high-quality active loudspeakers, and plugging everything into a Shunyata Everest. That would be a remarkably simple system with very few boxes, while still offering genuinely high-end performance.
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Where does the Palisade DAC volume control fall in the spectrum of Passive (aāla Premier DAC) and a proper Active pre-amp (volume control of the active line stage- Cascade has active I think)?
One big feature of the Cascade over the Palisade is being able to accept analog inputs, and switch between all analog, and digital inputs. No contest there.
I guess Iām asking is the volume control (line stage) function of the Palisade more like the Premier, or the Cascade. They have shown the DAC portion to be in the Cascade lineage.
The Palisade and Cascade both share the same overall output stage design. The Cascade output stage is based off of a 75 Ohm constant impedance differential passive attenuator while the Palisade output stage is based off of a 150 Ohm constant impedance differential passive attenuator. These networks both have 1db steps. On both units the DAC modules outputs flow through the attenuator (when enabled) without any active components at all.
The Cascade adds a variable gain buffer, 0db (up to volume 100) or +6db (from 101 to 106) depending on volume setting), which has completely independent power supplies from the DAC, to adapt the analog inputs to the constant impedance passive attenuator. It is optimized to drive the 75 Ohms differential impedance necessary. This buffer is only used for the analog inputs. So either the DACs flow through the attenuator network or the buffer output flows through the attenuator network.
Both units can completely clip the input stage of any audio amplifier I am aware of, so adding an analog gain stage to the DACs would be unnecessary and counterproductive. I believe both the Palisade and Cascade preamp function to be the best possible, unless you need to tailor the sound for your taste, for which there are nearly unlimited options available. If you need analog inputs then the Cascade is the clear choice.
On both DACs the output impedance is constant, 150 Ohms differential (essentially equivalent to 75 ohms single ended) for the Palisade, and 75 Ohms differential (essentially equivalent to 37.5 ohms single ended) for the Cascade. They are both perfectly happy to drive our S202 and 500 series amplifiers input impedances of 75 Ohms, so a 600 Ohm to 1Meg ohm input impedance of some other companies amplifiers is childās play for them.
Do note that to support single ended preamps or amplifiers (including amplifiers with fake balanced inputs, which are shockingly common) you will need our Balanced to single ended converters for both the Palisade or Cascade.
One tip I recommend if you are using an external preamp with either unit is to try a few volume levels (say a setting of 90 to 100 on the DAC) to determine if your preamp has input level dependent performance. Many preamps will not, but some will and will improve with less DAC output, especially if their input amplifier is clipping. If you hear no difference, then set the preamp off mode on the DAC so that the attenuator network is unused. If you hear an improvement at a setting of say 94 on the DAC (6db of attenuation) then set the DACs startup volume to 94 instead.
The Premier DAC has only a couple bulk analog volume steps and all the finer 1db steps were done digitally (with an extremely low loss digital algorithm that is much better than standard software volume).
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Thanks for the exquisite response. I currently do use my Premier with Volume Off in order to use a fully balanced pre amp.
@Jonathan_Gullman What is the Palisadeās maximum balanced output voltage?
I have learned that my Block Audio Line Stage has a maximum input voltage of 10 Vrms for RCA and 20 Vrms for the balanced inputs.
This value can be so high because the volume control is located before the input stage.
I did the listening tests that you suggested and heard no difference with the Palisade at different Volumes or set to PreAmp Off.
There seems to be plenty of headroom with my linestage assuming the max output voltage of the Palisade is <10 vrms balanced.
Thanks for sharing the results of your test. Itās clear to me that the only benefit for a preamp is if one is looking to alter the signal or in your case to add an analog input. I ran a similar test when I owned the MSB Reference with and without my VAC preamp. I sold my VAC.
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If you hear a difference between the output of the Palisade or Cascade with and without your preamp itās because your preamp is editorializing the signal in same way. Full stop.
Thatās not to say that it canāt be very pleasing but itās altered nonetheless. If you like it roll with it.
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The output voltage of the Palisade or Cascade is 3.32Vrms so itās not even close to the input limit of the preamp. Going to 20Vrms is crazy as almost all amps clip under 3Vrms.
Thank you! I have lots of headroom then.
I do my best to speed up the processā¦. Maybe somewhere in the first weeks of Novemberā¦
Thanks for the update Frank, but No rush. I know due to the Sentinel production thereās a capacity to build 3 Palisades a month (with the current amount of cnc machines). If you could get just two we could use mine for a while for a demo at AX. Or Iāll just wait a little longer. Let Gerard be no.1 
(PS I had a great day with Jeffrey)
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Hi Eric,
Itāll be fine, thanks. The MSB-items should be in Antwerp today. Itās up to Frank now.
Gr. Gerard
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Ah, okay. Gonna be alright then
@Gerardā¦. Unfortunately Fedex is letting us downā¦ it will be next week
Thanks Frank. Martijn informed me. According the FedEx message the items are landed in Liege. I assume it will be somewhere next week.
Hope to have mine soon in Istanbul 
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