I am over the moon with my new Cascade DAC. From the first moment I turned it on, it has blown me away.
I have some audiophile friends who are very familiar with my pre-Cascade system. When I told them I was upgrading to the Cascade DAC they were dubious and didn’t think it would much of a sonic upgrade.
I had them over the day the Cascade arrived and they, too, were blown away. They said it raised my system so many levels, it was a brand-new system.
MBS Cascade DAC + McIntosh MC901 Amps + Sonos farber Amati Speakers + Audioquest Niagara power conditioners + 3 home run 20 amp circuits + Nucleus Titan+ BMI cabinet
Clearaudio Innovation turntable + McIntosh MP1100
phono preamp + MSB Cascade as preamp + Critical Mass rack
Center speaker is for a shared surround system, it’s not used for stereo system.
I had a McIntosh MCD12000. It had quad balanced channels and had one ESS DAC chip per channel. It was very good which is why my friends were skeptical about the upgrade. But they agree with me now that music played on my system is way beyond anything else they have heard or that they could even imagine hearing.
Congratulations on the Cascade @Dan ! And welcome to the forum, thanks for sharing.
You are one of the first and few to have access to it, glad to hear the feedback. It has been really been a pleasure seeing everyone’s systems put together like this. Those Amati speakers are stunning.
Hi Dan, you have a very beautiful setup! I used to own the Amati Homage and Stradivari Homage before - their wood finishings are second to none.
May we know how big is your listening room?
Thanks
@Easyglider, one of the reasons we bought this house was because it had an open floor plan. In the case the stereo system that’s worked out really well.
This coming Saturday is installation day. The speakers are here… in humungous crates and the M500s arrive sometime this week. The crew from my dealer (Suncoast, here in Florida) is coming out to setup and dial things in. I’m kinda’ excited about it.
Here is my upgraded system; Roon Titan->MSB Cascade->MSB M500->Magico M6
I’ve only been listening to a short time, but my system has been improved in every way.
I have some audiophile friends, and we go back and forth to each other’s house to listen to and talk about equipment. Even though they felt my previous system was superb, they feel the new one has jumped many levels above it.
Detail is over the top. The vocals have so much presence it sometime makes you do a double take.
Classical, orchestral music is spread out, with each instrument in its place. It is much better than my previous system which was itself was very good.
The dynamics are great, piano notes and drum hits are alive. Perhaps the only downside is that the very slightest imperfection in vinyl makes a tick in the speakers, but I can live with that
Magico recommends letting the speakers break in for a while, so it is difficult to imagine where they will end up.
I could gush about it further, but for now, with just a little listening, it has been an outstanding upgrade.
Congrats @Dan ! Truly a top tier collection of gear. We had the M6 in our listening room for many years, but never got to listen to them with the Cascade. I am sure it is an experience to behold!
