@woots, A decision to purchase a DAC at this price range requires research, many conversations, auditions, and more auditions. I auditioned several DAC ‘s and decided, for me, I liked the sound of the MSB Premier ladder R2R DAC and the supporting implementation. Yes, I made mistakes during the way but learned valuable lessons. I wanted a USA company that supported their products with excellent customer support.
I own the MSB Premier DAC, Premier Powerbase and Femto 93 clock and like it very much. The addition of this DAC substantially improved my audio system sound quality. The Premier has four prime R2R DAC’s, 2 per side, a separate power supply and many other features. The Premier Powerbase offers two dual-link power connectors, supplying four isolated power supplies. “MSB brochure say they use no off-the-shelf DAC chips, but instead makes their own converters. Each of the four Prime DACs at the heart of the Premier is a fully balanced, discrete, ladder DAC. MSB’s ladder DACs use precision-reconfigurable networks of resistors and switches to precisely convert your digital files into music”.
The MSB DAC connects to my Aurender N20 server using the Femto 93 clock to control the data transfer. I use the Analysis Plus Digital Crystal cable for the word transfer, so my DAC controls the data transfer from my Aurender Music Server. This word transfer from the DAC to my Aurender improves the sound quality.
I also experimented with an USB and AES/EBU connections for 2 weeks. After lots of switching back and forth, I prefer the AES/EBU connection. This is the only option on my MSB DAC. MSB offers several other options that you need to review and discuss with your retailer.
The addition of the MSB Premier DAC substantially improved the sound quality of my audio system. To my ears, everything sounds truly outstanding. The music is clearer, less dark, better bass and sounds more like music. I hope this helps.