Anyone upgrade to the Merason Dac1 mkii?


I was wondering if any Merason Dac1 owners have upgraded to the Mkii version? 
 

If so, I’d love to hear your impressions. How would you describe the audible differences? Would you recommend doing it? Was it an improvement or simply “different?” 

128x128bluethinker

I worked with Choice Audio to upgrade the Merason Dac1 from Mki to the new Mkii version.

Good move! I will look forward to your impressions once it has had some time to settle in to your system. I was not in the market yet, but ran into a deal on a Reuss a while back and couldn’t pass it up. It is an awesome DAC. I was able to compare it to a DAC1 in my system and felt the Reuss was more refined. I am guessing the Mk2 is a very significant upgrade. 

@choiceaudio - Within moments, I could tell the upgrade to the MKii version was well worth it. If someone has the funds, I'd strongly recommend pursuing the upgrade. Some day, if things go to plan, I'll hopefully be able to come and visit your showroom and demo the AudioNet amps. 

@zlone - I'll share my impressions in a few weeks, for sure. It might feel like hyperbole, but it almost feels like an entirely new audio component. Everything across the board goes up a notch. 

What are the RCA outputs like for Merason dacs? The DAC1 and Reuss has fully discrete balanced output, with 4 stages. But sometimes for the SE output a manufacturer will treat SE as an afterthought, and use cheap summing op-amps for the SE output.

So what the deal with Merason? Do they do this? Maybe @choiceaudio can chime in here.

@agisthos  Just noticed your post and sent your questions into the manufacturer. 

 Here is there response:  "no summing via opamp or other means.  The RCA outputs correspond to the hot conductor of the balanced signal"

Hope that helps!  

Cheers,

Choice Audio

@wig hi, did you compare the Merason DAC1 mk2 with other dacs in the meanwhile? thanks