First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

@dbb thanks for your feedback. It looks like the 006 is revealing weakness in rest of your system. This is not the fault of the DAC and more to do with the system matching. Sometimes even a slight extra resolution can throw an offball curve. You might want to take a look at the source you are using and experiment with it. Almost all resolving DACs needs a better source to get the best out of it and if you are steaming than optimizing the network is paramount.

Here is my conclusion on the 006. It most of all provides outstanding dynamics which goes a long way to putting energy and life into the music as if you were hearing a live performance. As I said earlier, this in itself creates the feel of more resolution, especially in orchestral transients and chamber music. I heard beautiful details in familiar recordings that I never noticed before. This sounds like an audiophile cliche but it is not meant in the usual way as if your hearing just got better.and you heard more. You hear more because this DAC punches hard when taut crisp transients are in the music like in real life. If the music has punch you will feel it. It is the most live sounding DAC I have heard. This makes it, in my opinion, better than the 005. It is not harsh per se, but it could be challenging when it comes to system matching. It was for me. Some recordings sounded better than ever, and a few became edgy.

Over the years I have balanced the sound of my system by choosing a smooth and slightly warm amp, a McIntosh Mc402, with a detailed, clear neutral and dynamic preamp, a Hegel P30, and neutral and highly resolving speakers with metal drivers, the Kef Referance 1s. I also use three subwoofers. The 006 made me chase perfection by causing me to try another preamp, a Coincident Statement Line Stage. Ninty percent of my recordings sound better than ever. Ten percent don’t. Neither preamp quite gets me where I want to be, yet a look at the potential of the 006 makes me wan to keep trying. How ya goin’ to keep’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree.

@debjit_g  He recommended a Chinese brand CMAudio reference silver cable. Price in USD would be $710. It doesn't seem to be readily available in the US market.

@dbb thanks for the update. keep them coming. Btw, did Jinbo suggest which silver power cord he prefers in Musetec ?

@sns ​@debjit_g I have been away for about 10 days visiting family so I have not had a chance to listen or come to a final conclusion yet. I’ll be home tomorrow. My listening will continue.

Before I left I came to two conclusions. The first was that the 006 is spectacularlly good in the ways I have described and clearly a step closer to the sound of live music.

The second was that my system had been disrupted in a negative way. I was disappointed that after 400 plus hours I was sometimes not satisfied with certain high frequency sounds. Later at night say, after 8:00 p.m., the problem was minimal or gone. In the daytime certain orchestral crescendoes involving strings and percussion, and sometimes solo violin sounded harsh and congested, but not exactly bright. This mostly went away in the evening. I presumed the 006 was more sensitive to noise on my power line which quieted down at night. No such noticable issue with the 005. I do use a Niagra 1200 filter and surge supressor. When I removed my Hegel P30 from the system the harshness smoothed out but dynamics were gone as I would expect. I then did some research and discovered a good deal on a Coincident Statement Line Stage Mk II, (highly recommended by sns) with remote volume control, which I ordered. I asked to have the shipping delayed until this week because I was not home.

I also asked Jinbo at Musetec, who I believe is the main designer and a principle owner, about my experience. He suggested using a silver power cord on the 006. I have a pair of old HGA Silver Lace interconnect 99.9 pure silver cables which I will convert to a power cord and try it out.

I would not say the sound of the 006 overall is harsh, bright, or unmusical. In fact when it is sounding good, I would give it an A+ on musicality.  It just seems that it has given my system some sporadic indigestion. I have not yet found the medicine to cure it. If the change in preamp and power cord do not fix the issue, I will re-evaluate. My goal was not to rebuild my entire system around the 006. On the other hand changing my components to maximize the potential of the 006 could be the best route to an end game system. I will then stop posting and just listen to music. To be continued. . .

They only state they're custom femto clocks, may be these https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806061648558.html?src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=708-803-3821&isdl=y&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&aff_platform=google&aff_short_key=UneMJZVf&gclsrc=aw.ds&albagn=888888&ds_e_adid=&ds_e_matchtype=&ds_e_device=c&ds_e_network=x&ds_e_product_group_id=&ds_e_product_id=en3256806061648558&ds_e_product_merchant_id=5308129997&ds_e_product_country=US&ds_e_product_language=en&ds_e_product_channel=online&ds_e_product_store_id=&ds_url_v=2&albcp=19158444193&albag=&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwi5q3BhCiARIsAJCfuZmUbeVwOxq36WqcJ9WJ7izUxgQXcOBTLSmyLffKz1FsSsnGc9lB6CgaArhdEALw_wcB&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

I have looked and can’t find if the clocks in the DAC are oven controlled?

Don’t think so. They are excellent femto clocks though. oven control doesn’t necessarily relate to better sound. they are better for keeping the jitter low over longer duration of time which is not a necessity for audio performance. what matters more is the phase noise @10hz for audio.

I have looked and can't find if the clocks in the DAC are oven controlled?

@dbb Yes, any further changes with 006? Is the Statement you're getting the non-remote, dual TVC version? The TVC's in Mkii on are substantial upgrade over MkI versions, I know this from direct experience. Statement pre, regardless of tube used (exception of Linlai mesh plate, I had midrange glare) is not tonally colored. You mentioned using silver pc,  assume for use with Statement. If your system doesn't have some inherent brightness elsewhere, silver pc should be good to go. In a tonally balanced system, silver should increase refinement in highs, not add to highs. Also, should use balanced/XLR's out of 006, take advantage of Statement's true balanced topology.

@wig Expect as much.

@debjit_g Working towards 50 hours on 006, won't even bother to insert into main system until at least 100 hours. IME with many of the boutique parts in 006 it can take up to 400 hours to reach static/stable state.

I'll be trading burn in time with listening time between Harmony and 006. 006 will go in late next week with expected 100-200 hours. Someone mentioned heat in regard to reliability of Musetec, 004 ran pretty hot, 006 runs warm at left top, wouldn't call it hot, still I'd give it room to breathe.

@dbb what’s your final take on the 006 ? I have been using the 005 for sometime now and wanted to upgrade to 006. I read the 006 has more resolution than 005 which is fine but I worry of tipping the scale to the brighter side. Being a ds dac, the 005 still has a lot of musicality. How do you grade the musical aspect of 006 as compared to 005 ?

@sns keep the reports coming after you burn in the dac significantly, at least 300 hrs...the Mundrof Mlytic and Duelund (maybe ? or Jupiter ?) in 006 takes a long long time to burn-in.

You hear a noticeable difference in depth, clarity, low level detail and layering at the 225 hour mark as more time is accumulated on the Laiv...

Wig

@sns It sounds like the Laiv is on it’s way to becoming at least as good as the 005, but with a different personality. It was a nice analysis.

I look forward to your breaking in the 006 and reporting back. I will soon be using a silver power cable and the Coincident Statement Line Stage. I’m hoping that will take it to where I want it.

Posted my initial impressions of Laiv on Laiv thread. This was in comparison to 005, received 006 on exact same day Laiv came in! 006 burning in on my burn in system as we speak, even on this duh system I thought I could hear something special with the 006. The Laiv quite good, surprisingly good.

@sns I appreciate your knowledge and insights. My experience now with the 006 confirms what you are saying on exposing the rest of the system. My Hegel P30 preamp may be too bright for the 006.  I will be experimenting with power cords too. It might have been just luck, but the 005 was just drop in. No system changes needed.

I'm unaware of any repair needed to a Musetec dac, at least to 005, may have seen issues with 004, but then that was major platform for diy mods and some bricked them.

@dbb I recall your comparison to Holo. One thing that's critical to evaluating R2R dacs that many don't account for is clocking. R2R resistor arrays extremely sensitive to timing errors. USB generally not going to be optimal input, I2S the way to go as clock runs on separate leg. And then in order to reach max potential clock clocking should generally be done in streamer or renderer. The Harmony is the hot dac of the moment (reason I chose it) and I've seen reviews from both complete novices and seasoned reviewers, I've yet to see what I'd consider to be optimal setup in these reviews. I'll eventually purchase either Musician Phoenix or Denafrips Gaia DDC, run this with Audioquest Diamond HDMI (level playing field with my usb cable of choice) and set Harmony to lock to clock in these high end converters. Harmony has been both dismissed and claimed to be state of art or near state of art by various reviewers. Based on these reviews can't say if this all hype or ignorance, I'll try to place it in context by optimizing the entire setup. Going in I don't expect a $2700 R2R dac to be state of art or even near state of art. the amount of technology in this dac is nice value, not state of art.

Going into comparison, I admit bias for Sabre chip dacs, I fully expect even 005 to exceed Harmony in resolving/transparency, 006 even higher expectation. My take on R2R going in is nice sense of musicality, but boring in long run, perhaps even short run. R2R dacs nice forgiving sources that hide warts, Sabre dacs expose warts elsewhere in system, high resolving sources require system fine tuning. This why some claim Sabre chip dacs not musical.

@melm

I also happen to own a Suburu so your example is very apt.

I bought my Jay’s transport direct from Alvin Chee in Singapore. Repair work is provided by TEK Audio Specialties in Buda Texas. In fact, my remote needed repair and Todd at TEK fixed for me. I was grateful I didn’t have to ship it to Singapore but no doubt there are those for whom this is not a concern. Each to his/her own. 

@stuartk

My Subaru is made in Japan and can be repaired in the US. Subaru America is the importer and I bought from a Subaru deler.  That is how most foreign products work when purchased in the US. Hegel is like that, but But Musetec products are not.

The difference between Musetec and Hegel is that Hegel has an American company that does its distribution here. It is Hegel America Inc, in Fairfield Iowa. It’s a wholesaler. It imports the goods. It sells to dozens of dealers all over the country. Its American distributer/wholesaler and its dealers each tack on a profit to the price of the component. So like my Subaru, one can expect repairs to be made domestically. That’s what you’re paying for.

But when you buy a Musetec you are the importer of the goods directly from China either from the factory or from an "order-taker" like Schenzhen (which takes a relatively small mark-up). There is no profit increase as taken by American distributers and American dealers. Normally people, like those participating here, are willing to do that when they sense that they are getting a great deal more value for their money than by going the usual distributer-dealer profits mark-up route.

As ever, your money your choice.

I don’t know enough about Jay’s transport and how they do business and there is too little info on the ’net right now to figure it out.

@melm 

Thank you for your comments

Both my Hegel H390 and Jay's transport are made in China and both can be repaired here in CA. 

For instance you can often hear an ambient noise floor in a hall before the music even starts. That sound is truly natural and is my preference.

In its early days as a premier producer of great LPs, Reference Recordings used to record that ambience and fill the space between the tracks with it.  So you hear no dead silence there.

@sns

My personal take on a bottom line difference between the sound of the r2r approach, as implemented in the Holo May, and the Sabre dac chip, as implemented in the 005, was that neither was inherently superior. But my preference was the Sabre dac aproach which prioritizes resolution.

The Holo May sounded to me like it took a picture of reality and then added some embellishment as an artist might use charcoal to add depth to a sketch or adjust the light to make the scene softer or more appealing. The background blackness in the May was appealing but, to me, not particularly realistic. In contrast the 005 delivered, in my opinion ,something closer to true resolution based on how the music would most likely sound in real life. For instance you can often hear an ambient noise floor in a hall before the music even starts. That sound is truly natural and is my preference.

I think Sandu Vitalie of Soundnews agrees on the paramount importance of resolution. He calls it “Biggity Big deal” in his comparison of the Gustard with the Harmony.

He said this in his comparison of the Gustard X30 to the Harmony DAC on his web page review: I can’t differentiate it [Gustard X30] from my $18.000 Wavedream Signature or $14.000 Chord DAVE in terms of how much nuance there is. Is it as resolving, clean, and transparent? Yes! And this is a Biggity Big deal. In this regard, X30 pulls ahead and outperforms both the X26 PRO and the Harmony DAC and as much as I like the LAiV for its particular skill set, it’s in the last place when it comes to resolution.

I used to have 2 Musetec 005’s but sold both because it was not great with my tube RAAL VM-1a headphone amp. I loved it on my 2-channel SS gear. This new 006 is something I want to hear.

If someone has a Schitt Yggi+ OG (now discontinued) or the warmer Less Is More DAC I would be interested on how it compares to the 006. The 2 Yggi’s are the 2 best DACs I had used on my gear. The OG being my top DAC, and the LIM sonically similar to the Musetec 005.

@westborn 

The ES9039pro (and the Gustard uses 4) is designed to run at lower power consumption than previous generations of ESS DAC chips.  So overheating of the chip not likely.  Something else on the Gistard boards must be running hot and may as a result have a shortened life.  If it is indeed the DAC chips, that might mean an engineering problem at Gustard.  One shouldn't have to run any ESS chip "hard."  So one should not extrapolate from the Gustard to the Musetec.

We have not heard from dbb that the 006 runs hot.  The 005 certainly does not.  Early run 004s ran hot, but that was in the discrete analog section and corrected very quickly.

Interesting that the Gustards are moving well up in price approaching that of acknowledged really fine sounding DACs.

Harmony already shipping, 006 still waiting. In the meantime Harmony vs. 005 will be interesting. Mostly I just want to compare timbre between an r2r and sabre dac, so many claims of how r2r is more 'natural' sounding than sabre chip dacs.

Another sabre chip dac not in my plans, T&A Dac200 would be next in line after 005,006, Harmony comparison. Burr Brown chips for PCM, 1bit for DSD, the 1 bit converter supposedly better.

I haven’t heard it, but someone on another forum mentioned that the Gustard X30 ran very warm, maybe even hot. Sounded like Gustard had to run the new ES9039 Pro DACs pretty hard to get the desired performance in this particular application. A bit of a red flag for me that doused any further interest.

@sns You have ordered both I assume.  Can't wait to read your conclusions. It would be interesting to throw the new Gustard x30 into the mix too.

In the interest of comparison I purchased LAIV Harmony dac. Many positive reviews of this dac and I'm interested in hearing a R2R dac vs. Sabre chip 006.

@stuartk

I thought I’d chime in here as I have followed Chinese direct or semi-direct goods for a long time. I did once send a board back to Musetec for updating. I have a very high regard for Musetec née LKS, its products and how it does business so you can keep this bias in mind.

First, it has to be said that, having followed its digital products closely from the 004 through the 005 and now with the 006 I have yet to hear of anyone having a problem that needs a repair. Musetec’s quality control seems to have been exemplary. So too the quality of its parts. The other factor mitigating any problem is that their DACs are very modular. That means that if there’s a problem, it can usually and easily be traced to a board (perhaps with the aid of an email from the factory.) An offending board can easily be lifted out (a few screws and an unplug) and sent to the factory for repair. That is how most of the direct Chinese suppliers work it even if they have a domestic presense of some sort. The domestic agent might hold your hand in the process if you purchased there. Sending the board to China and its return is no more a problem, and probably less, than sending a complete unit from one US coast to the other.

That being clear, I know that there are probably some folks who will want no part of opening up a component case and removing a board. They will either have to depend upon the very good record of quality control, the very high quality of compnents within and/or possibly the help of a more technically minded friend.

Too my mind the benefits of the high value of direct buying from overseas are clearly worth the limited anxiety. Your money, your choice.

@lpretiring 

OK. Thanks. I was just curious. Personally, I'd never buy anything that could not be serviced in this country. 

@stuartk 

Not sure. I'm only guessing they'd be able to assist with servicing.

Definitely worth a quick call if a purchase is a strong consideration.

@lpretiring 

And they service the units???

The U.S. Musetec dealer is Midwest Audio in Mishawaka Indiana.

@stuartk I don't know.  I think he has a US representative in Indiana. 

@dbb 

Does Musetec have a US repair facility?

@sns Send an email to bleerockat126dotcom. He may have a better price.

@dbb How did you order direct from Musetec, via exchange of emails?  I've never seen purchasing portal at their website.

I'm not happy with Shenzhen, misspoke the other day, actually ordered 9/27, have inquiry in to them for over two days, no response. I may cancel order and go direct through Musetec if I don't hear from them immediately.

@mitch2  Which of these DAC's have you heard?  I noticed you are doing a comparison in another thread with the Aero how is that coming along?  Is the Aero able to compete with the other DAC's?

@v-fi  I feel I am still offering my initial impressions, not final conclusions. I had another episode of software instability tonight. Did some reloading of streamer settings and rebooting then all was well. I assume a driver update will take care of this. I'm also getting some high frequency excess on a familiar recording that has caused me to question my preamp. My instinct tells me with the right adjustments in my system this dac will be phenomenonal. I'm not there yet. I need more time.

@sns  Thanks for the tips on tubes.I ordered direct from Musetec.  It took about 4 days to ship.

Thanks for the write up, this thing looks interesting. I tried a few of the older ones (2nd and 4th gen if I recall correctly) and they were promising. But didn't seem fully baked quite yet. The 6 seems like it might be more fully realized. 

@dbb Cool! Love my Statement, even in complete stock form a great pre. You have to use Psvane WE101D's in order to extract maximum resolution, transparency, these best 101 tube out there, and I've tried many. The Linlai  Elite solid plate is also nice, Psvane more spacious, airy than Linlai. Lesser or standard 101D will be ok, none are grating or have any tonal anomalies, just less resolving,transparent.  Also, go with XLR out on 006, this is balanced pre so take advantage of that

Still waiting for shipping notification for 006 ordered from Shentzen last Thursday, thinking about inquiring as to status of order. Seem to recall when ordered 005 through Apos having to make inquiry, shipping notification received soon thereafter. How long did you have to wait for shipping on 006?

@sns I discovered the slight excess in the highs I was hearing on the 006 went away when I connected the 006 directly to the power amp. Of course the great dynamics then dissappeared. Best remedy then seems to be a different pre. I plan to experiment with preamps. I am getting a used Coincident Statement  Mk II. I'll report back.

I do not think ASR is measuring everything needed to determine if something is going to sound good or not. Based on my experience of buying and comparing highly rated ASR gear with badly rated ASR gear (such as the 005), the testing parameters they use seem to be highly suspect.

Anyways, I ignore ASR now.

@melm I agree the subjective is far more important to me than the objectivity of some measurements when it comes to audio equipment, especially dacs. I rereading ASR 005 thread it just reinforced how objectivists don't trust their senses. I'm curious to know if there is any area or thought processes in which these objectivists trust their senses?

The two major areas in which 005 bench performance suffered in respect to their reference were distortion and jitter, the distortion measurements not really a concern as these figures relatively low in comparison to other components in our systems. Jitter more of a concern, jitter has long been known to affect sound quality.

I'd suggest most of the unique sound qualities of 005 come from the parts chosen, ojectivists simply can't fathom film caps that measure the same could have unique sound qualities. This is where they completely miss the boat on the possibility dacs that measure the same or close may have different sound qualities.

So, giving measurements some credibility, I'd certainly like to see lower jitter measurements from 006, usb input looks to be improved. Lower distortion figures if indicative of greater resolving capabilities would be nice.

As things stand I will continue to base my opinion of 006 solely on sound quality, without a set of measurements I have no other choice. ASR won't admit their measurement protocols are without fault or fail to measure the unique sound preferences of individuals. They assume we are merely listening instruments, the ability to hear differences between components that measure the same is held in contempt, written off as faulty sensory perception colored by bias.

I do believe ASR makes valid point when measured specs didn't match published specs, something Musetec didn't directly address. Publishing optimistic measured specs alludes to Musetec being concerned about specs, not meeting those specs is misleading at best. Publish honest specs and clearly state intent of designing to preferred sound qualities vs specs, this would be more credible on Musetec's part. As things stand I could understand a subjectivist reticence to purchase any Musetec product after reading ASR thread. Honesty in published specs should be important to everyone.

@sns

It was said many years ago about audio that if your measuremens don’t correlate with what you hear, you’re measureing the wrong things. As far as I understand ASR has never presented any studies that correlate their measurements with sound quality. Given their overall philosphy, that would probably be impossible as it would call for the addition of what they would no doubt call "subjectivity" to their arsenal.*

As for any proposed correlation between certain "industry standard" meaurements and sound quality, I can think of no better test of that proposition than what I will now propose as the "sns" test. In early 2021 and for some time thereafter you wrote of the audio quality of the 005. And IIUC you have it connected to an audio system of considerable sophistication. All of this was without benefit of the less than glowing ASR review. QED. There is no such correlation and/or the correlation is not particularly strong. In other words, if good sound is what we’re looking for, there is no particular reason to consult ASR.

Better, perhaps to consult sns. Or a well considered review of dbb. Or read of a good many other users who write of their systems, their experiences with other DACs and their musical tastes. Or look at the track record of the company which proposes a new DAC.

I interpret the advertising copy on the Musetec site that you quote to be almost the same as the communication to me at the time of the ASR 005 review. That is to say, the Musetec designer is a music lover and he designs by listening and that is that.

You can hope that the 006 will measure better than the 005, but if dbb is correct, what difference would that make? I, for one, hope that the designer continues to do exactly what he has been doing--turning out terrific components at prices well below that of competitive sounding units.

*Just for the record, in the day, HP denied that the reviews as then done in TAS were subjective.

I'm curious about how this dac would measure vs. 005, certain Musetec aware of ASR thread. Would they care about measurements with this dac knowing some make purchases solely on specs, others require both high measured performance and sound quality. Is it possible 005 would have even higher sound quality with better bench performance?

The way I read Musetec's take on 006 measurements is when their speaking to the reasons for choosing certain parts, specifically they mention the Duelund caps. So yes, the Duelund caps will measure essentially exact to any other cap, this would not affect bench performance. Point is I don't see how changing out parts that all measure the same would affect bench measurements. Circuit design has far more to do with measured performance than the parts used, the boutique parts used in 005 should not have impinged it's bench performance.

I think we can all assess sound quality as the most important criteria by which to judge equipment, good bench performance is generally consistent with proper design. I do hope the 006 measures better than 005, I'd expect it does with the information and visuals provided. I suspect some of the changes made from the 005 were made with measured performance in mind, but then they leave things somewhat in air by repeating they tune by ear, not by performance.

@dbb 

One can almost see Bernstein dancing his way through the second movement tango.  The 1964 Columbia recording is remarkable.  My go-to version, since its release, has been the one by Kirill Petrenko with his former orchestra.  

@yakbob 

You don't have to wait for the ASR review.  I'll give you the result right now.  The latest DAC reviewed by ASR is a $99 Topping.  It scores very high at ASR because it is designed to do exactly that.  And of course, as a consequence, it gets ASR's highest purchase recommendation.  You can be sure that ASR's Topping measurements will outscore both the 005 and the 006 DACs each of which will score about the same as the other and the 006 will not be recommended by ASR.  The ASR reviewer does not report ever listening to the Topping, nor the 005 for that matter.  And it would make no difference anyway as he does not hear very well.

As I wrote elewhere: The designer of the 005 and 006 has written that he designs by ear and not by measurement.  He says designing for measurement is relatively easy for a professional engineer.  At various stages he says he made changes to the 005 that could improve measurements but reversed them if the sound quality, as he heard it, was not as good.  If that makes people very uncomfortable, they should probably look elsewhere for a DAC.  Over the course of this audio hobby, and some of us have been into it for a long time, that approach to design used to be lauded.  The designer has given an example in the lack of any feedback in his analog stage.  A lack of feedback is often advertised, and is generally understood to yield better sound quality but poorer measurements.  Op amp chips with feedback are thought to yield a kind of clean but sterile sound, well recognized in all too many DACs on the market.   In other areas of audio, decisions are often made in favor of devices with better sound and poorer measurements than alternatives.  That would include tubes and analog sound generally.

I must modify my conclusion on tonal balance. I changed streamers to the ifi Zen Streamer. The lower mid- range and upper bass are back to being warm and rich. The highs are still more forward than the 005. It seems, as stated by @sns that the dac will clearly reveal the sound of each component in your system. My conclusions must be seen subject the sound of my components (and yours if you buy it).

@yakbob 

I feel ASR's approach is not useful.

From the Musetec website on the 006:

The design of all functions of the DA006 only takes up one-fifth of the entire design period, or even less. A lot of time is spent on the selection of components and the design of the circuit form. The criterion for judging yes or no is based on the actual listening experience, and the test data of the instrument is only used as a reference. An easily verifiable fact is that when we use different capacitors or resistors with the same paper parameters in the circuit and perform comparison tests through an audio analyzer, we cannot see the difference in test results due to the change of these parts, but the change in the listening experience is huge. Therefore, we always believe that some of the data that can be analyzed by the existing audio analyzers can only quantify certain characteristics of the sound signal to a small extent, and the human listening experience is very complex. The limited data that the instrument pays attention to cannot determine the human listening experience. We must spend a lot of time carefully selecting parts. This is also the reason why it takes us a lot of time to make this DAC.

@melm 

Good to hear from you. I expected that improvements in my 005 dac would not be a path to improving my system since I perceived the 005 as the strongest link in the chain. When the 006 became available I couldn’t resist buying it. I am also curious about Musetec's preamp.

I like the Gilbert Mahler 7 because I was there, and it was a very good performance If you're new to the Mahler 7th, Bernstein's first performance, in the 60s I think, is considered by some to be one of the very best musically and sonically. I think the one by Horenstein is the best musically but is poor sonically. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the review! It certainly looks like a step up in design and engineering from the 005. I’ll be curious to see if the ASR guys test the new unit in comparison to the older one.