Has the ASR review/hatchet job on the Musetec MH-DA005 Changed Anyone's Mind?


A little over a year ago, after seeing so many glowing reviews of the 005 on this and other fora, I bought the DAC and thought it made a great improvement over my Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ (which I now use on my #2 system). Recently, I came across the ASR review, which concludes that the 005 is a piece of crap. I know that ASR has a dubious (at best) reputation in this forum, but I wonder if its review has caused anyone to have second thoughts about the Musetec. I confess I was initially concerned by questions like, why hasn't Musetec responded to the horrible ASR review, if it is inaccurate? But, then, every time I listen to my system with the 005 DAC in it, it sounds glorious. Obviously, the guidance, "trust what your hear" is important, but I'm not sure I'd be as trustful of my ears if the negative technical review came from, say, John Atkinson, who has far more professional legitimacy in measuring equipment. I confess I have one more than one occasion refrained from buying a certain item because of his test results. (Where I live, it is not feasible to listen to amps in stores before buying, and one quickly grows weary of buying and returning expensive equipment on line, especially equipment that does not have stellar subjective and objective accolades).  

audio-satisficer

@yakbob

Unless you're playing in MSB / dCS territory, resale value on most brands of DACs is a losing proposition.

With all due respect this is nonsense. The DACs you mention are only worth buying ex-demo or used because they shed huge re-sale losses.

Max you would lose on a 005 would be about $800.00

I'd like to that everyone who has contributed to this thread, which I have found very helpful, among others Melm's very thoughtful comment from earlier today.  

@hilde45 - I have read just a very few of your posts here. And they impress me. They sound like a voice of reason on this thread. Thumbs up!

@fsonicsmith - I like your arguments. I even think there may be some unknown attributes in wildly admired audio components as of today. Characteristics that haven't yet been pinpointed and thus haven't been measured? And perhaps many people could hear those unidentified with today's gear and therefore not measured qualities. Maybe someday in the future, these characteristics will be identified, and equipment to measure them will be built.