How good is MSB Discrete Dac?

On Dec 6th, 2018 I had attended Launching event of YG Acoustics Hailey 1.2 speakers in Seoul, Korea.

MSB Select II Dac and Pre was connected to Viola Legacy Mono Amplifier to drive the speakers.

Nordost Valhalla cables were used.

The system gave wide and deep soundstage with tight and tuneful bass.

There is no doubt it was top notch system in every way with the total cost of component over 200K $.





At the end of show, we decided to do interesting comparison between MSB Select Dac II (85K$) and vinyl system using Kronus turntable.

Kronus turntable was fed to Octave phono amp and Viola Pre amp,

MSB Select was used as Pre and Dac.


I got surprised to find that MSB and Kronus gave very similar sound.

MSB Select provided slightly more dense sound with little bit more details.

Kronus gave slightly more relaxed sound.


If I had to choose one, I would take Kronus over MSB on this music since I like relaxed sound as I get older.


But it could change with different music.

Unfortunately we could test only one music.

Other people may have different opinion.



Despite this conclusion, MSB Select II gave one of the best sound from any DAC that I had ever heard.

But Select II with price tag of 100K$ is out of reach for most of people.



Base Model of MSB Discrete Dac is under 10k$.

It is much affordable.


Now the question is how good MSB Discrete Dac is.


If possible, I would like to audition MSB Discrete Dac at my home.

But I could not find any dealer around Seattle area.

The closest one is located on Vancouver, Canada.


I welcome input from who experienced MSB Discrete Dac.