Meitner MA3

If it came dowm to the MA3, Aurender A1000 or A15 do you have an opinion as for which one to lean towards?

I had the MA3 for several months; it’s an excellent DAC and a serious value especially at the price offered to you. Used with RJ-45 cable to network switch and I was off to the races. Roon recognized immediately and no buggy software issues;  To beat this DAC you are in the $10K plus range. 
 

@singere -- I won’t enter a "payment method" to respond to DM’s per AG’s silly rules. In my case, I use the Zenith MKIII as a Roon Core and the streamer in the MA3. Ethernet into the Zenith and Ethernet out from the Zenith to the MA3. Eliminating the USB connection and using only RJ45 significantly improved the SQ I experience and allowed me to ditch the ER, AD Clock, AD LPS and USB filter (the actual names of these tweaks is on my system page). I enjoy the sound more without those tweaks, mostly because the MA3 has within it, the Meitner NS1 streamer, better internal jitter suppression and clock. than the external tweaks I was using. So, with the MA3, depending on your setup, you do not need a separate streamer and to better the NS1, IMHO, you would need to purchase a fairly high-end unit over 10k.

@singere, 

Just so you know, Meitner is currently running an upgrade program for existing MA3 owners so if go for the demo unit make sure you have all the paperwork. The upgrade is an additional $3,500 which includes big overhauls to the both the input and analog stages amongst other changes.

I moved to the MA3 from a PS Audio DirectStream MkI because as others have stated the MA3 finds the right balance between detail and musicality. Ted at PSA does great work but the direction he was taking sonically with each FPGA upgrade was just not my cup of tea. Having said that the MKII is on sale at the moment for about $5,600 USD.

Good luck.

Ayang90, do you know if the upgrade is signifcantly better? Did you or are you upgrading?