I spent over 4 years with the Playback Design Dreams series and had experience with the Merlot before that. While I used to distribute MSB, I shifted to Playback Design because clients were experiencing superior sound quality at a more reasonable price point. This isn't a criticism of MSB, as they produce excellent DACs, but their pricing didn't align well with other options available in the market.
Ultimately, I switched from Playback Design DACs to Aries Cerat after a thorough 6-month comparison revealed that both our team and visiting clients favored the Aries Cerat over Playback Design.
I still consider Playback Design to offer some of the best solid-state DACs—easy to listen to, fatigue-free, smooth, and musical. In my opinion, they outperform DCS and MSB, which, despite commanding higher prices, sound more digitized.