MSB vs dCS Bartok

@4425  
https://www.tonepublications.com/review/the-dcs-bartok-dac/

Compares the various DCS units

I have by luck engaged with a new dealer who can source Merging Audio products - Merging+Player+Power. Which is essentially a 2 box DAC/Streamer/preamp with an outboard power supply. 
Anyone have any knowledge about Merging Audio ?

@mikelavigne

the MSB Premier, as far as i know, cannot do streaming by itself. but i do believe it can be spec’d with a high quality volume control. you will need a CPU of some sort as a Roon end point.

What do you mean here? The Premier takes the same digital input modules as the Reference, Select and even the entry level Discrete. Including the latest Ethernet Renderer V2. I have a Premier and I have the Ethernet Renderer in it and it works great with Roon.

@rhmmmm

What do you mean here? The Premier takes the same digital input modules as the Reference, Select and even the entry level Discrete. Including the latest Ethernet Renderer V2. I have a Premier and I have the Ethernet Renderer in it and it works great with Roon.

you need a Roon core + Roon end point.

an MSB dac cannot work as a Roon core to my knowledge. the Core is where the music is managed. typically you would have a (1) laptop, (2) dedicated server, or (3) a NAS with it’s CPU used as the core.

i used my MSB Select II with the Renderer v2 as the Roon end point, but still used a dedicated server for the Roon core.

if you somehow used only your MSB Premier as the Roon Core + End point then where were your files, and what did your remote communicate with to change music selections? those functions are related to the Roon Core.

I see what you mean now. I was confused because in your reply it seemed as though you were making it a "con" that the MSB can’t do streaming by itself, yet left out any references to streaming on the dCS (which has the same situation as the MSB). It sounded like you were knocking the Premier, which was even more confusing because you own a Select which has the same streaming module.

To clear some commonly misused terms up, folks usually refer to endpoints as a "streamer" where a Roon core or core+NAS would be the "server"...so in this case, the Ethernet Renderer is a "streamer." Search "audio streamer" on Google.

Moreover, you don’t have to use the MSB Ethernet Renderer module with Roon at all, you can also use it with any DLNA compatible "controller," including apps such as mconnect on iOS devices. There is no "server" required in this model if you don’t need to stream files locally, just the streaming endpoint and a controller, and it is quite possible to stream Tidal and Qobuz directly to any Ethernet Renderer V2-equipped MSB DAC with a DLNA controller straight from an Internet connection (no computer/server/HDD/NAS required).

The same also applies to dCS.

re:volume control - There is also no additional option for a high quality volume control other than the standard volume control that comes with all Premier and Discrete models. The optional pre-amp module with "constant impedance passive volume control technology" is only available for the Select and Reference DACs. The Discrete and Premier include "standard volume control."

To the OP: the Premier has been a great unit for me - I have the Femto93 clock and dual discrete power supplies. I’ve been so impressed and happy with the unit and support/communication from MSB that I’m entertaining an upgrade to the Reference. I highly recommend MSB.