Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

@melm I owned the Sonnet and I wrote about it here. You responded. You were riled up about the Stereophile review, because conspiracy, etc.

Someone here prefers the Musetec to an outdated Holo Spring, and a guy who makes cables and listens with headphones preferred the Musetec to the Mola Mola Tambaqui, a DAC that requires thoughtful system matching. 

I'm happy to write about your Musetec vs. the various 10k DACs I've owned/home-auditioned. Send it to me, we'll split shipping costs, and I'll write about it here. I'd love to find a reasonably priced DAC that is as good as you say it is.

In this $3k price range, seems like folks are very happy with the Musetec, the Sonnet Morpheus (i2s) and the latest edition of the Holo Spring (which is v3 I believe). I’ve only heard the Sonnet. Based on listener impressions, seems like the Musetec is on the clean/resolute/detailed end, the Holo is on the organic end, and the Sonnet splits the difference.

When I first read about Musetec, I was keen to try it out of curiosity but I was pretty certain I’d send it back. So ultimately didn’t see the point (I really love my current DAC and I’ve compared it to many other things). This is a great time to be in the DAC market. Lots of wonderful choices out there. At one point I wanted to try everything, but the saner thing might be to find something you like at whatever price point makes sense to you, and then simply enjoy the music.

@melm Life is too short for online arguments with strangers. If I was rude, I apologize. I gave you push-back in this thread because I think it can be misleading to newcomers. While it's well and good to be enthusiastic about gear that you own -- without that, sites like this wouldn't exist -- readers need to take DAC impressions  with a heavy pinch of salt. My real reference is live music (ideally unamplified), but I've owned/borrowed a lot of expensive DACs in my quest to find the right fit for me. I'm not saying my opinion is more correct than anybody else's -- I'd say it's of equally middling value -- but my experience makes me very skeptical of over-the-moon DAC descriptions. I've loved and hated the same DAC, based on which system it was in.

I was pushing back in the hopes of minimizing situations like the one described by @pt999, by injecting some hopefully reasonable skepticism into this thread.  Shenzhen Audio's actual return policy is quite different from their stated return policy, based on that report. Pretty shady stuff. But even if they honored their stated policy, it wouldn't be cheap to ship the Musetec back to China. It's significantly heavier than the DAC that @yyzsantabarbara sent back (near 30 lbs, if I remember Musetec's confirmation correctly) and presumably he's shipping from the West Coast. Quick calculation on UPS -- it would cost me $650 insured (from East Coast) + whatever the customs are. Plus whatever the restocking/use fees are. And there's not a liquid resale market for Musetec (not yet at least, but maybe if you keep posting about it...). I'm a little curious based on the breathless reviews of the thing, but my personal DAC review experience has taught me to be skeptical. There's a lot of good stuff out there that one can happily live with.

At the risk of philosophizing again, it's understandable to want to validate your hifi decision. There are comparatively not many Musetec owners out there, and you want to feel good about the purchase. Are you hearing what I'm hearing? How does it stack up against xyz? And so forth. I bought a DAC I immediately loved, but felt compelled to home demo it against other stuff to verify I wasn't crazy. I wasn't crazy. Ultimately, once all the buying research is done and you have a system you enjoy, best thing is to skip the forums and enjoy the fruits of your labor. I'm trying to follow my own advice.

Sorry if already answered, but what kind of break-in period did folks experience?

I suspect it's even cheaper to buy factory direct (email the company), but then you lose whatever trial policy the dealer may provide. Doubt it's cheap to ship it back to China, but certainly cheaper than trying to sell it on the used market here.

Seems like Shenzhen on Black Friday is the way to go. Supposedly the factory direct price is now $3,200 (rationale is rising parts cost), so eventually that’ll flow through to the dealer price point.

A lot of used Musetecs have shown up on the usual websites, in the past couple of months, if anybody is still curious to try one. I was quoted $1750 on a used one, if anybody wants an idea on pricing.