new Meitner MA3 hit the rack today

Thanks Ross

I listened to the MA3 at a dealer with the flagship B&W 804? The Mac 600 w amps. 
Sounded good and the idea of attaching  a portable SSD was pretty cool. 
I do like my current setup. Between the Melco’s filtering and the EtherRegen the system  really sounds good. 

I've owned both the M3 and MA3.    I sold the M3 after a few months but still own the MA3.     Personally I find the MA3 another level up on the M3, it is also a lot more expensive too and I've experienced that the differences between DACs relative to cost isn't always worth it, at least to me and my ears.

I liked the M3 but found it too similar sounding to the RME ADI2 FS DAC I also owned at the time to justify its price, relatively speaking.   I will say its ability to drive an amp direct is the best I've tried at home (I've not tried the digital volume control yet on the MA3 but I will be surprised if it beats the Bricasti).

I replaced the M3 with a Mojo Audio R2R NOS DAC (and Bricasti M5) and thought it was a big improvement for the sound I was looking for, and now I've replaced the Mojo with the MA3 and think that offers another big improvement.   Unfortunately I find the M5 with AES sounds slightly better to me than with the built in streamer in the MA3 which is unfortunate since I was hoping to apply the M5 sale onto the cost of the MA3. 

I will say bang for buck the little RME is the best sounding DAC I've owned and I sometimes think what I could do with that difference in price if I swap the MA3 for the RME...   It's a crazy hobby for sometimes such small differences compared to price.

I currently own MA3, but there is a clearance sale at the dealer Dac2X V2 +NS1 at an excellent price. Do you guys think I should keep MA3 and goes with Dac2X V2+ NS1, or will MA3 outperform them? AFAIK Dac2X V2 is DSD512 and 8xDSD compared to MA3 DSD1024 16 x DSD. Has anyone ever compared them side by side? Thank you. 

well, it'll sound different, but not necessarily better, or worse than what you have now in the context of your system. you could always just buy it, and if you want to keep the MA3, take a $1k loss on it and flip it on Audiogon here,  but then you'll know.   I just got a long demo on a Linn Selekt DSM with the Organik DAC architecture, minimal build, no bells and whistles, and man...it's pretty sweet.  If you are looking to change up, might wanna take a hard look at that if you have a dealer in your area, plus that thing is upgradable forever just about.  Kinda like my old workhorse Theta Digital Casablanca.

I had DAC2X + NS1 and now have a MA3.  Since the DAC2X was designed there are years of development in the MA3.  MA3 sounds better.  For a while I used the NS1 with the MA3 and could not hear an advantage to the streamer in the MA3.