Parasound Z DAC

I recently did a back to back comparo with a musical fidelity m1 dac and preferred the z dac. The m1 might have brought out more detail because it made some recordings sound bad, but the m1 sounded thin and slower to my ear.

Has anyone else out there heard this dac yet? I'd use two words to describe the sound that I've never used to describe my system before because I thought they were cliche, but it sounds crisp and squeaky clean, in a good way. I'm really liking it. Anyone else out there feel the same about this inexpensive dac?

Thanks Teejay! I look forward to reading your review! I took a llook at your system, and all I can say is "wow". I'm really suprised by how many incredible systems thier are here on audiogon. It seems like on a daily basis, I find a new virtual system that leaves me slack jawed. Well, yours is the one that did it to me today.

P.S. TeeJay, it would be nice to see in your review what you think about the headphone amp in the dac and the differences, if any, between the xlr outputs vs. the rca outputs. Those are two features which sold me on the z dac. By the way, that teac looks pretty nice also. It looks like budget level dacs are coming up in terms of sound and features!

Hey, Hawk, sorry for the delayed response. I'm using my z dac as an outboard dac for a musical fidelity a3.2 cd player and as a dac connected a wadia 170i streaming spotify on an iphone. I must say initially I couldn't hear a difference between the mf a3.2 dac, the zdac streaming spotify or the z dac as an outboard dac to the mf a3.2. I can now hear a difference. The mf with the z dac sounds the best, followed by the wadia streaming spotify, followed by the dac in the mf. I don't know if the z dac broke in or if I just couldn't pick up on the differences initially, or both, but now my system is really sounding good. If I ever get my mf vdac ii with pangea p100 back from getting fixed, I'll compare those two dacs as well. I don't like how the v dac has no switch on it to change inputs so sometimes you have to disconnect a cable for it to pick up the signsl you want it to (LAME) and the z dac has a headphone amp, balanced outputs and a power supply that you don't have to upgrade. That new dac by teac looks interesting also...
I am happy with the z dac though. Good detail, good bass, and a nice natural organic sound. I''m getting pretty darn close to being finished compiling my system as I'm starting to finally get the sound that I was looking for :-)