Playback Designs MPD6 or Bricasti M21?


Im looking at these two DACs, anyone have the pleasure of hearing them both or at least one or the other?  

acurus

Showing 2 responses by jmeyers

Okay, I am confused -- particularly since the Bricasti M21 and the PlayBack Designs MDP-6 are the two DACs I have been most impressed by, albeit based only on what I have read. I thought that the M21 was "good to go", allowing me to plug in and then be fully able to listen to streams of music from Qobuz and Tidal. Apparently, that is not so. I also have a Roon Nucleus+ on my network. Will I still need to purchase yet another component before I can utilize those two services if I were to buy an M21?

Yesterday, I received -- and installed -- my build-to-order M21 as well as Bricasti's M19 SACD transport. These two components replaced a Wadi 8 CD transport (which I may, or may not, sell), a Theta Digital Compli SACD player, a Wadia 2000 DAC, and a Lumin T2 streamer/DAC. Like others, I seriously considered Playback Design's MPS-6, too.

Compared to what I had previously listened to in my home, the M21's [even] initial performance was utterly astounding; all aspects are simply better -- clarity, realsim, detail, soundstage depth, etc. are amazing. I have yet to compare the various DAC offerings and filters; these were the default settings. What I did not expect was the improvement the M19 provided to shiny discs. I have to say that the M19/M21 combination -- with the I2S connection between them -- gave real credence to the belief of many that CDs can still deliver a better performance than is obtainable from 44.1K via the Internet.

I have never spent so much money before on a source (or two sources together). Frankly, I was worried ahead of time that I would not be able to discern much difference from what I already owned. Was I ever wrong! To put this in perspective, one of my local high-end audio stores has on display a Berkely Audio Design, Luxman, Shunyata, and Magico system costing $221,000. This is my "reference standard"; up until now, my own system wasn't even close. But no longer -- if anything, with the addition of the two Bricastis, I believe that my updated system surpasses what I was able to hear in that store.