Playback Designs MPD6 or Bricasti M21?

I have the M21 from Audio Acrhon in Chicago.  Audio Archon sells both Playback Designs and Bricasti so they are a good source for comparison info. Mike Kay was very helpful in making my decision.

I choose the M21 because of all the different options for playing PCM and DSD files.  I use the M21's internal streamer with ethernet. It takes up to DSD128.  For PCM there is either ladder DAC or Delta Sigma.  Most of the streaming I do is with Qobuz using Audirvana. Some music sounds better with the ladder DAC and some with Delta Sigma.  I've purchased DSD files from NativeDSD and used them with the 1 bit native DSD player.  The Jazz at the Pawnshop recording sounds almost 3D using the DSD128 file. 

Bricasti network card is a renderer and not a streamer. This means you need a Roon Core or a UPnP support player like MConnect to be able to stream music. 
I used both Mconnect and Roon with M3 and preferred Roon for both the sound and UI. Ultimately the Bricasti network renderer was not a competition for a dedicated Aurender streamer. However, it’s a nice to have that can hold you over until you get a better streamer or if you’re between streamers and want to continue to listen. It doesn’t sound bad.

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?

Bricasti is Roon ready so just connect Ethernet cable to have it sit on the same network as your roon core and you are good to go for tidal, qobuz and local library files if you have any. You can also use nucleus as a streamer feeding M21 via USB but I doubt that’s going to be as good as just using the M21 as roon end point. 
 

What I was trying to say above is there are dedicated streamers that perform better sonically than the Bricasti network renderer. Do you have to buy a dedicated streamer? No. 

@acurus,

I like my Bricasti M21 DAC very much because it sounds great. The DAC has a 24-bit delta sigma DAC, a 20-bit ladder DAC and true 1 bit DSD for DSD content. It includes an Ethernet connection so the M21 is recognized as a DNLA device and becomes a powerful media renderer. I switched my music streaming to using Audirvana Studio software on my MAC Laptop Computer (14-inch MacBook Pro M2 12 Core/19CPU). I use Audirvana Studio remote on my iPad to find the albums, playlists, etc. My Bricasti M21 DAC connects to the Internet using an Ethernet cable. This setup has resulted in my music being clearer and more open (replaced my Aurender sever). The Audirvana Studio interface is excellent and is easy to use (yes, there is a slight learning curve). The removal of the music streamer and having the Bricasti DAC connect to the Internet and then to my MAC computer has removed a layer from the Music and made it more musical and clearer. I was not expecting this much improvement.

The use of Audirvana Studio App has substantially improved my sound quality very much. As an example of great product support, my Bricasti DAC was upgraded for $1,000. Their MDx board replaced the existing board in the DAC. The next Bricasti upgrade was a free firmware chip program that needed to be inserted into the DAC to complete the upgrade. Both upgrades greatly improved the DAC for a very reasonable cost. This is an example of a company supporting it customers.