@ddafoe I did not compare the M3 with the M1SE, but my dealer did and said that the latest version of M3 has a change to the main board that results in better sound over M1 (I think both flavors of M1); This assumes the fielded M1's have their original hardware.
@chesebert I had the MSB Discrete for a few months with both power supplies. At that time I had slightly different speakers than I do now so it's not a totally fair comparison (had Discrete with Dynaudio Confidence 30, now I have CF50); The discrete is an excellent DAC. I do think it faces very stiff competition from the M3 however, especially when you factor in the M3 is 50% less in price. I will not say one beats the other; Both are pretty awesome DACs and likely up there with state of the art sound in the price range. MSB performs the conversion from digital domain to analog via discrete R2R ladder, and the Bricasti does it with DSP and ADI 1955 multibit sigma-delta modulator and uses a very sophisticated patented direct digital synthesis (DDS) clock generator.
I can tell you the M3 puts a huge smile on my face as it the portrays emotion and soul of the musical event in new ways to me. I don't recall any other digital component I've had in my listening environment having quite this effect on me before. I go by this as my yardstick, not lab measurements or what is better on paper, or what costs more. Cost generally is a factor yes, but sometimes there are those products that go way beyond their price point and are real head-scratchers. The Bricasti M3 performance to cost ratio is a game changer in my book;
@chesebert I had the MSB Discrete for a few months with both power supplies. At that time I had slightly different speakers than I do now so it's not a totally fair comparison (had Discrete with Dynaudio Confidence 30, now I have CF50); The discrete is an excellent DAC. I do think it faces very stiff competition from the M3 however, especially when you factor in the M3 is 50% less in price. I will not say one beats the other; Both are pretty awesome DACs and likely up there with state of the art sound in the price range. MSB performs the conversion from digital domain to analog via discrete R2R ladder, and the Bricasti does it with DSP and ADI 1955 multibit sigma-delta modulator and uses a very sophisticated patented direct digital synthesis (DDS) clock generator.
I can tell you the M3 puts a huge smile on my face as it the portrays emotion and soul of the musical event in new ways to me. I don't recall any other digital component I've had in my listening environment having quite this effect on me before. I go by this as my yardstick, not lab measurements or what is better on paper, or what costs more. Cost generally is a factor yes, but sometimes there are those products that go way beyond their price point and are real head-scratchers. The Bricasti M3 performance to cost ratio is a game changer in my book;