If your ears are happy, what does Asinine Science Review have to do with that? They’d have you think a $100 Topping DAC is superior to Musetec, Denafrips, etc. based solely on measurements. They don’t trust their own ears so they have to resort to what measurements tell them what should sound good. Sad. Just sad. Go with your own ears and reviewers you’ve come to trust and you’ll be just fine. Numbers have a place, but they sure as hell ain’t everything.
Has the ASR review/hatchet job on the Musetec MH-DA005 Changed Anyone's Mind?
A little over a year ago, after seeing so many glowing reviews of the 005 on this and other fora, I bought the DAC and thought it made a great improvement over my Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ (which I now use on my #2 system). Recently, I came across the ASR review, which concludes that the 005 is a piece of crap. I know that ASR has a dubious (at best) reputation in this forum, but I wonder if its review has caused anyone to have second thoughts about the Musetec. I confess I was initially concerned by questions like, why hasn't Musetec responded to the horrible ASR review, if it is inaccurate? But, then, every time I listen to my system with the 005 DAC in it, it sounds glorious. Obviously, the guidance, "trust what your hear" is important, but I'm not sure I'd be as trustful of my ears if the negative technical review came from, say, John Atkinson, who has far more professional legitimacy in measuring equipment. I confess I have one more than one occasion refrained from buying a certain item because of his test results. (Where I live, it is not feasible to listen to amps in stores before buying, and one quickly grows weary of buying and returning expensive equipment on line, especially equipment that does not have stellar subjective and objective accolades).
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If you like the sound of the DAC then don't worry about a negative review or what others think. Regarding the the review being a "hatchet job", I didn't read it that way. There was some early nitpicking about the remote and a power-up delay, but I didn't read anything I would classify as being malicious, unjustified, or irresponsible. Amir performed measurements on a brand new DAC using his test equipment. He reported the results and pointed out areas where the review sample performed well (linearity and dynamics) as well as areas where it performed poorly. He concluded that, in his opinion, a DAC in that price range should perform/measure better. He offered to revisit if the company disagrees with his results. Maybe one problem is that we have been conditioned to expect that all reviews will be positive. Even the negative reviews are often carefully scripted so as not to offend. My problems with the "review" are that there is no mention about how it sounds, and the minor pile-on by other readers is mostly bad form. However, just because the DAC measured poorly is not a reason to discredit the messenger. |
Not at all. I tend to look at the ASR ’review’ as I would a Popular Science magazine recommending cheap audio-visual receivers because they have more inputs and/or lights or a bigger remote control. I bought the 005 a got it a week ago. And although it is breaking in slowly and changes quite a bit from day to day, I can already tell that is a HUGE upgrade over my previous W4S Dac2dsd. I won’t report on final impressions until after several hundred hours. I thought it amusing that ASR concluded.. "while doing a few things right, there is a lot wrong with design of MH-DA005. They have an excellent core as far as DAC chip is concerned, but they poorly implement the companion circuits. Instead of focusing to get the basics right, focus seems to be elsewhere (battery bank and such)." The dismissive attitude and language reminded me a little of someone who would spend less than half an hour of ’measuring’ a pair of high end tube amps right out of the box, and pronouncing them undeserving of their price or reputation. My listening so far - even at this early stage - is the exact opposite - Musetec started with an excellent core (ESS9038Pro), and beautifully implemented the power supply, the companion circuits, the boutique parts and wiring, after what was clearly much listening to each of the individual parts and their impact on the musical whole. Just my opinion.
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+1, @westborn for your take on ASR and early impressions of Musetec 005 sound and build quality. |
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