MSB Select II arrival

M

Mike Lavigne

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Joined
Aug 16, 2014
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east of Seattle
it arrived yesterday, and I've listened for 6-7 hours so far.

I removed the rubber stock footers from below the power supply and am using BDR cones on top of the Symposium Svelt Shelf. the dac is using the rubber stock footers into the detents in the case of the power supply.....for my initial listening.

right now using a generic USB cable and an Absolute Fidelity power cord with Furutech NCF plugs. settings on the SGM are 'bit-perfect' through HQ Player.

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just how good is the MSB Select dac?

I'm not really ready to answer that. there is quite a bit of investigation needed to go there. but I will say that the musical experience of every track I've listened to in the last 5 and 1/2 hours is significantly improved over any previous digital experience.

and it's not so much that it sounds better, but in the ways it sounds better that so far is impressive. there is just a sense of easy musical expression without stress, and with such natural speed, separation, clarity and command. nothing forced or confused. like other digital is a bit constipated and filtered. yet the flow is hypnotic. make your audio checklist and check every box. it does it all.

and my body feels like 'all-analog'. not 5+ hours of digital.

so I'm explaining my emotional and physical reaction to an extended session with the MSB Select II. I'm not assigning any rank or attribute.....or trying to describe it's sound.

I've heard nothing so far that would limit my opinion of this product......but don't have the complete picture.....yet.

and no doubt I've not yet heard the best of the Select II. there are a number of areas where the performance should improve to some degree going forward. I will say it seems to fit right into my system and my expectations of a synergy with my system appear to be right on.
 

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She's a beauty! Congrats Mike. This is as good as digital gets. [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]


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tonight I've taken out one of the big guns; the lia Itin Debussy Preludes, in native Quad x256 rate dsd.......11.2Mhz. this is about as 'pure' a digital recording as one could find. the dynamics, precision, purity, tonal complexity and overtones of the big concert grand piano are breathtaking.

in the 18 months I've had these files I've played them hundreds of times on a number of excellent dacs.....as they do reveal all.

it is as if I had never heard these files before when heard right now on the Select II on the big rig. the continuousness, the vivid frankness of the playing, the delicacy and nuance, the deep and complex overtones that go on forever, the tension and pace, are profound. yet so effortless and authoritative. is this direct to disc vinyl? is this tape? I don't know how to categorize this. so I won't. i'll just enjoy it.

Vince from MSB has some favorite TBM go-to piano SACD's he likes to use to demonstrate the Select II at shows. this recording is a few degrees of magnitude more real than those.
 
Great stuff Mike!

Who did you get your MSB Select II from? Who was the lucky dealer?


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Thank you for the report Mike. It's a great looking dac too. I look forward to more of your thoughts as it breaks in and you start getting the best from it.

Congratulations!
 
Mike said:
Great stuff Mike!

Who did you get your MSB Select II from? Who was the lucky dealer?


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thank you Mike.

out of consideration for all MSB dealers, I would decline to mention my particular dealer, but would encourage anyone who has an interest to contact MSB directly for information on the product or contact information on their appropriate dealer.
 
joeinid said:
Thank you for the report Mike. It's a great looking dac too. I look forward to more of your thoughts as it breaks in and you start getting the best from it.

Congratulations!
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thanks Joe, it is so amazing to listen to now, 36 hours in, that I'm a bit awed at the prospects of finding the best from it. going to be a fun ride.

I do really like how it looks. with it's 'matte' black anodized finish and soft edges it is difficult to photograph easily, but in person it exudes refinement and class. and lovely to the touch. I think it will age very gracefully.
 
Mike i really like the look and if the sound is anything near to the look, then its amazing, I will never be able to buy it, but i am sure its amazing and i envy you in a good way :-) wish you lots of happy listening.

Flemming
 
FDPDK said:
Mike i really like the look and if the sound is anything near to the look, then its amazing, I will never be able to buy it, but i am sure its amazing and i envy you in a good way :-) wish you lots of happy listening.

Flemming
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Mike and I are going through growing pains/love together. I got mine a day before Mike. From my perch the Select II is remarkable. I choose to turn it on and not listen for 90 hours. I have been listening with and without my REF10 with my GS150 and my current findings are a significant improvement bypassing the REF10 that I find pretty astounding. I am digital only so this would be awesome if my findings hold over the next few weeks.

I am going from a V to the Select II. Am enjoying myself as well
 
Congratulations Mike and Priaptor! I have never heard the Select II, but given what I have read, I can't imagine it being anything less than "godly" or at the supreme tier of digital playback (take your pick).

Priaptor (or Mike if you have this experience): I would be very interested in your thoughts on what areas and how it beats the MSB Diamond DAC V (since you are going from one to the other).

Also (either Mike or Priaptor), do you know if MSB is going to offer some type of upgrade to either the new "Reference DAC" of the Select II for its Diamond DAC V owners? I figured I would ask since you might know even though I should just fire off a mail to MSB.

Again, congratulations guys and I am sure the unit will bring you years of happiness and outstanding music!
 
laynesaddiction said:
Congratulations Mike and Priaptor! I have never heard the Select II, but given what I have read, I can't imagine it being anything less than "godly" or at the supreme tier of digital playback (take your pick).

Priaptor (or Mike if you have this experience): I would be very interested in your thoughts on what areas and how it beats the MSB Diamond DAC V (since you are going from one to the other).

Also (either Mike or Priaptor), do you know if MSB is going to offer some type of upgrade to either the new "Reference DAC" of the Select II for its Diamond DAC V owners? I figured I would ask since you might know even though I should just fire off a mail to MSB.

Again, congratulations guys and I am sure the unit will bring you years of happiness and outstanding music!
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hello Anthony,

thank you for your kind words.

I'm not a previous MSB dac owner so I have limited knowledge about how the Dac V might compare. Priaptor is a previous MSB dac owner however, so maybe he can answer those specific questions. I did quickly look at the MSB website and there is no mention of any DAC V to Select or Reference upgrade. they did have upgrade paths previously in the Roman Numeral series.

as I see you are in the State of Washington, as am I, I would invite you to visit for a listen to the Select II should you have the desire to do so. PM me and we can connect.

btw; very very fine system you have there; congrats on that.

Cheers,

Mike
 
the RCA output module arrived yesterday at work. got home and unpacked it and seeing it and the quality of it, I got a feel for just how serious a product this truly is. and going forward knowing that any interface or connectivity changes are so easily and properly solved and integrated it's easy to see that the promise of this product is real. swapping the modules took like 30 seconds once I turned the unit off and unplugged it.

so simple.

I had been thinking about this upcoming change, and pretty much decided to go with the RCA module (assuming they are very close) in any case because that allows for flexible future use of the single XLR input on dart pre.....and knowing I can always switch back if I like. well; the result is not close at all, the RCA module is much, much better. but.....I cheated. first; I went with the $31k Tara Labs Grandmaster Evolution w/HFX dual ground boxes right up front, and connected it all to my Tripoint Troy Reference grounding box.

so it's not just RCA verses XLR.

ok now, the emotional content has taken a step up. lower noise, more space, more refined texture and harmonic complexity, images and vocals now have increased real life content on another level. these are small but noticeable changes. the imaging has come some forward in the soundstage too.

I listened for about 2 hours, and as these interconnects have not been used since the Golden Gate left my system in January, and this RCA module has never been used, there was a noticeable ramping up of these improvements, and it continued to improve through my evenings listening.

we will see if it stays on this course, or maybe goes through a rough period as we go forward.

in a few days I plan on putting the XLR module back in and see what I think about that before shipping it back.

we still have the Ethernet-USB question, as well as the optimization of the digital cable for whichever interface we end up with (currently using a generic USB), and then there is the comparison with my analog too. we'll see how close this gets to the analog now on the emotional connection scale.

so lots of fun stuff.
 
Mike Lavigne said:
hello Anthony,

thank you for your kind words.

I'm not a previous MSB dac owner so I have limited knowledge about how the Dac V might compare. Priaptor is a previous MSB dac owner however, so maybe he can answer those specific questions. I did quickly look at the MSB website and there is no mention of any DAC V to Select or Reference upgrade. they did have upgrade paths previously in the Roman Numeral series.

as I see you are in the State of Washington, as am I, I would invite you to visit for a listen to the Select II should you have the desire to do so. PM me and we can connect.

btw; very very fine system you have there; congrats on that.

Cheers,

Mike
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Please see my PM for the response to your offer. It took me less time than one tick of your Femto 33 to determine my answer. ;-)
 
I am truly under the spell of this dac and it is upsetting my normal time allocation. my email responses and other chores are being 'put off/delayed' and my normal habit of multi-tasking while listening to digital is greatly reduced. the musical pull is much closer to my vinyl in that way. an unexpected development. maybe the switch to the RCA output + Tara Labs GME I.C.'s has moved things up a bit too.

last night, this morning, and now this evening I've filtered Roon to 16-44 files only and have been greatly entertained and captured with these files. there is simply such an 'unprocessed presentation' along with a 'continuousness' to the music. any hint of digital artifacts or even of solid state or really any feeling of the reproduction chain is just absent.

last night I listened to 'Angela Gheorghiu' 'Diva', the whole CD. I could not stop. I kept bracing myself for any sort of 'a bit too much' and it was always so easy and natural even with her frequent fireworks, yet astonishing levels of texture and detail. I've had the Lampi with the Elrog 300b's (and the tubed Nagra HD) and it was never like this, and that is no dig on the Lampi.....but the level of refinement I'm hearing is phenomenal.

right now I'm listening to the 'Purcel Quartet', 'Marin Marais; La Follia', lots of violins, and a prominent harpsichord. OMG the harpsichord is 'sweet' and so sonorous and texturally complex and has this beautiful sheen and vivid projection. no nuance or musical mystery gets missed, and the flair is all there.

harpsichords and full CD's of Aria's is not my typical fare. or at least it had not been before.
 
My one hour listening session on Sunday morning at Axpona with the MSB Select II DAC and my own music (SACDs and CDs) was the best source of any type I've listened to in 25 years in this hobby.

Ken
 
What I found when I spent time with MSB in my system that the source wasn't critical at all as long as it was from a good recording the MSB stack just did it's own magic to it. Of course this may well have changed with this new iteration.
 
wklie said:
What transport was used? Thanks.
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MSB Universal Media Transport V. Has a MSB I2S interface that allows it to act as a slave to the low jitter clock within the MSB DAC. It sounded amazing.

Ken
 
I've spent the last few days on just redbook.....as I've described.

so last night was high rez night. I first isolated 176/24 and 192/24 with Roon and started listening. I'd certainly sampled these files already, but after 2-3 days redbook 'only' this was clearly a step up. really mostly clearly more space, and more subtly a finer grain to the texture as well as more gradations to the articulation and leading edge energy. and a more delicate and nuanced presentation.....and more see-thru and see around presentation. all subtle but musically significant and evident in my system. I would hate to not be able to enjoy these, if I was disc only. I did these resolutions for 3 hours.

then I isolated my dxd; 352 and 384.

woah.....double woah. for whatever reason there were a few files here I'd missed before (Roon is now working better at this). and now we are talking space.......and I mean to say lots of friggen space. get up, walk around, jump up and down space. like reach out and grab a star space.

did I say space? and this is not any blow up the balloon kind of space where parts get expanded and oversized, but space where more parts of the universe are defined and become part of the listening environment.

and then there is the relaxation of the normal reproduction process constraints on the degree of reality expressed with every parameter.

is this analog? not sure......but it's 'something'. I call it 'Select II meets big rig; 'Unleashed'.

this morning it's time for Quad dsd, and later i'll comment on that.
 
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