MSB Select II

Mike said:
After a solid week of burn in, the Select II has continued to improve. To my amazement, it just keeps improving in all areas. It presents all formats with such ease and smoothness, but not smoothing out. Just natural, just so unprocessed without that edge. Redbook continues to just floor me. With few exceptions, it’s like listening to a pristinely clean copy of an album on the Kronos, but the lack of surface noise allows so much more micro details to come through.
Click to expand...

originally seeing MikeL comments on the MSB and now yours i have no doubt its real. MikeL is a very serious player and for a very longtime , as you , not ideological at all , only the pursuit for excellence matters and with your additional comments ,


This is very serious indeed .....
 
a.wayne said:
Well its pretty cold in Switzerland about now , so get on a flight and head over , we have Plenty for you to hear before hitting Mike on the West Coast ...



:)
Click to expand...
Hahahah.

Travel is the last thing on my mind after driving in zero visibility on the Autobahn list night for hours. Thank God the bad weather didnt have a VISA to enter Switzerland last night or I would have been delayed far more than 2 hours.
 
a.wayne said:
originally seeing MikeL comments on the MSB and now yours i have no doubt its real. MikeL is a very serious player and for a very longtime , as you , not ideological at all , only the pursuit for excellent matters and with your additional comments ,


This is very serious indeed .....
Click to expand...
It is. Ironically, i was NOT very impressed with the Select 1, but the TWO is a whole nother level!
 
wisnon said:
It is. Ironically, i was NOT very impressed with the Select 1, but the TWO is a whole nother level!
Click to expand...


Yes does appear the TWO is a whole oddah level , so is the Price .


... :)


Anyway Hurry Back i have a 8ft tall ESL with bespoke amps, i would like you to hear ..
 
a.wayne said:
Yes does appear the TWO is a whole oddah level , so is the Price .


... :)


Anyway Hurry Back i have a 8ft tall ESL with bespoke amps, i would like you to hear ..
Click to expand...
Price didnt change, software did!
From what I know about the Goldmund Proteus system, software can make all the difference, once the HW was top notch to start with.
 
Renderer II is now shipping...
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • ED28A978-5803-43BB-89F0-B0FFB238A5B1.jpeg
    ED28A978-5803-43BB-89F0-B0FFB238A5B1.jpeg
    2.7 MB · Views: 638
My Transport with external PSU and Roon Renderer are arriving Wednesday along with the Audio Research REF160M’s. Christmas in April. [emoji322][emoji323][emoji95][emoji322][emoji323][emoji95]
 
Mike said:
My Transport with external PSU and Roon Renderer are arriving Wednesday along with the Audio Research REF160M’s. Christmas in April. [emoji322][emoji323][emoji95][emoji322][emoji323][emoji95]
Click to expand...

Wouu Mike , that is for sure like Christmas :)

Flemming
 
Mike said:
My Transport with external PSU and Roon Renderer are arriving Wednesday along with the Audio Research REF160M’s. Christmas in April. [emoji322][emoji323][emoji95][emoji322][emoji323][emoji95]
Click to expand...

Yes very much looking forward to it. The one issue and I am sure I am wrong about this, is why the renderer will sound better than their USB based module based on the technology utilized by MSB. However, I will be very very pleasantly surprised to find my “hypothesis” wrong when my renderer arrives.
 
Priaptor said:
Yes very much looking forward to it. The one issue and I am sure I am wrong about this, is why the renderer will sound better than their USB based module based on the technology utilized by MSB. However, I will be very very pleasantly surprised to find my “hypothesis” wrong when my renderer arrives.
Click to expand...
Excellent news Mike on the transport!
I am confident that the transport through MSB proprietary i2s will sound superior to all, while I doubt that USB can sound as good as renderer based source, given its noisy nature. With proviso, of course, that a decently isolated switch is used.
I cannot wait to hear about your findings!
Best, GN
 
Priaptor said:
Yes very much looking forward to it. The one issue and I am sure I am wrong about this, is why the renderer will sound better than their USB based module based on the technology utilized by MSB. However, I will be very very pleasantly surprised to find my “hypothesis” wrong when my renderer arrives.
Click to expand...

No need, I compared already when I had the final prototype in the system. The roon renderer was the champ.
 
GiorgioNuvolari said:
Excellent news Mike on the transport!
I am confident that the transport through MSB proprietary i2s will sound superior to all, while I doubt that USB can sound as good as renderer based source, given its noisy nature. With proviso, of course, that a decently isolated switch is used.
I cannot wait to hear about your findings!
Best, GN
Click to expand...

It was incredible. Layering and layering of soundstage.
 
Mike Lavigne said:
yes; easily prefer 'optimized' to standard/native dsd.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

I hope all is well with you. I have a question for you. Approximately what percentage of time did you listen to digital, vinyl and tape before purchasing your Select II DAC and after purchasing your Select II DAC?

I’m still patiently waiting for my Select II DAC. There seems to be a bit of a bottleneck in the anodizing process as they have an outside vendor anodize the chassis. And now we’re into summer vacations when everything slows down. I ordered mine in silver. Those who ordered black are receiving them more quickly as they had some black chassis in stock.

Thanks,
Ken
 
My Select II arrived a few weeks ago

At the 400 hour mark it was like WTF just happened? Just amazing sound.

A bit up a down getting to the 400 hour plateau, u have to be patient......
 
Alpinist said:
Hi Mike,

I hope all is well with you. I have a question for you. Approximately what percentage of time did you listen to digital, vinyl and tape before purchasing your Select II DAC and after purchasing your Select II DAC?
Click to expand...

hi Ken,

prior to purchasing the Select II, I owned the Aqua Formula, the Lampi GG, and the Trinity dac......three excellent dacs. I'd say my digital was 40%-60% during that 18-20 month period.

now, I'm more like 70-80% digital with the Select II. but it's not so simple as only the Select II difference with the digital side of things. I've also added more active Taiko Tana isolation devices (one under the dart pre and one under the MSB main dac box, and improved my passive isolation for the MSB power supplies and SGM server. and also, both mono blocks now have Taiko Tana active devices underneath.

the digital performance is very satisfying.....and the degree of the pull of analog is considerably diminished. once I start actually playing vinyl or tape, it's still a different ball game. but I get there less these days.

I’m still patiently waiting for my Select II DAC. There seems to be a bit of a bottleneck in the anodizing process as they have an outside vendor anodize the chassis. And now we’re into summer vacations when everything slows down. I ordered mine in silver. Those who ordered black are receiving them more quickly as they had some black chassis in stock.

Thanks,
Ken
Click to expand...

best wishes on a speedy delivery.

Mike
 
Mike Lavigne said:
hi Ken,

prior to purchasing the Select II, I owned the Aqua Formula, the Lampi GG, and the Trinity dac......three excellent dacs. I'd say my digital was 40%-60% during that 18-20 month period.

now, I'm more like 70-80% digital with the Select II. but it's not so simple as only the Select II difference with the digital side of things. I've also added more active Taiko Tana isolation devices (one under the dart pre and one under the MSB main dac box, and improved my passive isolation for the MSB power supplies and SGM server. and also, both mono blocks now have Taiko Tana active devices underneath.

the digital performance is very satisfying.....and the degree of the pull of analog is considerably diminished. once I start actually playing vinyl or tape, it's still a different ball game. but I get there less these days.



best wishes on a speedy delivery.

Mike
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike! These numbers are quite telling, even with all the additional isolation tweaks you’ve implemented. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to attaining this level of sound quality. The MSB Select II DAC with Roon Nucleus Plus, Synology NAS, Tidal and MQA looks to be a true game changer for me and my system.

Best,
Ken
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top