I have had my eye on the MSB dac`s for a while now so I am looking forward to the review when it comes out. May the search for excellence never end, it`s all too much fun

I was at the Hi Fi Show in Bonn, Germany, this week end, since they had the Ktema speakers on full MSB equipement (volume control trough the dac though) ... while it was certainly the best sounding suite, slightly ahead of the Isophon, Electrocompaniet and Eternal Arts suite/room), it also struck me as very good in a hi-fi sense, but lacking the sparkle, air and tension of live music... could have used a bit more "freshness" and more/better decay on some notes. Difficult to blame the electronics more than the speakers i guess, but i could'nt help thinking it was the source. I have yet to hear better digital than the YBA 1 cd that, unfortunately, i sold last year...what a mistake.
The speakers showed clearly Sonus/Serblin hommage series pedigree, although more neutral and balanced than my Amati's ... overall, i was quite dissapointed by the show, and can simply not understand how most of these products can get great reviews in the traditionnal commercial audio press. Also, the better rooms usually had less accessories, mains filters and "normal" cables

I am looking forward to reading where we are at the state of the art in digital, perhaps in the new issue?!?!?!?

Now can we have the tests done DB with ABX. Of course the 18 month wait will add weight to the conclusions.........

I think this is a product where you need a lot of dealer help in getting the right combination for your needs.

Just for completeness, typing Open Baffle Speakers Whittlebury into google images suggests that these were "Euclio" proof-of-concept speakers.

You will of course have to test it with recordings that used recording clocks of at least this accuracy and jitter performance - if you can find any.

Galaxy comes next week , I fear too late for the issue in preparation.


Should make all recordings sound better, but we shall see.....

there is always the chicken and egg situation when working on the receiving end of recorded music ......

..........like the ' better sounding' his res hi def SACD issue of Kind of Blue with less bandwidth than the original LP issue and with someone playing on the digital mixer,
altering the eq., ie adding further digital signal processing to boot.

Martin Colloms

The Playback is back into the system. There is a slight loss of sparkle (over sparkle?) and slightly softer dynamics when compared to the MSB, also not as dark backgrounds. However, there is a huge improvement in soundstage height, width and depth, and a much improved midrange. It is a bit like comparing a top notch solid state amp vs a top notch valve amp: you gain in some areas, you lose in others. The MSB sounded more "hifi" to me and the PB more like the real thing. Overall, I am happy the PB is back in my system (ARC Refs, Magico speakers) and I won't be missing the MSB.

Having said that, I have not tested the MSB in every possible combination, so there are chances that I have missed the 'optimal' setting for me. This afternoon, the MSB goes up against the Meitner at a friend's house. Will report back.

I think all this interest in the latest creation from MSB is making Paul Benge's moustache curl.But he is still quite polite to me, even though I refuse to use any digital equipment. Even buys me the occasional coffee. What a gent!

msb is far superior to anything i heard... including emm labs latest 2 piece....emm is a player ..with a lot of ...errrr shall ee say equialised sound or shall we say... errrr a little sweetened?
as for the msb.... layer after layer after layer of resolution..... and yet extremely musical....

the system we tested both msb and emm is as follows .... magico m5 speakers driven by concert fidelity mono blocks

emm labs and meitner dac was like watching SD television broadcast and msb is HD... that simple...


also remember when you are listening to your system slightly louder than your normal levels, and you come across a track like ( jazz at the pawn shop) track 3 and there is a crescendo .. when all the instruments attack? you always reach your remote and put the volume down? yes with the emm labs.... hellno eith msb... as the resolution is light years ahead of emm labs, you hear every beat and instrument with msb and you dont touch your volume button at all... sorry but with emm labs the crescendos in any music ( and trust me i have tried many) with emm lab those moments are when you put the volume down... as the resolution of the dac at those instants re as lear as mud!

another great comparison... take a good soprano recording.. listen to it via msb firt then emm... i did... msb soprano was soprano... emm labs? soprano was almost alto... exactly wht i try to mean at the begining... emm is errr.. sweetened... some may prefer that equalised sound. nothing wrong with that... but calling emm musical and msb not is like saying ... errr... SD tv is better than HDtv...


msb is by far the best ...resolution and musicality wise!!!!

I realise this is an old topic, and I have not read the published results of this review but I wanted to ask something.


How much opportunity was taken to take objective measurements, and to attempt to find correlations between the measured data and the listenging test results? You talk about interactions, for instance, with equipment supports and supplies. It's trivial, and cheap, to measure what is happening with these ancillaries and, given your extensive listening tests, this could have been an ideal opportunity to highlight underlying causes and correlations with heard results, as well as identify areas where audiophiles need not spend more money - eg if you find (as I suspect Keith Howard did in his investigation in HFN a few years ago) that equipment supports make no audible differences to digital electronics then that would be a valuable service to Hificritic's audience and the hifi world in general. So, were any such measurements and investigations carried out?

And really, £30,000 for a DAC? @_@

Edited by user 03 May 2012 23:52:26(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified