Відео

They require op amps to make them universally compatible with other equipment, much like all preamps in the industry. We get to skip them from our internal DAC connection because the signal has enough power for attenuation only.

Yep, The Cascade Link is bidirectional with 512x clock and link monitoring data (link error states and setup data) on the feedback channel. SFP+ phy. (must meet data rate requirements, no direct attach copper support) Synchronous with auto frame slip compensation (allows any cable latency) scrambled to approximate Gaussian thermal noise, scrambling correlation frame alignment, DC balanced, no FEC but with HD9 CRC providing data integrity check. Frames are 1 set of DAC module data + CRC + 1 bit of control data per frame about 1.5Gbps currently (8 DAC modules), depending on source data format, extensible to about 3Gbps (16 DAC modules).

Hey! Thanks for the kind words! We certainly have a lot of fun. We just released a factory tour with the Audiophile Foundation youtube channel if you are interested in seeing the manufacturing side of things 👍

@ You’re very welcome! Im watching it for a third time now! Wow, again! I’d love to work for you guys! 🤓

Happy New Years!

We are really happy with that Grob! Hard not to talk about. Each Chassis is about 6 hours of machining. Currently checking out new CAM software to hopefully improve those run times further.

@ That’s pretty cool! The chassis it mills look gorgeous. The smooth curves with no rough edges or tool gouge marks is impressive.

We will continue to support it for those who still want to it. Luckily, it can be optioned without or removed in the future.

We do manufacture great electronics, but servers are an entirely different category. We could make the hardware, but the software programming required is very high. There are a lot of great options out there and eventually, we may only be streaming some day. Who knows!

Indeed. It is our current flagship replacing the Select and Reference DAC's.

We have the Estelon Forza and Magico M2 currently. We also have some in-house designed speakers to help with development of new products. We would have more on hand, but California real estate makes storing large loudspeakers difficult.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis Thank you for sharing it. When the sound of your Cascade DAC was described, I thought it would match well with low distortion and high bandwidth speakers like Magico.

@@klaymoon1 Absolutely. We were over with Alon at the Magico listening room with the Cascade and the new M7's. Really something special.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis That must sound amazing, literally. Well, both of you are in a position to make a barter exchange. I hope M7 will be coming to your demo room soon.

@@klaymoon1 Perhaps someday soon!

Interesting

Very narrow minded if you think those are somehow the only variables at play.

We have a pair of house-made speakers, Estelon Forza, and Magico M2's currently in rotation.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis Very nice, thank you for your reply.

Indeed. Or 527 years of Netflix... that would entertain for longer ;)

Sorry to hear that has been your experience, I hope one day you get to hear good digital, amplification, and speakers.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis How does your expensive DAC and amps fix loudspeaker problems ?? From what I can see, all you are doing is selling expensive ice to an eskimo.

@@Jay-eo3wl And that comment makes no sense either because a speaker converts electrical energy into acoustical energy which is what you hear. Find me one speaker that does its conversion better or more transparently than even the cheapest of DACs ?? I bet you can't ;)

@@Jay-eo3wl And of course the more expensive DAC with the more expensive CNC milled out case always happens to be the best :D LOL Like I said show me one speaker that is more transparent than the cheapest of DACs available ? To help you along a bit it should have a flat frequency response within +/-0.02dB from 20Hz to 20kHz. Ultra low distortion of at least 0.001%. Flat or linear phase response from 20Hz to 20KHz. Huge dynamic range of at least 120dB ;) Any contenders ??

@@Jay-eo3wl You can't address the real issue can you. I'll make it easy for you. Get your yourself a cheap transistor radio with its 2 inch speaker and power that speaker with this dudes megabuck dac and megaback amplifer and what do you hear ?? Now get yourself a cheap Topping DAC and a cheap amplifier of reasonable quality and then connect that up to a speaker of the same value as this dudes dac and amplifier. Which sounds better ?? And this is the reason why you should always throw most of your money at the weakest link in the chain which is still the loudspeaker by a long shot otherwise you are just fiddling around the edges ;)

There are already so many good DACs out there at a lower price. This is our specialty, but please check out the broader market. It is a golden age for digital products.

It doesn‘t - there won‘t be any audible difference to $100 DACs.

@@Oboti Yes there will, stop coping chifi shill.

@@Oboti Really? A $100 DAC? That's a thing? Did you mean to write $100K?

@@elitetrader5468 No, I really meant $100 - they are audibly transparent, and that's the only thing that counts.

Hello. The Cascade will not have this option, but you have several avenues to pursue this. First, I will say why not all three? The Cascade doesn't have to sacrifice one of those for the others. You can also get a music player that will process the files before playback to show your specific characteristics. And then, probably most common, is speaker preference. Speakers often decide the "feel" of a system. We have Magicos and Estelon speakers in our listening room and these two show very different performances.

Of course! There are only three of us doing this engineering work, so it will take some time ;) For now, the manufacturing improvements are fighting inflation and increased cost of materials.

We do have a network renderer, but will never create a server. The lifespan of servers is quite short lived. We are a small company that wants to focus on long lasting digital. This way, people can choose the software experience they like best with their favored server.

The streamer module is in the "Director".

Noted and thanks for the feedback! Cheers.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed. I am pretty excited with how far our manufacturing abilities have come.

The output impedance is driven by the number of Hybrid DACs. With 8, this matches the select DAC with 75 ohm.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis one the biggest factors in matching a preamp to a power amp is the impedance. It would be great if MBS let users select the desired output impedance like CH Precision.

@@klaymoon1 ​ We designed our amplifiers to have selectable impedance instead of the DAC. In this case, the impedance is driven by the DAC modules directly so we didn't interfere with purity of the signal.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis It makes sense not comprising the signal there unnecessarily. However, unfortunately this means that for anyone interested in using this DAC with power amps of any other brand can easily run into matching problems since power amps don't typically have this feature. So it's a system that has only been designed to be used as a full MSB chain.

@@andreas7278 Thanks for the feedback, I think the inverse is more true for our preamp. It can easily drives most amps and will run into a few outliers that would be better with a preamp. There can’t be a “do all” design that plays well with everything, so we designed what we thought was best for the most people possible. The results speak for themselves.

Awesome to hear! I use the Premier DAC in my system, but I may upgrade to the Cascade as soon as we have a demo unit available... The Premier DAC is so very excellent, were you using a digital director with it as well?

This next gen DAC is aimed to replace the Reference Series DAC and the upcoming Sentinel DAC will replace the Select Series DAC as our new flagship. Both of these new DACs outperform anything we have done before.

Until you hear the Totaldac

We are always learning and applying what we know. No updates in the works at the moment, but when we do, I am sure it will be stellar.

Thanks for the feedback, it is something we are working on. Our goal is to include more features up front so the upgrades don't add up. Our older sales models had everything customizable, and it really was getting out of hand. It was expensive and difficult to support so many options.

Agreed... economy of scale is a real thing in the auto industry. We will keep lowering our prices as our production gets leaner. Cheers.

@@DanielGullmanFrancis ...which is unfortunately not the case for the very niche high end audio market...

@@marcusfordal4973 Indeed!

The market supports it though. There are lots of wealthy people in the world who think 100K is chump change. God bless them. They probably worked very hard to get where they are. I'm more of a 25K DAC guy myself. Works for me. : )

@@elitetrader5468 aaaannndd those 100K supporters make it so we can sell even better 25K DAC's ;)

Thank you! Always refining the process and designs. The Select will always be a favorite in design.

You can bypass (turn off) the preamp/VC section.

Thanks! We try to keep the functionality as flexible as possible. Glad to hear you have your forever DAC, enjoy.

Thank you Rohit, excited for you to audition it. Will you be attending the Munich High End show?

@@DanielGullmanFrancis my work schedule does not permit it. Possibly I might request a demo from your dealers when I visit the west coast on a holiday.

Glad you found a system that suits you! Enjoy.

I think that argument goes more for clocks. IMO it's always a benefit to get digital noise out of the DAC. My experience the more stuff crammed into a DAC, the worse it sounds.

I hear you. We will have a longer form breakdown video coming out in the next few weeks. Take a deeper look inside and see if we can convince you. We do avoid publishing measurements as they are easy to manipulate. As engineers know, you can make a graph or chart convince anyone of anything. Plus, I won't deny there are a lot of great electronics out there for 2K. We are doing something different for the folks who want the same thing we are interested in. People are so creative and we love to see the many ways and things they come up with. Enjoy!

@@chipsnmydip Here here!

Yeh but that won’t buy them a new Ferrari. 😅

There was the Analog DAC, and the Discrete isn't that far off. I wouldn't say these are absolutely better than anything else in the price range though, because R2R DACs, FPGA/DSD, Delta-Sigma chips all sound different.

They already do. It’s called the Discrete. Add a second PSU and look out!

​@highendaudio, yup, but with a 2nd PSU it's $20K, and it's not appreciably better than other DACs in that $ range. MSB is a good manufacturer and their game is the high end, I get it, but there's an argument to be made that making a killer $10K DAC as a demo of its prowess could be a way to increase brand awareness/sales. Just my 2 cents.

@@michaelmityok1001 the second PSU is $20k? Huh? It’s $1450. Trust me, I sell more MSB than anyone. The Discrete with the second PSU is far better than any other dac in that price range. I’ve had dozens in here: dcs and the like. Even the brightback designs and the moola moola.

MSB SELECT DAC is similar in tech goes for $115,000.00 and yet, it cant beat a true analog setup....

$95K. Suncoast Audio.

@@highendaudio I will take a dozen at that price! ;-) Gorgeous units for sure.

Yes

Currently, but in the next two years we expect to release The Sentinel DAC, a new flagship. There will be an upgrade path from the Cascade to the Sentinel.

@@DanielGullmanFranciswhere did the reference go? Is there nothing in the $40k range anymore?

@@Jay-eo3wl , The Premier DAC with Digital Director slots in at $42k. Perhaps we will introduce another model in-between that and the Cascade, but we have no current plans at the moment. Our attention will be on the new Sentinel DAC until it is completed.

@ I had heard the reference was significant step up from the premier and was the sweet spot of the line ? Is that your understanding as well? Has that been removed and the jump is now up to the cascade of we want that level of quality? It’s fine, if it is …I’m just trying to figure it out .

Aewsome to hear, your world will be changed. It is on a completely different level of performance. Congrats!

They really are the best! It has changed everything about how we machine our products.