Hi tdx,

thank you so much for your impression.
I currently have a May KTE and you really made me want the Premier (I would get a black one though).
MSB has always been on my wishlist.
May I ask for a dealer recommendation?

Best

I'll pm you

MSB Premiere DAC is on my short list together with the Ideon Audio E DAC and Grimm Audio MU2… they will be compared in the near future..

Can you PM me a dealer? what is the MSRP?

Thanks for the review. At $27,500 it is at the price point of the Berkeley Reference 3 DAC ($28,000). By chance, did you compare it to this DAC or even the Rossini or Vivaldi? Curious as to your thoughts if you made those comparisons. Tks.

Have one with the Pro USB module with a Lumin U2 feeding the Pro USB. It is a monster DAC. Also have the renderer, which is redundant now to the Luimin.

I got it second hand so unfortunately cant recommend a dealer but I'm sure MSB has a list of authorized dealers. As for the Berkeley i never got a chance to hear it. If that changes i will update this review.

Still rocking this DAC and will keep it for a long time I think. It leaves me wanting for nothing. Would only upgrade if something truly new and groundbreaking comes along. But even then there's a chance MSB could just release an updated module so...

Frankie D- Add the Rockna Wavedream Signature too.

And speaking of the Rockna Wavedream Signature, it contains MSB chips inside so I’d imagine the sound is similar to MSB Dacs.

Fidelis Audio in NH is a great dealer. Marc Mable.

Excellent review. I've wondered so many times how these wondeful looking DAC's sound. It would be super interesting to read what it sounds like paired with their headphone amp.: Dynamic and Electrostatic.

I would soooooo love to hear this back to back against my fully upgraded Dave. I have the Dave running off an Audioquest Niagara 5000, hurricane power cords, Chord music bnc and xlr, dedicated silver power outlets, Blu mkll, and Sean Jacob's dc6 arc 4. I have wanted to hear an MSB for a long time to see what the hype was about. Great write up!

Thanks! The Dave with a Sean Jacobs mod was on my short list too but alas never got to audition it. Price wise after all the extras we're in the same ballpark. But from talking to a couple of very knowledgeable users around here I got a sense they would be very very close. So I don't have an itch to try out the Dave now that I got the MSB, and I honestly think you're not missing out by having the souped up Dave vs the MSB. Different flavors maybe but not necessarily better/worse. Although i will say that the modularity/upgradability of the MSB, plus the fact that with their ISL (fiber) Pro USB module you pretty much negate the need for an extra streamer/server were both factors that nudged me in its direction vs the Dave.

What a wonderful story (referring also to the "long and winding road" link you included). I too was toying with the idea of documenting the journey. There are quite a few similarities, such as for example I began with a Ferrun OOR stack and ended with the Riviera AIC-10, but with nothing in between however, and have ended with a Susvara with plenty in between. Reading therefore that you reached the Riviera after a much more winding road was fascinating. But I also have a question. Now that you have been down this path, if you had to grade the different components (streamer/source => DAC => Amp => Headphone), how would you rate them in terms of impact on the final experience? I don't even know really if such a question makes sense or is ultimately answerable, but for example, based on my experience, I would give the highest impact to the DAC. The change when I finally got a good DAC (my first was also a Rockna Wavelight! So bizarre we found the same things) was absolutely incredible.

It does look like we had a similar journey, great minds meet and all that To answer your question, I would say from experience it's really hard to give a priority to one element in the chain, because so much depends on thew whole chain and what gear you pair with each other. For example I feel a decent DAC can do wonders with a thick tube amp because the inherent musicality of the tubes will "mask" the limitations of the DAC. But then when you go to a super high end DAC, you kinda need I feel a more neutral amp to let the resolution of the DAC shine through. And so on and so forth. I will say that to this day, the transducers are still what show me the most apparent differences in my chain, followed by the DAC and then the amp. But I was also surprised to see how much a good power delivery system can influence sound. My P12 paired with Puritan Ultimate PQ does wonders to elevate the sound. So, as much as I know it's a cliche, every part of the chain counts.