Musician Taurus R2R DAC

[mir0]

Aaron@AudiophileShop in Melbourne stocks Musician Pegasus and Aquarius.
They don't stock the Taurus but was he unable to order one for you?

When I saw that Taurus was not in shop's stock, I went directly to Aoshida audio.

 

[geoffalter11]

Hello,

Long-time lurker – first-time poster here. I wanted to share my experience with the Musician Taurus DAC, which I purchased mainly based on the positive feedback from other users in this thread.

I won’t go into the sound quality of the Taurus DAC, as it has already been covered extensively, and my listening impressions mostly align with what’s been written here. The only thing I’d add is that, to my ears, this is **not** a warm and sounding, rather a balanced, detailed and neutral DAC.

Since the Taurus DAC wasn’t available from a local dealer in my country, I decided to order it from the official Aoshida Audio store on AliExpress.
Aoshida Audio is the general distributor for all Musician products.

When the DAC arrived, I decided to take a look under the lid of this device. To my big surprise, I discovered that all (yes, every single one) of the large blue capacitors appeared to be second-hand and reused. I’m talking visible marks, surface blistering and dents on the capacitors—signs they had quite a rough life before being installed in the Taurus DAC. Naturally, this raises serious concerns about the reliability and longevity of those components.

Another issue I noticed during the month I had the DAC in my system was a hum coming from the unit’s toroidal transformer. Not to mention the user manual that clearly was different from how the device operated (for example - changing the configuration of I2S pins).

I was completely flabbergasted—how could a $3,800 flagship device from a relatively known brand be assembled like this, pass the manufacturer’s "QC," and be sold by the general distributor to a customer?

Long story short: after reporting the issue, Aoshida Audio generally dismissed my concerns as “minor cosmetic defects.”
Fortunately, after a month of going back and forward, AliExpress stepped in, and I was refunded in full after returning the device.

Overall, this has been quite an educational journey for me, and I hope my experience helps inform someone else’s decision before purchasing a Musician product.

Sounds to me like an Aoshida issue. My Taurus came straight from the factory in perfect condition. I think their QC is actually quite good. However, I don't find that to be the case with Aoshida and Aliexpress. The fact they dismissed it as normal wear and tear on a brand new product tells me they sold you a demo or open box product instead of a new one. i do wish you good luck as the DAC is ridiculously good.

Best of luck...

 

[DeanoBravo]

When I saw that Taurus was not in shop's stock, I went directly to Aoshida audio.

 

[mir0]

Sounds to me like an Aoshida issue. My Taurus came straight from the factory in perfect condition. I think their QC is actually quite good. However, I don't find that to be the case with Aoshida and Aliexpress. The fact they dismissed it as normal wear and tear on a brand new product tells me they sold you a demo or open box product instead of a new one. i do wish you good luck as the DAC is ridiculously good.

Best of luck...

Here's a photo of one of the capacitor banks. The DAC looked brand new apart from the capacitors. Musician QC stickers were on the individual boards so my conclusion was that it was a feature, not a bug.

 

[ken6217]

Mine came straight from the factory that I had purchased through Arthur at Power holdings. When I received it, it was packed upside down in the box. When I lifted it outI heard something rattling around inside. I didn’t even bother to try turning it on. I contacted Arthur, and he had another one sent to me immediately.

 

[Getafix]

Higher than usual mains voltages often causes transformer hum.

 

[ken6217]

Anyone is interested, I have my Taurus listed for sale. Purchased last year. Very competitive price.

I love the DAC, but I just went with active speakers, which is all in one.