Day 2 of meet. Substituted Bricasti M3 into my system:
Schiit Yggdrasil A2 -> Tortuga Passive LDR Preamp -> Pass Labs XA 160.8 -> Sound Labs Prostat 922
We tried the M3 in as a DAC - Streamer using the Tortuga and without the Tortuga (directly connected to the Pass amps via xlr).
Yggy is what i'm most familiar with as I have one in my home system and my office system. I love female vocals and this is where the Yggy won my heart. My favorite artist Lisa Hannigan, has beautiful vocals that are more forward/more emphasized on the Yggy vs the M3 (tested track "I Don't Know" from Sea Sew album).
The next song "Crayola doesn't make a color for your your eyes" by Kristin Andreassen, I also preferred Kristin's voice and body percussion on the Yggy. It felt as the M3 was missing something.
The next track "Chocolate Chip Trip" by Tool, really emphasized what M3 does excellent, the drums are more beautiful. While Yggy emphasized mid range (particularly female vocals) excellently, the M3 draws my focus to lower frequencies.
Track "These Bones" by The Fairfield Four has beautiful bass singer vibrato. The M3 was definitely preferred for this track.
"Ballad of the Runaway Horse" on Rob Wasserman Duets album. Jenifer Warnes vocals were pristine and brought to the forefront on the Yggy and the M3 brought the bass to the forefront.
Overall, i think the M3 is a great DAC and was nice to hear it in my system.
Tortuga passive pre vs M3 as a preamp. I was thinking that the tortuga was the week point in my system and listening to the M3 as a preamp seems to enhance the bass response vs the tortuga. I hate to admit, but now i need to add a preamp into my system.
I tried to add Bricasti M3 into my Logitech Harmony remote and it doesn't seem to be supported (i didn't do an extensive search to see if there was some method to add it).