Could be a range depending on what you’re after, I personally liked it with a bit more relaxed leaning stuff or at least neutral, but tended to not pair it with things that were already pushing really forward already. I think it basically pairs well with things that you want to get more of a neutral and (hate using the phrase) “reference” focus on things
No that’s a good option, at least it was from my experience, all bets off for a mk1 though lol
I’ve seen the word raw pop up in reviews, but it’s being used as something like “raw clarity” rather than how I use the word raw on it’s own at least, but really I feel like most reviews I read said it was a bit analytical but without being overly dry, harsh, or lean, and I would agree.
So here’s the thing. In most cases, poor materials or poor setups don’t sound like piercingly bad, they just sound really mediocre or boring, as in like, this is nothing special and I could be enjoying this more on something else. But it really comes alive when you give it something good. Basically, it’s going to tell you what you play is shit in a raw way, but it’s not going to painful or offensively bad (in a traditional sense, but it can be painful to know that what you listened isn’t well produced enough for it to shine lol)
If there’s one local, any chance to demo? I think you can likely sell it for what you bought it for, but it might take longer to sell since it’s not the most hype dac out there. I will say I did really like the pairup with the riviera (in fact I’m using a rs3 → k15ex → afm 50 right now)
So you heard and liked bricasti right? I think there’s some similarities in how it just kinda gets out of the way and can really shine with some music but might sound lackluster with others, but I think the berkely takes that principle even farther and also is a bit less forgiving about it
oh, ok. Yah, i’m use to that and fine with it. I more of wanted to make sure that berk wasnt a “if its bad it will litteraly hurt” kinda thing like you can get with some ESS stuff (actualy had this issue with weiss a few times)
Guy is being super weird about local pickup so I doubt a demo is on the table tbh. There is a dealer with an RS near me but he was a pretty massive asshat when I talked to him about MSB stuff so I dont realy want to deal with him again.
And yah, the comments on leaning riv more neutral and incisive are fairly enticing to me. Its not the kind of thing I would want all the time I dont think, but as an option alongside something else it does seem fairly compelling as a temp setup of sorts.
Ok, interesting. TBH I liked the berk a fair bit but I did find it got too sharp at times (and completely was a no go for certain songs with lots of more etherial higher up piano). Past that, my only real issue with the M1SE (no mdx) was the fairly poor image seperation, so the berk seeming to fix this is an interesting proposition to me.
Interesting, it will potentially be a mild problem if stuff is bad enough and recorded that way, but I’m just saying it will sound really mediocre lol
Ah shame
Gotcha, and yes image thing isn’t a problem with the berk. The bricasti takes a bit more of a wide and slightly more dense and vague approach spatially, almost smoothed off spatially, that is one of the things that bothered me a bit
Ive been having trouble explaining my issues with it. This is a fantastic way to put it. And yah, IMO that trait held it back from being a genuin tier or two higher performer than where I ultimately pegged it. Safe to assume this trait continues on with the M21 just maybe slightly lesser extent, but still there?
Also, honestly, that smoothed off staging is kinda bugging me with the dual right now as well. Seems liek that isnt a worry if I move up tje line though luckily.
massively mediocre is totaly fine. I just hate getting ripped out of a work session by sibilance when my library is on shuffle
So, I’ll just say that vague/smooth spatial characteristics and sibilance in a lot of things is a common trait of a poor digital frontend, could be something to look into lol
But yes I thought it was less of an issue with the m21, but I also think the m21 is a harder sell value wise at least new, also much less of an issue if you feed it with a better digital source
I mean, honest question then. Should I look at upgrading to live power/getting a better DDC/maybe even changing my AES cable instead of looking at different dacs right this second? From this comment I’m assuming you dont remember having this issue on lower end TDs?
I wasnt using any digital front end with bricasti, but I found the issue way worse than it was on TT2, spring 3 (know that has good usb tbf), and yggy a2.
Just FWIW, the guy with the direct (he wont split up btw, so I think thats probably out of the picture unfortunately) also has an m21 for 8k flat (and I can probabaly get him lower since im local)
EDIT: NVM, ill just see if I can demo the 21. Seems like he would let me do that even if tii will be a couple weeks before I get my dac back.
So I never had any sibilance issues with any td, but I do think the core had some of that smoothness and vagueness and that went away with their higher end models, and also improved with a nicer source, but I’d say in this specific instance it’s more a trait of the older totaldac, but I think with the bricasti I do think sibilance issues were likely down to digital source, the spacial thing is also a bit inherent to that dac but not bad enough to be a dealbreaker to me, I guess it depends on how bad you thought it was. I didn’t mean to say that those issues solely come from poor sources but rather they tend to get exaggerated with poor sources
Well that’s a likely cause there then
a 21 for 8k is pretty appealing, if you can get a demo of it def do and see how you think it fares
@M0N thank you for your work on this all and staying open for all our questions. I would like to make a request, can your next list be a potato chip flavor tier list? Ty.
is this the black cat reference you talk about for digital? Googling around and I legit cant tell, but the price is low enough ill just try coax vs aes on my dac if it is.
Not @M0N but he talks about the TR0N, which is going to cost a lot more than that.
FYI, the owner/designer of Black Cat died recently, so the number of his cables out in the wild is finite. Not sure what that means to used prices, but they’re probably going to be even more rare than normal on USAM.
Im looking as well for a spdif for the Mojo. The trons are like $1.5 used. I see one of their lower end ones but its on german ebay. A bunch of interconnects though.
