Bricasti M1SE Stereo DAC Review

[Cbdb2]

What you will notice is how much enjoyment you will receive when listening to digital music. To me that is what truly matters.

And you will get just as much enjoyment from the music from a $200 DAC, plus all the enjoyment you will recieve from spending the big pile of cash you saved on other things.

 

[amirm]

I appreciate this forums point of view concerning the power of measurements.

You are confused about who we are because you haven't paid enough attention to content in this site.

We have three means of evaluating fidelity of equipment:
1. Engineering design and science thereof.
2. Objective, reliable and comprehensive measurements.
3. Usage of #2 to determine level of audibility.

Say you think the outlet cover for a Mains socket makes an audible difference. We know as a matter of engineering that it can't since it is not part of the circuit. You may think that the power cord makes a difference. Again, as a matter of engineering we know that its impact to DC power inside your equipment is nil. Many high-end equipment measures poorly by our standards. We can use #3 to determine if those impairments are audible to people.

It is this triple strategy that gives our assessments power. It for example says the M1 is transparent to audiophiles as are the much lower cost products we recommend.

There are others who do just measurements and have done so for years. They didn't have the impact we have because they didn't bring the clarity to the data that we bring.

If you lack knowledge of #1 to #3, you are simply not going to make any headway here. Remember, at any time, we can play your role of subjectivity and "hear" the same thing you "hear." But we know #3 tells us that your type of testing is invalid and it is that which is responsible for perceived differences. #1 and #2 confirm that.

 

[amirm]

As pointed out if you want to spend at this price point even if there are areas in which it does not measure at the very top I believe you will be pleasantly surprised and so very satisfied.

We wouldn't be surprised in the least. We would be satisfied with its sound but know that we paid orders of magnitude too much for that type of fidelity.

 

[amirm]

Believe me you won’t notice where it doesn’t measure at the very top. What you will notice is how much enjoyment you will receive when listening to digital music. To me that is what truly matters.

It is what truly matters. Until you lean to properly assess fidelity of equipment using controlled testing, you are living the fog of subjectivity where reliable information about that is nowhere to be found. Living in the Matrix may be a nice illusion but it is not real. Learn what is real by understanding not only measurements but engineering and science of audio. Only then you will truly understand what you are buying. And stop wasting money on things that don't exist.

As to cost of gear, many of us have very expensive systems. If a streamer/DAC and product twice the fidelity, I would happily pay 10 times the price for it. We simply know for a fact that paying 10 times gets you zero audible improvement. And objectively, poorer results, rewarding companies that are not attempting to give us the best transparency they can.

 

[signalpath]

...nor do I need equipment to balance the levels, a curtain to hide the equipment and someone with lightening quick reflexes to switch between equipment being evaluated. I don’t disagree this would be one way for an A/B comparison. I’m just not set up to do that nor do I care to."

Then you have no tools remaining to make valid listening comparisons, except perhaps null testing. Nor does A/B testing require "lightening quick reflexes" --- it's just a switch. Nor do you need a curtain --- you can self-blind your own A/B testing.

 

[warnie7]

I will bet dollars to donuts that if any of these DAC owners did blind listening tests to their DACs against other DACs they would be completely unable to tell the difference.

Ill hate to take your cash but you are totally wrong. Folks buy Lampizator because by tube rolling you cater the sound to your liking and further more the Lamp SQ is unbelievable

 

[JSmith]

Ill hate to take your cash but you are totally wrong. Folks buy Lampizator because by tube rolling you cater the sound to your liking and further more the Lamp SQ is unbelievable

JSmith

 

[JustJones]

by tube rolling

Perfect for rolling your tube's.

 

[milosz]

Ill hate to take your cash but you are totally wrong. Folks buy Lampizator because by tube rolling you cater the sound to your liking and further more the Lamp SQ is unbelievable

Lampizator's analog circuits add so much distortion that his DACs sound different - as in COLORED. If distortion and artifact is what you want, you're better off with a cheap DAC and a cheap audio mixer that you can overdrive to produce as much distortion as you want.

DIFFERENT doesn't mean BETTER.

 

[Axo1989]

Lampizator's analog circuits add so much distortion that his DACs sound different - as in COLORED. If distortion and artifact is what you want, you're better off with a cheap DAC and a cheap audio mixer that you can overdrive to produce as much distortion as you want.

DIFFERENT doesn't mean BETTER.

But they say a change is as good as a holiday.

 

[warnie7]

Lampizator's analog circuits add so much distortion that his DACs sound different - as in COLORED. If distortion and artifact is what you want, you're better off with a cheap DAC and a cheap audio mixer that you can overdrive to produce as much distortion as you want.

DIFFERENT doesn't mean BETTER.

Tubes are why each dac sounds different How about try listening to a pair. No where have I read the circuit is colored. First think how about naming which Lampizator are you talking about and Send me the link to where you got your info from

 

[warnie7]

Perfect for rolling your tube's.

View attachment 397240

guess all your gear is solid state

 

[BDWoody]

No where have I read the circuit is colored.

How else could it sound different? If one box that gives you ruler flat frequency response, and noise and distortion levels that are a couple orders of magnitude below where anyone could dream of hearing (a good SS design), and you compare it with another box and hear differences, the differences are either a product of bias/imagination, or 'coloration'. What do you think coloration is? It's a difference in frequency response, added noise or distortion.

Edit: Assumption is that devices being compared are suitable for the task, aren't clipping, are using similar filters, and the standard caveats.

I don't want to hear my gear. I just want the ability to hear the music I am playing however it was signed off, in the same way I won't load up my plate of food at a Michelin starred restaurant with salt and ketchup before I've even tasted it. I can always season to taste after, but you can't take out that baked in dirty.

 

[Axo1989]

How else could it be different? If one box that gives you ruler flat frequency response, and noise and distortion levels that are a couple orders of magnitude below where anyone could dream of hearing (a good SS design), and you compare it with another box and hear differences, the differences are either a product of bias/imagination, or 'coloration'. What do you think coloration is? It's a difference in frequency response, added noise or distortion.

So much disrespect for plankton on this forum.

 

[warnie7]

How else could it sound different? If one box that gives you ruler flat frequency response, and noise and distortion levels that are a couple orders of magnitude below where anyone could dream of hearing (a good SS design), and you compare it with another box and hear differences, the differences are either a product of bias/imagination, or 'coloration'. What do you think coloration is? It's a difference in frequency response, added noise or distortion.

I don't want to hear my gear. I just want the ability to hear the music I am playing however it was signed off, in the same way I won't load up my plate of food at a Michelin starred restaurant with salt and ketchup before I've even tasted it. I can always season to taste after, but you can't take out that baked in dirty.

Ill ask you again where did you read the analog circuitry is colored. Now if you talking about colored in general well hell everything in the chain provides that. What you are saying is R2R dacs sound different because they are colored

 

[Sokel]

There are measurable ways for even the best measuring gear to sound different in a system at usual listening SLP.
Poor gain structure,levels,clipping,grounds loops (even the inaudible ones)

We use to look at gear at their top measuring conditions,isolated.That's rarely the case at home or even in studio.
I use to watch the overall electric levels just before my amps for a normal listening and they are between 40 to 20dB (I mean the full additive spectrum energy,not just sines or multitones,etc)
And that includes (for me as an example) PC>DAC>Pre>el. x-over>amps VERY carefully optimized about their gain structure,etc.
But even in the most simple example,DAC> amps,DAC would have to be attenuated to at least -20dB for loud-ish session (100-105dB peaks) or at more than 30dB for a nice late evening one.
At that levels we can kiss goodnight the 115dB strict "transparency" even at a whole 120dB,20Hz-20kHz SINAD chain (close to impossible at home with more than 2-3 pieces of gear even at their loudest,even if the speakers and ears could take it) .

So,lots of room for stuff to sound different.
(even if I never understood the term "different" ,sound should be a goal,a "such and such" ,different means nothing,except when something wrong is happening)

 

[BDWoody]

There are measurable ways for even the best measuring gear to sound different in a system at usual listening SLP.
Poor gain structure,levels,clipping,grounds loops (even the inaudible ones)

This is definitely true, and I added a brief edit to my post above that makes it a bit more narrow, but I hope you aren't saying that these are the explanation for the favorable 'colorations' being talked about in these posts.

Assuming a competent box AND setup, what would you call this 'coloration,' and where does it come from?

 

[BDWoody]

Ill ask you again where did you read the analog circuitry is colored. Now if you talking about colored in general well hell everything in the chain provides that.

How well do you understand the measurements done on these devices?

What you are saying is R2R dacs sound different because they are colored

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. If there is a difference in an actual, well set up controlled test 'against' a competent DAC, then yes, the difference has to come from somewhere.

 

[Sokel]

This is definitely true, and I added a brief edit to my post above that makes it a bit more narrow, but I hope you aren't saying that these are the explanation for the favorable 'colorations' being talked about in these posts.

Assuming a competent box AND setup, what would you call this 'coloration,' and where does it come from?

To me there's no such thing as favorable coloration.
Something is either neutral,deliberately colored (as with EQ,etc) or broken if reaches the point to be nasty at listening.

Your assumption is true about the box,but hard when it comes to setup and there's the danger.
For me,it's better asking about the whole chain,levels,etc before an answer can be given for reasons that stuff may sound different.

 

[BDWoody]

To me there's no such thing as favorable coloration.
Something is either neutral,deliberately colored (as with EQ,etc) or broken if reaches the point to be nasty at listening.

Agreed 100%

Your assumption is true about the box,but hard when it comes to setup and there's the danger.

Agreed.

For me,it's better asking about the whole chain,levels,etc before an answer can be given for reasons that stuff may sound different.

Generally I agree. This didn't seem to be one of those that needed the deeper dive, but maybe I'll be shown to be wrong. Wouldn't be the first or last!