Bricasti M1SE Stereo DAC Review

[IAtaman]

I paid ca $2,000 for my first Intel Pentium PC with a blazingly fast 100MHz processor in 1997. According to Google, that's around $4,000 in today's money. Although that would buy 40 RPi5s with 4 x 240 times faster processor, I am very happy with my purchase decision back in '97.

 

[Overseas]

Based on such reviews, thanks to the brave owner, I have a clue on the performance of very high price DACs (though specs match with the manufacturer) and I feel like 'upgrading' from E50 to E70 is not that crazy in terms of budget, I start to feel more relaxed about budget allocated to HIFI

 

[Triliza]

Not everyone who buys these "high end" products actually is well off... I know people that save money for some time and spend it on devices like this because they believe the marketing spiels and ingrained audiophile myths.

I think this is what bother me the most also. This kind of purchases make sense only if you are a multimillionaire. Even if you have money to spend as you like without regard, why give it for a dac. Just build a second (or fifth) system with some top-tier active speakers, or horns, or whatever. You don't have the space, well too bad, if your dac costs $10k, proportionally your house should cost at least a million, with 10 bathrooms and what not.

To my way of thinking it doesn't make much sense, and I don't find this unit that good looking to fall in love with and go wild just for the looks either.

 

[Axo1989]

I think this is what bother me the most also. This kind of purchases make sense only if you are a multimillionaire. Even if you have money to spend as you like without regard, why give it for a dac. Just build a second (or fifth) system with some top-tier active speakers, or horns, or whatever. You don't have the space, well too bad, if your dac costs $10k, proportionally your house should cost at least a million, with 10 bathrooms and what not.

To my way of thinking it doesn't make much sense, and I don't find this unit that good looking to fall in love with and go wild just for the looks either.

Curious metrics. The median house price in Australian capital cities is currently AUD $949,410. They don't tend to have ten bedrooms. What if you don't need/want a second/fifth system but you just like nice things? I don't follow this fiscal/moral imperative that we all must spend proportionately across budget categories, when our needs/wants/desires often differ. But if you aren't taken with this (or another) Bricasti, then don't buy one, obviously.

 

[Sokel]

I think this is what bother me the most also. This kind of purchases make sense only if you are a multimillionaire. Even if you have money to spend as you like without regard, why give it for a dac. Just build a second (or fifth) system with some top-tier active speakers, or horns, or whatever. You don't have the space, well too bad, if your dac costs $10k, proportionally your house should cost at least a million, with 10 bathrooms and what not.

To my way of thinking it doesn't make much sense, and I don't find this unit that good looking to fall in love with and go wild just for the looks either.

It's a hobby.And it's a hobby for older folks as it seems.
I have kids in my neighborhood spending gradually 100k euro on the cars for mods (which never translates in reselling value) and most of them are still living with their parents and work for that money.It's a hobby for them too and is just 18 yo kids.

Hobby is to give fun.And fun does not have a price.If this DAC makes someone happy who am I to judge the feeling?
I can criticize the device,sure.But not the mentality of a purchase.

 

[KSTR]

You mean the people that put an Oppo BDP-83 in a different case and sold it for 3 - 4 times the price? Very trustworthy... noted.


JSmith

One can always find a fly in the ointment. In general Lexicon has an excellent reputation in the pro audio scene for decades and in contrast to consumer HiFi you really have to earn that.

 

[BALKAN_RAKIA]

Curious metrics. The median house price in Australian capital cities is currently AUD $949,410. They don't tend to have ten bedrooms. What if you don't need/want a second/fifth system but you just like nice things? I don't follow this fiscal/moral imperative that we all must spend proportionately across budget categories, when our needs/wants/desires often differ. But if you aren't taken with this (or another) Bricasti, then don't buy one, obviously.

buddy, the problem is that with the extra cost for brickasti you don't get anything "nicer". You just buy extremely expensive audio device with no audible benefits. The exterior is subjective, but I am far from impressed of how this sound card looks like. More expensive doesn't mean nicer.

 

[Triliza]

Curious metrics. The median house price in Australian capital cities is currently AUD $949,410. They don't tend to have ten bedrooms. What if you don't need/want a second/fifth system but you just like nice things? I don't follow this fiscal/moral imperative that we all must spend proportionately across budget categories, when our needs/wants/desires often differ. If you aren't taken with this (or another) Bricasti, then don't buy one, obviously.

I don't imply anything about morality in my post. Something can be said about that also, but it's not my business to dictate to you what you do with your money. If for all the nice things in life you need/want/desire, giving $10K for a dac is something you don't have to think twice, consider yourself very lucky, you either are doing very well financially or are very frugal with your needs, which is a good thing.

 

[KSTR]

Conflating price to "throw away" is disingenuous.

This has little to do with price as such, it's about the general commitment of the company.

I fail to see how this filter is problematic. No chance of audible aliasing here.

It's definitely not according to what a proper filter should look like in ASR standards.
And make no mistake about what you think is audible and what is not, and to whom and under which circumstances. I might guess you've never made any competent experiments on the topic and thus you're simply a back-seat driver with no real experience or knowledge, like so many here which really is a pity and harming the site. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[hearone]

Would you consider this bad performance ?
https://www.stereophile.com/content/bryston-bda-1-da-converter-measurements

I got one used 10 years ago for almost half of the original price.
When I got it, it blew away every other disc player or DAC I ever had (many !).

Still in use today and can sound better than the analog outputs of the Eversolo DMP-A6 that is attached via Coax spdif (depending on the source material quality).
As much as I would like to get rid of it, it just keeps going.
Also better about 95% of the time Vs a Gustard A26 via USB (which I took out of the system recently and may sell soon).

Comparisons are always at matched levels (within .1dB at speaker terminals) and both sighted and blind with similar results.
It is however very sensitive to the source component via Coax (no USB 2.0 input) so jitter attenuation is not good.
I had the best results with the Pi2designs Mercury streamer V2 before it bricked and almost as good with a Oppo UDP-205 (all via coax spdif).

But I do agree that $10k is way too much for the Briscasti even if this was brand new design with a more modern DAC !!!

Nice that it still has 6 years left of the 20 year digital circuit warranty for the review sample.. LOL

 

[Cbdb2]

I read first two pages of comments and then skipped eight just to see if there are still comments about the high price, and to my surprise, there is.

When will you all, who comment about the price and say you can get a better DAC for a fraction of the money, get that this DAC is not made to be value?
This kind of equipment is made with industrial design and luxury as a priority and then performance.

Nobody, and I mean nobody here is telling you that you should buy it, so quit these kinds of rants, because they are boring and take up a lot of space, and it makes reading meaningfull comments hard to read.

By the way, this DAC performs well and it is not broken and even though I am not a fan of their ID, I do admit it looks good, so they can set their price as much as they want. Whoever likes it can buy it and that's their business.

Now, I do apologize to you, Jsmith, for using your comment to make a point and this is not personally directed to you.

I apologize to others who find themselves offended, but I really hope you stop being bores with the same comments over and over...

If your bored go somewhere else.

 

[Cbdb2]

Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. It looks like it would sell for $49.99 + shipping on Aliexpress to me. At least from the photos.


You get a power supply, you get a power supply, everybody gets a power supply!

When 5 watts over usb powers my 4 channel ADC/DAC with better sinad and HP out, why? This is not good engineering.

 

[Axo1989]

buddy, the problem is that with the extra cost for brickasti you don't get anything "nicer". You just buy extremely expensive audio device with no audible benefits. The exterior is subjective, but I am far from impressed of how this sound card looks like. More expensive doesn't mean nicer.

Not being US-ian, I'm not anybody's buddy.

That aside "nicer" is a subjective value statement. What you and I consider nice is unlikely to correlate, nor is there any reason why it should or must. But I suppose you give the game away with your brand spelling? Despite that impressive word-play, you don't seem to understand the plain English meaning of the word nice. I'll leave you to it.

 

[KSTR]

One channel noisier than the other?? Why would that be...??

I don't see any difference in noise between channels.
Even on the unbalanced output the largest mains harmonic is below -130dBr which is absolutely phenomenal.
The only difference between channel is in distortion.

 

[IAtaman]

When 5 watts over usb powers my 4 channel ADC/DAC with better sinad and HP out, why? This is not good engineering.

Agreed. Its good marketing though in my opinion - it helps people to justify themselves why it's worth to pay $10K for a DAC.

 

[Axo1989]

I don't imply anything about morality in my post. Something can be said about that also, but it's not my business to dictate to you what you do with your money. If for all the nice things in life you need/want/desire, giving $10K for a dac is something you don't have to think twice, consider yourself very lucky, you either are doing very well financially or are very frugal with your needs, which is a good thing.

You used the word "should" wrt the million-dollar house thing, so I used fiscal/moral to likely cover your meaning, more-or less. But didn't mean to say you were on a moral crusade, or similar.

As for not thinking twice, Bricasti are above my audio budget, currently. But it happens I've been buying gratuitously over-engineered and pricey kitchen appliances lately (some more expensive than that DAC) so the question of what exactly we pay for, and what gives pleasure or satisfaction (aka "nice") is on my mind.

 

[Axo1989]

Nice that it still has 6 years left of the 20 year digital circuit warranty for the review sample.. LOL

Very nice.

 

[martin900]

This only shows that measurements are mostly meaningless when everything boils down to sound, well maybe except for finding critical design flaws like oscillations or uncontrolled high distortion.

 

[Purité Audio]

This only shows that measurements are mostly meaningless when everything boils down to sound, well maybe except for finding critical design flaws like oscillations or uncontrolled high distortion.

How can you say that, because of measurements we know that this particular unit is competent but not outstanding.
Personally if I were going to spend that amount on a ‘pride of ownership’ design I would want a nice case and exemplary measurements.
Keith

 

[Axo1989]

How can you say that, because of measurements we know that this particular unit is competent but not outstanding.
Personally if I were going to spend that amount on a ‘pride of ownership’ design I would want a nice case and exemplary measurements.

But @martin900's "when everything boils down to sound" doesn't refer to inaudible measurements, obviously. The device under test does have some exemplary measurements, if you like reconstruction filters, for example. It just happens that for the DAC category, the key metric of THD plus noise (or inverted for SINAD) extends so far into inaudibility that "good" vs "excellent" is often meaningless (in sonic terms). But if "excellent" numbers for that score give you pleasure and satisfaction, there's nothing essentially wrong with that.