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The MSB Cascade and the art of over engineering

Purité Audio said:
But everything is less ugly than Wadax, Wadax is the reigning world champion of ugly and I don’t see anything to beat it, unless Wadax can dream up something even more hideous.
Keith
Click to expand...
It's surely very ugly, but world champion? some are even worse i think like this one:

1743070734831.png


Or this Merrill Audio

1743071295365.png


and if you really want to vomit, the world champion for me is this Edge NL Reference mono's (NLA for obvious reasons)

1743071489131.png
1743071539343.png
 
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.

« La critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile » used to say an XVIII century French author.

When some consider that we could feed lots of children with 95k$, sure, but consider the billions of $/€ spent to go to the moon or to mars. Useful ? For me yes but not for everyone. We could feed the entire plane’s earth population for months.

People buy hifi gear for the value they see in them. I would never buy a Wadax because to me it’s ugly but for others it’s superb. Fine.

I owned at first an Audioaero Prima DAC, thinking it was super good. It was, for what I could pay back then.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC IV platinum but bought the Diamond version, big jump in quality, thinking it would be my last DAC.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC V Diamond but waited a few months and bought the MSB Reference DAC, stellar jump.

MSB announced the Digital Director. Though a bit skeptical at first, I bought it and heard a another massive improved SQ. I considered I had reached the ultimate quality in my system… big mistake,, …

…until I could borrow a Cascade DAC demo unit for a week from the Frenchdistributot , testing it on my system. What a slap in the face.

The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
 
Abascal said:
The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...
Congrats on achieving the same sound quality one can get with a $100 DAC, I guess.
 
Abascal said:
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.
Click to expand...

I would be interested to know measured specs. Namely: linearity, dynamic range, quiescent BB/UW noise, and THD+N at -50dBFS. Odd that they don't print specs on the website. For a $100,000 box, I would expect it to surpass every other DAC made today, in every critical audio parameter.
 
Abascal said:
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.

« La critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile » used to say an XVIII century French author.

When some consider that we could feed lots of children with 95k$, sure, but consider the billions of $/€ spent to go to the moon or to mars. Useful ? For me yes but not for everyone. We could feed the entire plane’s earth population for months.

People buy hifi gear for the value they see in them. I would never buy a Wadax because to me it’s ugly but for others it’s superb. Fine.

I owned at first an Audioaero Prima DAC, thinking it was super good. It was, for what I could pay back then.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC IV platinum but bought the Diamond version, big jump in quality, thinking it would be my last DAC.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC V Diamond but waited a few months and bought the MSB Reference DAC, stellar jump.

MSB announced the Digital Director. Though a bit skeptical at first, I bought it and heard a another massive improved SQ. I considered I had reached the ultimate quality in my system… big mistake,, …

…until I could borrow a Cascade DAC demo unit for a week from the Frenchdistributot , testing it on my system. What a slap in the face.

The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...
1753925584398.png
 
Abascal said:
No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...

Welcome to ASR. Keep reading....
 
We don't need to listen to know that it is overpriced and not worth it. Look at it like this: if we know that a $100 DAC is able to do its job below the limits of audibility, what is the point of paying $90k for a DAC? Now don't get me wrong, I would be happy to pay more for better build quality, more functions, nicer styling, etc. And in fact I did. But I would do so knowing that I am not buying better sound quality.
 
Abascal said:
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.

« La critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile » used to say an XVIII century French author.

When some consider that we could feed lots of children with 95k$, sure, but consider the billions of $/€ spent to go to the moon or to mars. Useful ? For me yes but not for everyone. We could feed the entire plane’s earth population for months.

People buy hifi gear for the value they see in them. I would never buy a Wadax because to me it’s ugly but for others it’s superb. Fine.

I owned at first an Audioaero Prima DAC, thinking it was super good. It was, for what I could pay back then.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC IV platinum but bought the Diamond version, big jump in quality, thinking it would be my last DAC.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC V Diamond but waited a few months and bought the MSB Reference DAC, stellar jump.

MSB announced the Digital Director. Though a bit skeptical at first, I bought it and heard a another massive improved SQ. I considered I had reached the ultimate quality in my system… big mistake,, …

…until I could borrow a Cascade DAC demo unit for a week from the Frenchdistributot , testing it on my system. What a slap in the face.

The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...

This person joined ASR in 2023 - not sure this person has read the forum at all.

I suspect this a parody post and I completely missed the humorous tone... then, HAHAHAHA VERY FUNNY! :D

Just see where this person hits all the marks:

1.- Assertions without evidence relying on very fallible human senses
2.- Price fallacy: Obvious from the beginning, but very clear once we hit the "called my banker" part of the post.
3.- Belief in break-in - while this person uses "warm up" which I concede is a different idea, a device doesn't need 3 days to reach stability. And not DACs.
3.- Re-iteration of the "senses over science" idea.
4.- Bonus points for the untranslated french in an english language forum, even though is easy to google translate this days. Plus the phrase could be seen as a fallacy. Those on the receiving end of positive criticism will have no use for the phrase.

This was designed to humourously rile up ASR.


In conclusion, I don't believe this person is serious, I think this person just botched a joke that could have been pretty funny.
 
Last edited:
Abascal said:
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.

« La critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile » used to say an XVIII century French author.

When some consider that we could feed lots of children with 95k$, sure, but consider the billions of $/€ spent to go to the moon or to mars. Useful ? For me yes but not for everyone. We could feed the entire plane’s earth population for months.

People buy hifi gear for the value they see in them. I would never buy a Wadax because to me it’s ugly but for others it’s superb. Fine.

I owned at first an Audioaero Prima DAC, thinking it was super good. It was, for what I could pay back then.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC IV platinum but bought the Diamond version, big jump in quality, thinking it would be my last DAC.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC V Diamond but waited a few months and bought the MSB Reference DAC, stellar jump.

MSB announced the Digital Director. Though a bit skeptical at first, I bought it and heard a another massive improved SQ. I considered I had reached the ultimate quality in my system… big mistake,, …

…until I could borrow a Cascade DAC demo unit for a week from the Frenchdistributot , testing it on my system. What a slap in the face.

The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...
I am impressed by the effort to sign up almost 2 years ago, just to make this one nonsense post!
 
Abascal said:
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.

« La critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile » used to say an XVIII century French author.

When some consider that we could feed lots of children with 95k$, sure, but consider the billions of $/€ spent to go to the moon or to mars. Useful ? For me yes but not for everyone. We could feed the entire plane’s earth population for months.

People buy hifi gear for the value they see in them. I would never buy a Wadax because to me it’s ugly but for others it’s superb. Fine.

I owned at first an Audioaero Prima DAC, thinking it was super good. It was, for what I could pay back then.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC IV platinum but bought the Diamond version, big jump in quality, thinking it would be my last DAC.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC V Diamond but waited a few months and bought the MSB Reference DAC, stellar jump.

MSB announced the Digital Director. Though a bit skeptical at first, I bought it and heard a another massive improved SQ. I considered I had reached the ultimate quality in my system… big mistake,, …

…until I could borrow a Cascade DAC demo unit for a week from the Frenchdistributot , testing it on my system. What a slap in the face.

The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...
"not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up"

Uhm,

I prefer to have the best possible sound quality (from any part of the chain) within, say a minute or 2?, but whatever, some people have more patience than me it seems:rolleyes:
 
Abascal said:
I am stunned to read such statements about the Cascade DAC from people who did most likely not listen to the gear.

« La critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile » used to say an XVIII century French author.

When some consider that we could feed lots of children with 95k$, sure, but consider the billions of $/€ spent to go to the moon or to mars. Useful ? For me yes but not for everyone. We could feed the entire plane’s earth population for months.

People buy hifi gear for the value they see in them. I would never buy a Wadax because to me it’s ugly but for others it’s superb. Fine.

I owned at first an Audioaero Prima DAC, thinking it was super good. It was, for what I could pay back then.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC IV platinum but bought the Diamond version, big jump in quality, thinking it would be my last DAC.

Then I discovered the MSB DAC V Diamond but waited a few months and bought the MSB Reference DAC, stellar jump.

MSB announced the Digital Director. Though a bit skeptical at first, I bought it and heard a another massive improved SQ. I considered I had reached the ultimate quality in my system… big mistake,, …

…until I could borrow a Cascade DAC demo unit for a week from the Frenchdistributot , testing it on my system. What a slap in the face.

The SQ difference and improvement could be heard in the first minutes, not to mention the level it reached after three days of warm-up: it was just unspeakable. I called my banker and ordered one !

Over engineered ? maybe, mayby not.

No test, no measurements, no scientific method : just me, with my ears and my pleasure, bravo MSB !
Click to expand...

Dude! I can't stop laughing! This is great but it should have been posted on the "A Call for Humor" thread. Fantastic!
 
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