The break-in is going very slowly. It sounded amazing right out of the gate and then the ups and downs began. Some days it sounds better than anything I’ve ever heard and some days sounds like absolute dog s**t.
I made a lot of changes adding caps, fuse, and tube all at once. I have a Black Treasure 274b arriving today after reading Lon’s glowing reviews but I’m hesitant to add another piece into the break in puzzle until this thing settles down. I’m maybe 50 hours in. Long way to go.

Hi Geno. No, my CXN is completely stock. I’ve always loved that streamer but felt like there could be something more. The CXN has such tight and punchy low end that I didn’t get when adding some other DACs. The MP is like the CXN on the lows and low mids but turned up a notch, but then a wider, deeper sound stage and tighter, more focused placement of instruments. The highs aren’t quite as bright as some other DACs but definitely really nice and silky.

I was listening to Iron and Wine’s Walking Far From Home last night and at 3:10 when the low keyboard registers kicked in it was like an ethereal punch to the gut that moved my whole body. Amazing. Though we’ll see where things settle out after three or four hundred hours.

I need to add those rear firing tweeters back in once things settle down. They might be a good fit now.

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Yes! I had exactly the same experience when I upgraded my digital. Some of my favorite recordings are air-checks (not even studio recordings) from the 30s, 40s and early 50s, and they sounded pretty ruff on what was a pretty high end CD/SACD player. But with better digital I feel like I'm getting more music and less other stuff and the old recordings are back in heavy rotation.

Exciting Gilf. Thanks for your thoughts and comparisons.

I have been pretty lucky landing on some pretty real sounding DACs that play well across recordings once tuned to the system/room. Especially with a nice range of very transparent gain/sound balancing stages before (all heavily modified for spacious and musical speed and transparency), and tuning them together, they are really useful to help pull in the beauty from the room and to help solve individual recordings imbalances. So I have not played the field much.

But if the DAC is not really nicely tuned itself, good pre stages are not enough for me. I had a Decware ZDSD DAC here for a while and could get pleasing sound on many recordings, but just could not make it work across recordings. I felt sure in the end this was the base circuit design and parts choices, and that it was not solvable for me, so it went back. But I also had a Tranquility DAC as reference then, originally tuned with parts blind tested and in various good systems, and it was really good in most ways, including playing well across recordings here, especially for the money.

It needed a really good clean stream though, but with that the Tranquility was sort of revelatory for me, a design objective to match high quality "analog," its carefully arrived at parts synergy made it pretty easy to tune toward bringing out the very finest detail in space information, and with balances that support most recordings sounding realer. It did take a little work to get the bass fast enough for me, but it was possible, especially with the icing of some careful and narrow EQ pulls in my player software, cleaning up remaining system and room modes enough to sound real.

Then came the Gustard I have used for lots of years now. I did a lot of modification work on it to my tastes, and it came out really good, especially with a Kitsuni Singxer SU-1 converting USB into I2S going into the DAC, and cables and feet arrived at by sound. I think what feeds the digital is super important, cables and power, and my Mini with a super tuned OS was a notably powerful refinement toward smooth resolution that does not mask fine information...resolution and speeds across balances, and the space that allows them. So that is a lot working together toward balances I love in this room. The thought being that, as usual, is all matters, likely especially with the very clean digital formats. And it sounds like your Musical Paradise is really hitting it all for you, especially showing so well after those well loved competitors you tried.

Interesting you got such a nice awakening with the cap shift. Not really surprising I guess, Obligatos good sounding lower cost caps, but not nearly as refined as Jupiter Coppers. And I think you probably did it right, putting the Jupiters in front of the Mundorf Gold/Silver oils? I used Jupiter coppers in my Torii III and IV for coupling caps for quite a while, and interestingly, in my amps, the challenge was a comparatively accented "warmth" and the slightly dark tone contributing to a thickish bass that came along with a seductive smooth resolution everywhere else. Once I finally got into exploring a lot more caps in the amps, experimenting loads with the power supplies as well, I found I could not use the Coppers anymore. Really good sound if that signature is what is needed, but with my "warmish" oriented amps, too much finally for me no matter where I tried them or how I mixed them with other caps. I have not heard the Mundorf Gold/Silver/oils, but they seem to be pretty clean with extra good detail complexity by reputation (I guess too good for some), but it sounds like in the MP design, your change is really bringing out the best of both caps, something I mostly find better here... two caps that synergize so often better than either alone. It sounds like you really hit is first try!

I look forward to further impressions. I like the look of this DAC for nice design, simplicity, and modifiability... and price!