I have heard the MSB Analog with the upgraded power base connected to an Aurender N100 via quadrate USB and no doubt it sounded good but I preferred the sharper transients of the Bricasti with the HEK. Not sure if their transport or network renderer would impact this. I have similar concerns with the TotalDac but some have suggested this DAC hits harder. I'm similarly intrigued by the Totaldac Monoblocs as well as the Nagra HD but I'm not yet sure I want to go there.
I suspect this character is due to the Yggy's mega-burrito(reconstruction) filter. I can't say exactly for the yggy, but a typical 18000 tap 8x, "preserves original samples", filter would mean a very-sharp cutoff that is (-6dB) at the nyquist frequency [windowed sinc with sinc at nyquist]. This lets everything in-band through. Unfortunately, material that was poorly resampled to 44.1k will have junk above 20khz that should probably be filtered out. I'm of the opinion that any dac should offer, as an option for 44.1k, a filter that cuts off sharply around 20k and is out by nyquist (22.05k), I've experienced many 44.1k recordings that were saved by dumping the junk (20k-22.05k). (libsamplerate has such a filter.) There are also cases where such a filter diminishes recordings that don't need it.
Yes, many recordings simply have treble issues, period. Yggy will let it show if its there. On properly mastered tracks the effect is non existent. Any DAC hiding treble flaws consistently is colored imo. If that's what people want from their source, more power to them.
Are there two versions of the DAC psu board?
The Bricasti Design M1’s most obvious and special characteristic was its stunning reproduction of transient information...The Analog DAC/ Analog Power Base has a more laid-back presentation than the Bricasti M1. The soundstage of the Analog DAC is slightly wider and deeper. The Bricasti has a more detailed presentation in PCM with superior resolution of the acoustic space of the recording. This should not come as a big surprise as the voicing of the Analog DAC was specifically designed for a sound that avoided digital hardness. I don’t find the M1 to be a hard or harsh sounding DAC, but I will go out on a limb and say for complex musical programs, the M1 is more revealing with a greater sense of resolution for well recorded PCM material when compared to the Analog DAC. But many will find the sonic purity and liquidity of the Analog DAC to be irresistible.
those "upgrades" must have done something.
Since my Eddie Current Studio isn't going to be ready anytime too soon, I might shift some funds temporarily into hearing some other DACs.