The LKS has two 50 watt toroidal transformers. One is for the digital circuits; one for the analog circuits. The Holospring appears to have one transformer about that size (Is it, in fact?) and one quite a bit smaller.
What would be the advantage of a silver v. a copper transformer of the same power?
In any event, to answer your question I suppose you'd have to buy an LKS and substitute in a silver transformer.
I’m just curious if the LKS would benefit from the use of silver transformers like the Kitsune modded Holospring Level 3 has, or are the existing transformers that are in place the best option?
I would read what he wrote to mean that the modified LKS is better than the unmodified LKS and that the modified Sonica is also better than the unmodified LKS. But I take that with a grain of salt. I think I have read everything written on the net about the LKS, and in more than one language. I have never seen a comparison of Ric's modified to an unmodified LKS written by a user.
Read above in this thread what Ric wrote about the unmodified and the modified LKS in the What's Best Forum.
Keep in mind that Ric's modification market for the LKS is infinitesimal. Not only are there very few, but it has been much praised in unmodified form, surpassing its predecessor (LKS 003) as modified substantially. Moreover due to its very large size, quality parts, functional simplicity (compared to the Sonica) and very simple layout it is relatively easy for hobbyists to modify on their own. The unmodified LKS is already like a Sonica on steroids!
The modification market for the Sonica (and 205) is much larger. So a little puffery on Ric's part can be excused.
Stumbled upon this old thread doing some research looking to upgrade.
@ricevs Looking for clarification on this statement. Do I understand correctly that your opinion is the modded Sonica Dac sounds better than the modded LKS?
And this is with a stock LKS. Modified it is mucho better. Modded Oppo
Sonica DAC even slightly better.....now I will finish the Oppo 205
mods.....that will, I am pretty sure, be as good as the Sonica. Good
time for great digital sound without spending a fortune.
@smodtactical The upgraded Amanero board is excellent with its own power supply (though drawing about 5V from one of the 50W transformers). It also has two femto clocks on board.
The Schiit unit is not at all comparable as the Amanero board is a USB to I2S board, not a USB to coax. Major difference, and much in favor of the Amanero.
As for the input, you use the Amaero board if you want to go in via USB. That would depend upon your source.
As for a US review, I believe that they can sell all that they make and mostly in Asia. It’s supposed to be a favorite in Hong Kong. So no American marketing. Anyway, why would you believe an "official" reviewer more than the dozens of users who offer opinions on the various ’net sites? I don’t think a commercial reviewer would write that a $1500 Chinese DAC could compete with the major players who offer a lot of advertising. Just my personal $.02. Also US mags usually don’t review components that don’t have US distribution.
I just wish LKS sent a demo unit out to a major reviewer like innerfidelity or earphiles so we could get an official review. I asked them to do this but they didn't reply. It would help my confidence.
@auxinput Seems you've got a very good understanding of what's under the hood of these components. Way over my head but I enjoy learning and doing research.
@melm Haha I did the same thing and used a lot of Google translate as well. I also didn't find any reliability problems. And yes, tons of room under there!
You guys are killing me. I'm just finishing 10 days of work here and have another 2 weeks off to enjoy my rig again. And the new Curious USB cable should be waiting patiently in the mail box...
@hfaddict wrote "I’m quite happy with my purchase and can only hope it is as reliable as my Chord has been!"
I think I've read just about everything written about this DAC, and with the help of Google in 3 languages. I have not yet read of anything going wrong with the DAC. There were some issues of possible overheating in the analog area. Early adopters addressed the problem in a few different ways. The factory has since resolved the issue.
One thing I think that makes the LKS easy to assemble without issues and even keep running well is the large amount of real estate that you get with the unit. It is large and laid out very simply with plenty of space around components. You have put up a lot of pictures, but my favorite is of the insides: https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/9938884.jpg Your unit, if of recent manufacture, differs from this picture in that the 8 FETs in the analog section are now on the underside of the board.
In fact, should anything go wrong, and as you can see, it would be fairly simple to disconnect a few plugs, remove a few screws and the Amanero board and lift out the circuit board to send in for repair if necessary.
Some additional comments here on the LKS (which I have been interested in for over 10 months). First of all, if I were to design a DAC architecture, the LKS actually does almost everything perfectly right. The only 2 things that I have concerns about are the FET based analog stage (I prefer bipolar circuits) and the use of silver-mica compensation capacitors in the analog stages.
FET devices have a warm texture to them that many people love, but I feel detracts from the realness and accuracy of the music.
In my testing and experience, silver-mica capacitors are like super high frequency boosters, but can make the sound somewhat artificial and they do have microphonic problems. However, in this situation, the combination of silver-mica and a FET analog stage could result in great sound. In all my testing, I prefer true film-on-foil polypropylene caps. The Kemet PFR series are the smallest true "film-on-foil" caps that would work in this situation. They are much smoother and more realistic sounding than silver-mica.
Finally, there has been much discussion on the LKS vs Denafrips Terminator. Saying that Denfrips is generally the better DAC. I think it is totally in the eye of the beholder. The Denafrips does have true resists R-to-R circuits. However, two things. 1. I see op amps on the board at the bottom of the resister array circuits. I don’t know if these op amps are the "analog output stage" or if they are doing something else. I’d rather have a discrete bipolar analog stage than op amps any day. 2. They have an excellently designed power supply with massive amounts of small capacitors (for low ESR). However, they chose to use all Elna Silmic and Elna Cerafine capicators here. In my testing, the Elna’s have a very nice smooth sound, but they are just too laid back in the midrange and high frequency attack. It makes the DAC sound softer, milder and laid back / smooth. For many, this can be a desired sound, but I would rather have the resolution of a highly detailed DAC. If it were me, I would load that Denafrips power supply with Nichicon Muse KZ caps instead of the Elna's they have.
In comparing the LKS with Denafrips, best I can do is youtube videos of both (some of them are actually using the same system). The Denafrips, while nice, is going to be too laid back and subdued for my tastes. The LKS appears to do everything right as it does sound very analog and real, but I can’t tell if it has enough attack/resolution until I finally decide to pull the trigger and get one in my system.
In my case, the two possible options are the LKS MH-DA004 or the Krell Vanguard DAC (I totally love the Krell discrete Class A bipolar audio stages). Krell only supports RCA coax input. LKS has RCA and BNC coax, as well as i2s (Pink Faun PCI i2s card in my future?!?).
It is rare that a do-all component can excel at all of its functions over separate, well chosen components. A couple of the commercial reviews of the hdv820 suggest that its DAC section is outperformed by separate DACs which themselves have been said by users to have been outperformed by the LKS 004. I have tried in vain to obtain technical information about the DAC section of the hdv820 other than that it probably uses an ESS 9018. They don't seem to give out a lot of information about what else is inside.
One of the problems in considering purchase of the LKS is that there are no domestic dealers and almost no opportunity to try one out at home or even to hear one. It is generally decided upon on the basis of a lot of reading and research. It may not be the very best, but it certainly seems to compete with the best--and has a huge price advantage
As for USB mode, I can report better performance after ripping CDs and playing through a laptop to the LKS than playing the CDs through an Oppo 105 and out to the LKS. Of course I can now rip SACDs and play them through the LKS as well. No comparison to playing the SACDs through the Oppo DAC which is far inferior.
Finally, I didn't know what sbaf is, but after reading the @hfaddict post I took a look. It seems the guys over there simply reject the whole class of delta-sigma DACs notwithstanding that some of the best DAC implementations on the planet do very well with them, and taking note of different tastes. Much too much concentration on the chip rather than on the implementation and no talk at all of the music used for any comparisons. Frankly, they seem like a bunch of jerks with a kind of political point of view, and who want to sound like they know more than they do. It's their way or the "sound like crap" way! Interesting, but very odd.
@smodtactical Great gear! I’m sure you get a lot of enjoyment there.
As for the LKS 004 besting your current set up, it’s hard to say without knowing your own sound preferences, the characteristics of your phones/speakers and what you hope to gain. I would venture to say you would get a performance upgrade using the LKS as an external DAC but the price vs performance ratio may not be worth it at this point? And of course, the more revealing your gear, the more changes you'll notice.
I currently run the LKS 004 using the USB input and it sounds great, absolutely no qualms from me vs the co axial route in my system. I’m using an Audioquest Cinnamon cable with a Curious cable on the way. I’m excited to see what this cable swap brings as there are a lot of positive reviews kicking around.
I’m sure you’ve looked at the 81 page thread about this DAC over on Head-Fi. I’ve read the whole thing and the one reviewer did mention the Chord Dave bested the LKS 004 in musicality and dynamics I believe. I can’t even afford to be in the same room as the Dave but it sounds like this DAC can hold its own, although I’m speculative of it besting some $10k + DACs. But stranger things have happened!
I did found the 2Qute to have a bouncier sound vs the LKS. Generally there will be some give and take with any gear swaps of course. But ultimate synergy is my goal.
I also read that thread on Super Best Audio Forum. Very arrogant and stand offish, turned me right off.
Thanks to everyone who gave their impressions. This is a pretty exciting dac. Right now I have an hd800s, zmf Auteur and Atticus and was running them out of a burson conductor sl 9018. A great dac and amp but I just upgraded to an hdv820 which blows the Burson away in every way.
I wonder if I can still make a big gain in sound quality adding this dac to my chain rather then using the built in dac of the hdv.
A few questions for those of you running this dac in your chains are any of you doing it in USB mode ? If so how does that compared to other input modes?
I know one member mentioned in some ways it was better than dave but another member said it was behind the 2qute in at least dynamics. This makes me a bit confused as to where it genuinely stands among other totl dacs.
Are there any further thoughts how it compares to other high end dacs such as yggy 2 or qutest/Hugo ?
What's the deal with sbaf? Their thread over there on this dac is filled with nothing but hostility.
I’m bringing this thread back as I have recently replaced my Chord 2Qute with the LKS MH-DA004. There is also not a whole lot of info/reviews out there on this great component.
Here are my comparisons between my 2Qute and the LKS 004: There is no comparison! Just kidding. I’ve owned and enjoyed the 2Qute for over 2 years and it is also an outstanding DAC for the price.
I’d have to say the only thing that the 2Qute has on the LKS 004 is a touch more dynamics. It’s a little more jumpier and playful, this comes even more into play at low volume listening. But I couldn’t consider this a deal breaker by any means.
The LKS 004 trumps it everywhere else, including bass energy. It plays low(er), controlled and doesn’t leave me wanting in this aspect at all. The soundstage is massive but not artificial sounding in the least. It may have added a bit more width but the depth and feeling of spaciousness is where it really shines over the 2Qute. Details, especially micro details are much more apparent. I would never have considered the 2Qute to have any glare/etch on the treble but somehow the LKS has managed to bring forth more treble air and information while being even smoother. Mid range is beautiful and engaging.
Physically this DAC is a beauty, build quality is top notch. She’s heavy and well crafted. I don’t need to get into the high quality parts used on this unit as it’s been previously mentioned.
It’s also a really nice feature having a remote as I use my 2 channel for movies and now I don’t need to get up to switch inputs. You can also switch filters/bandwidth setting/brightness, on/off etc with the remote.
I’m quite happy with my purchase and can only hope it is as reliable as my Chord has been!
I'd share pics but this forum is horrible for that.
Correction: In my post above I incorrectly named the small Chinese Company that designs and manufactures the LKS DACs. It is Mu Sheng Electronics (沐声电子).
And this is with a stock LKS. Modified it is mucho better. Modded Oppo Sonica DAC even slightly better.....now I will finish the Oppo 205 mods.....that will, I am pretty sure, be as good as the Sonica. Good time for great digital sound without spending a fortune.
Since I am the OP, perhaps it's time for me to offer my long term impressions of this DAC. I have not been a digital guy and have not compared it to other fine DACs. But recently on another forum I was asked about strengths and weaknesses of the DAC and this is how I replied:
Before the LKS I used a Lavry Black and then an Oppo 105. But being a listener mostly to vinyl they proved unsatisfactory and I found myself almost not using them. By contrast I find the LKS to give me a sense of musical event similar to my vinyl playback system, but with the usual digital advantages. Bottom line is that I enjoy listening to it easily as much as to my vinyl. First of all, perhaps due to its enormous power supply, there is a top to bottom fullness. There is also the solidity of instruments in space. You can almost reach out and touch. The quality of the bass is really fun. My earlier DACs presented the instruments to me as vapor or cardboard. Beyond that with the right material the music fills my wall from beyond the speakers and there is very good depth, a see-through quality. Using one ESS9038pro dac chip for each channel might have something to do with the spatial illusions. Like when I upgraded to a fine all tube phono pre, it differentiates more clearly between the good and the great software. Almost all of my listening now is from a laptop and HD playing ripped CDs and SACDs plus a few downloads.
As for weaknesses, as to sound I can't determine any. But I'm no digital expert. The weaknesses, as far as I am concerned have to do with the conditions of ownership. LKS (Li Ka-shing) is a small Chinese company with no international presence. Consequently ownership is a bit of an adventure. As an earlier adopter I had to address an overheating problem that the factory has since addressed. Very easily done with a few cheap heat sinks. Support from the factory is supplied by email from an English-speaking support person. Still have to deal with things like removing the Amanero board to update firmware, but not a big deal. It's simple, and the factory provides very detailed instructions in English, but for a bit of a hobbyist. For additional support I keep in touch with other owners in a thread at head-fi.
Well, finally I have had a run in period virtually done at 200 hrs, with the lks, My previous dac was a chord Dave running as a pre to my bhk250 fitted with matched nos 1963 Siemens grey tubes. I didn't bother getting critical at first but straight off the bat the lks was very much like the Dave which was initially promising but I let it run for a full week before any comparisons on purpose. , previous to Dave was PS directstream, auralic Vega, oppo ha1,nad m51,ca dac magic, ect,, I also have a good friend with a msb select dac, dual power, 33clock, ect ect,fully optioned, that I have had in my system for a week, so I consider myself to somewhat know how good a particular dac can sound. I have nothing to do with lks, and can say the after hearing the Denafrips terminator it is going to replace my lks as it is the best dac on the market ATM for the money,,,,, but, at the lks's price its a no brainer, the lks has better separation than Dave by far, it's much quieter, has double the Dave's bass in a much more controlled manner and without raveing on ,in my system its synergy, with is nuances within a black as black background is instantly obvious, it also makes no difference being fed dirty wall power or PS p10 power, thanks to its linea ps I guess,, the terminator has the same traights but has the msb ladder dac type glorious presentation to boot, One things for sure the lks is king of the dacs at a give away price
@torinf I’m the OP and I like this DAC a lot, but you sound like a shill. You’ve sent your overly long post, in exactly the same form, to a number of different forums. It looks as though you have and agenda and a product to push and a seller to get it from. I have never seen anything like this. Frankly, I don’t think anyone should pay any attention to what you write. Just my $.02.
tuffy, I doubt you'd be disappointed. For the money, I can't imagine finding better and honestly, i'm not sure for 10x the price you would have a "better" DAC. They have really put these DAC chips to good use in this uint. The quality of the build is over the top given the price point. Sonically, it is detailed and incredibly transparent and coherent. I hesitated for sure. I went directly to MU Sound to get mine. I bypassed the middle man and saved a couple hundred. They respond quickly to emails if you have questions or concerns. I'm not one to sell anyone on anything, and I'd prefer to buy USA products, but do your research and talk to others first and make your decision after due diligence. T
Thank you. Please try the Total Contact Enhancer as it will elevate the sound quality of your system markedly. Easy to apply and well worth the 300 dollar investment. I have had in my system for not even 2 weeks and it is as if I changed out run of the mill cabling for pretty nice cabling throughout my whole system. My system was already pretty good with nice cabling.
Thank you very much for your post on this thread. I am now really leaning towards purchasing the LKS 004 Dac. I plan to make up my mind after attending Axpona in 4 weeks. I was inable to find their site on the internet. Could you direct me on how to contact muaudio and Jinbo in order to purchase an 004?
Hi audiophile friends. I came across this threat and i know it is a bit old. But thought I'd respond in case anyone is looking for a new DAC. I bought sight unseen after discussing the feedback with a few others. My current system is highly resolving after years of cobbling together what I consider a reference system now: Rega Planar 5 w Crown Jewel mc cartridge Laptop feeding via USB mostly lossless FLAC and SACD iso and DSD files (I have over 3 TB of data in a mirrored array - please do this, I lost my entire collection at one time as I procrastinated to get a backup drive) Jriver music server (works the best at serving up DSD and SACD iso files) feeding Convergent Audio SL1 Legend black path edition preamp Classe Omega Mono amps (the last of the production specs) YG Anat upgraded to Sonja 1.3 status cables are non descript I was using a variety of DACS over the years and had settled on a MF 1A DAC tried both USB and using a Gustard U20 reclocker. I thought my system sounded just great, until I just got my LKS 004 w upgraded Amanero USB input.
It would be hard to go into too many details, but I am certain the system has been brought to a level of resolution and clarity I did not think was possible. I've listened to the "best" DACs on the market at many audio shows in the past several years and it would be hard to find fault with this unit just out of the box. I'm still running it in but after about 5 days, I think I can confidently say that I no longer have a desire to pull vinyl off the shelf. Even PCM files via flac sound beyond what vinyl can reproduce. The dynamic range is on par w records sans the clicks and pops. The level of transparency allows for resolution and space to be determined in live recordings so that individual voices and instruments can be localized in both depth and height. What I was hearing as occasional glare and sibilance - especially w female voice and horns - has disappeared - I was blaming this on the speakers having been at a loss of what was causing this. The phase information on the recordings is clearly being transmitted and this can be determined in the system's ability to convey sense of recorded space and time delays from room reflections on the recording and in a great sense of depth and overtones/harmonics after notes are struck especially percussive instruments like piano and drums.
I had been leaning toward PS audio's perfect wave DAC as a competing option but for the price of this DAC, I can't imagine anything besting it. There are folks like Ric Schultz doing modifications on this unit, but Jinbo at the LKS production facility has been taking suggestions over the last year from such people and adopted some of the mod suggestions into the newer production. I wouldn't mess with what is an essentially perfect machine. The production quality is not to be believed at this price. look at the forums elsewhere at pictures of the chassis and boards.
I'm not one to write reviews on things here but I felt compelled given all the banter about it back and forth. If anyone is on the fence, please keep this unit in mind when making a consideration. I bought mine directly from LKS (muaudio) and Jinbo is quick to answer emails and questions. You will save a couple of hundred buying direct from him vs his distributor and will be assured to have the latest production model.
"Jib222, How did your LKS MH-DA 004 DAC modification turn out?"
Funny, but I think we’ll never know. This question has been asked since this old thread began. Something seems to have happened to Jib222’s DAC at, or on its way to or from Ric. The last news is that it had to be returned to the factory. Strange because, though I’ve read virtually everything that’s been written about this DAC on the ’net (and in several languages), I have never read about a unit that came from the factory that hasn’t work perfectly. Quality control seems to be exemplary. (There was one case where the optional Amanero board was replaced immediately upon a complaint.)
Also, as for how the modification might turn out, the only two persons who have written about having their unit modified by Ric each have had their DAC directly shipped to him. So a before and after "How did it turn out?" may never be written. Ric’s modifications to this DAC seem to be less extensive than those he does on the Oppo. On the Oppos he replaces the entire analog output section with a new discrete one. Not necessary on the LKS that features 8 JFETs and associated components.
Iv ordered an 004, and coming from a chord Dave I'm very excited, other Dave v 004 posts have said very close, with the win for the Dave, just, (so it should) but of course this new chi-fi improvement will never catch on with the brand name purists, I'm glad I sold my Dave at a good price. these Chinese dacs are a no brainer , especially the Denafrips terminator, which is my next order to a/b test. My friend owns a msb select with a 33clock and dual power supply, so will be doing some serious testing in the coming future 😀
I would sell the Onkyo and buy a used Oppo 103. They're selling cheap ($2-300) on eBay. Then you can do everything you want (and much more) for a very reasonable price. And you can operate it all from your phone too.
I have been looking into this LKS some more, and have some questions if someon could help me out. This is what I would like to do with an DAC, can the
LKS MH-DA004 do this?
1)
Use CD player, Onkyo C7030 as a transport only device and connect
it to a DAC
2)
Stream Spotify or Tidal
3)
Itunes
4)
Connect Iphone to play music bluetooth or wifi
Sorry if this sounds like I dont know what I'm doing, but like I stated before I am all new to this stuff.
Melm, Thanks for your input. For now, I think it will be used as a DAC connecting my Onkyo C7030 CD player as a transport into it, then into my pre-amp. Later on I plan on getting more sophisticated with streaming music. I really am a novice on this digital music stuff, the learning curve is going to be really high for me! This is my concern about the LKS. The Oppo Sonica may be a more user friendly unit, but not as good sound quality as the
LKS MH-DA004. If anyone has more input I would appreciate it!!
To use the Coax, Optical, AES/EBU or the BNC, there is no set-up, just plug it in. If that’s all you plan to use, no reason to buy the optional Amanaro USB board.
If you have a sophisticated music server that outputs I2S you also don’t need the optional board.
For the Amenero USB I found the set-up easy as I have JRiver. With the help of the email factory support all I had to do was download the Amanero driver, from Amanero or from the support page, and set JRiver as follows: Audio Device is set at "Combo384 ASIO 1.03 (ASIO)", DSP & Output Format should be left at "None". Bitstreaming should be set to "Yes (DSD)". The factory suggests that DPLL should be set at BW08 or above. I set it a bit lower. It works perfectly playing any kind of file from my computer. I’ve used my Oppo to rip DSD files off all of my SACDs and they have never sounded so good.
If you are expecting the level of support given by Oppo, it’s not likely to be there. You will likely have to do some learning, and correspondence with other owners.
A list of DACs that someone on some forum have so far said is out played by the LKS 004: GUSTARD DAC-X20 Pro Super Ultimate modified Schiit Yggdrasil modified LKS 003 CA DACMagic EE MiniMAX Plus EE Supreme vega dac holo spring level three bluesound vault2 oppo sonica dac mytek brooklyn auralic altair T+A DAC8 DSD
Some are more, some are less expensive.
That being said, though the DAC is continuing to perform extremely well IMO, it has a known overheating problem. That is being addressed in a few ways, the easiest of which is simply to have a very cheap whisper fan on top of the grill opening.
For someone who has received the LKS 004, what type of manual or literature comes with it? This will be my first DAC and need some good documentation to help me get this set up. I am also considering the Oppo Sonica just because of the included manual and customer service available. Any thoughts?
I dont have it yet - The chip set had to be replaced by LKS, there was "noise". Once I get it, hopefully by next week or so, I will let you know my thoughts!!
Fair challenge. I was basing that statement on Ric Schultz’s comment in a recent phone conversation that he felt that the LKS 004 sounded better (to him and a customer) than a modded Yggdrasil DAC in a head-to-head listening comparison. Just a data point. I too would like to read real-life comparisons between the 004 and the DACS you mentioned and other well-established products in the higher price ranges.
I would wager that every designer would always opt for a huge outboard supply, but the market wouldn't tolerate it. I was talking to Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note about the CD 4.1x and he said he had to design it as a 1-box unit for the Japanese market because of space issues. I think what you're saying about "well designed" is important, but no matter how well-designed, you can't do internally what you can do with a brute force outboard. I think. I know Linn has a "Brilliant" PS, but I don't know if it's internal or not. I leave that to the engineers.
@chayro - IMO properly designed it doesn’t have to be outboard. Whoever has written about the LKS finds it absolutely silent. That’s true of a number of others with large inboard PS, as well as preamps with large inboard PS, etc. I'm with you that power supply is very important. I’d rather get it built in then be offered a sell-up option at much higher ultimate cost.
@melm - I wasn't really talking about this DAC in particular. There are countless new digital products on the market that the makers or the masses claim far exceeds what came before and I find it difficult to comprehend why the DCS Rossini is allegedly so much better than the Puccini. What didn't DCS know when they built the Puccini? Planned obsolescence? Possible, but I don't know. Again, a big power supply is always a factor and I think more companies should offer the option the way Naim does. Not that I am pushing Naim, but I think that many people have never heard what a really big outboard power supply can bring to a preamp or digital product. Amplifiers too, of course.
" ...the fact that a Chinese firm is able to design, build, and direct market a quality full-function DAC with high-end sonics/construction/feature set at a selling price 50% (perhaps up to 90%) less than past or even current established-brand products with comparable sound quality."
Comparison with DACs at 50% to 90% higher price will be needed to prove this to be true. Direct comparison, in the same room, the same setup, and at the same listening session. That’s the only way. Any takers?
I have never maintained that this unit blows away anything. Frankly, I have no idea. What I do know is that this Chinese maker has just piled in a lot of quality parts and technology in a $1500 package, beyond anything, I think, that a known American or European brand has ever done at anywhere near this price point. I don’t care about "blowing away." I do care about great value. I think most people will acknowledge that it sounds good. Better than Brand X? I don’t know, and don’t really care for Brand X will cost more, probably a lot more.
The LKS has dual ES9038PRO DACs, large dual toroidal linear power supply (50? watts each) with 13 groups of regulation*, all JFET discrete output stage, Amanero USB module, Crystek femtosecond clock, Jensen or Mundorf caps, Cardas RCAs, Neutrik XLRs, Furutech IEC, and even a Swiss Shute fuse plus a remote in a 15.4 lbs. package. Who does that for $1500?
I acknowledge that there may be other, better, approaches to building a quality DAC. But surely this one is pretty OK.
Closest domestic brand value manufacturer I can think of is Oppo, and they make great, high value stuff. I have a 105 and love it. But a lot of people have spent more than the price of the Oppo to modify it, and likely will continue to do so.
*talk about the importance of power supply, something I share
I get where you are coming from chayro and I agree that power supply quality is of paramount importance. That being said, the progress in DAC chip power/capability/flexibility, digital circuitry, output stage design, etc plays a part too.
In this particular case (the LKS 004), it really is three things: the utilization of two powerful DAC chips in a dual-mono 2 channel configuration (vs, for example, Oppo using the same 2 chips, but with one for two channel mode and one for multi-channel mode in their 205), the elimination of op amps in the output stage (discrete), and the fact that a Chinese firm is able to design, build, and direct market a quality full-function DAC with high-end sonics/construction/feature set at a selling price 50% (perhaps up to 90%) less than past or even current established-brand products with comparable sound quality.
I just don't understand new dacs "blowing away" all of the older more-expensive models. What didn't they know 5 years ago that they know now. I will tell you - from my experience with Naim gear, the power supply has a huge impact on the sound. So I can see where a massive outboard power supply might be of consequence. But I just don't know what has been recently discovered in the world of dacs. Seriously.
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