Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

The current software version is v1.22, which adds support for DSD128 and requires a new DSP board. Units having these latest updates from the factory should also have the power supply changes (which had an earlier availability) as well as the recent OCC fuse bypasses which make another significant improvement in the DAC's performance.

Just to clarify, the revisions noted in my post above are in reference to the Bricasti M1 DAC.

Thanks Bill. I am pretty much 100% positive the M1 I am getting in is the latest greatest kool aid.

Speaker hunt is progressing.

I need to pull all the damn wall to wall carpet I put in (I'm a dumb ass) and replace it with a faux-wood vinyl floor. The room is too damn warm. I think my love seat may be an issue as well, but I'm going to replace the floor ASAP. Then I can decide about the couch.

Current speakers I'm auditioning and will be in my room concurrently to directly compare:
- Vienna Acoustics - Der Muzik
- Hansen - Prince E
- Boenicke W8SE+
- Lawrence - Double Bass
- Marten - Coltrane Tenor

Fun fun fun!!!!

Matt, since we are taking statement Loudspeapers, let's not forget: LumenWite Silverflame

Not cheap at £25K retail though

http://lumenwhite.com/silverflame_d_uk.html

" poland´s www.highfidelity.pl, one of europe`s most active high end audio webzines grants lumen white`s muenich high end 2015 show exhibit their "best sound of high end 2015" award.
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german high end magazine "hoererlebnis" features a detailed review of the"silver flame" monitors in their december 2007 issue, concluding:

"the lumen white silver flame monitor`s sonic superiority set them instantly apart from all other loudspeakers we know and let them win the hearts of all those, who love music."

key quotes from the review:

"the sound of the lumen white has a captivating, unbelievable ease, purity and airiness.

the music appears instantaneously, as if out of nowhere, in the listening room, free from any kind of colorations and cabinet resonances".

this quality caused instant fascination when the first lumen white speakers appeared years ago and here is the same fascination again. it also may be one of the reasons for the unprecedented success, which the brand has garnered around the globe."

"in smaller listening rooms, the speakers, while significantly smaller in size, deliver low frequency extension close to that of the few significantly bigger loudspeakers in the world which are able to reproduce the lowest of the bass registers with wall shaking realism."

"their capacity to recreate the musical event in a realistic and holographic way in the listening room may indeed represent the very edge of the art at the limits of audio technology"

"their sound breathes true life, offering musical realism of a magnitude which in fact may prove impossible to surpass."

"one could literally "see" the violin player silently nodding her head in the direction of the pianist"

"the silver flames achieve perfect musical homogeneity and do so without any softening of precision or glossing over of fine detail.

details down to the most subtle spacial clue are presented, are present without sticking out, are reproduced as fully integrated parts of the whole gestalt."

"wherein lies the key to the exceptional and unsurpassed transparency, realism, and ease of the lumen white`s`sound?

is it their use of an identical membrane material over the whole frequency band? is it a result of the unique cabinet design with its "damping free" technology? and, what role does their elegantly simple, but uncompomisingly fine, crossover play in this context?

while we are not able to solve this mystery, what we know for certain is that the lumen white silver flame`s sonic superiority set them instantaneously apart from all other loudspeakers we know and let them win the hearts of all those, who love music."
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http://www.hifinews.co.uk/news/article/lumen-white-silver-flame-pound;25000/7582

So why did the review give only a Sound Quality of 89% ????