Has Anyone Auditioned an LKS MH-DA004 DAC?

From the EVS site:

5-15-2016: I have a friend in Pocoima who has one of these and we have been tweaking them at the same time. He has a great turntable system ($20,000 worth) and he says that playing 16/44 from his Beatis server through coax and then through modified IFI spdif Ipurifier and then through modded LKS is at least as good as his turntable system!! No upsampling....nada....just great sound.

Hardly unbiased, as it is by or about the guy that did the mods.

Not saying the DAC is bad, but consider carefully the source of all these comments.

Does seems odd to me that a Baetis server (~$4-5K, and nice but nothing special, you can build the same or better at home for ~$2K, I did <look online for the photos of Baetis servers that have been taken apart, very revealing> ) is used to feed a $1500 DAC. And a "modded iFi unit"? Whatever......

My opinion, I sincerely doubt this would be better than a Berkeley or DCS DAC. Not in the same league at all. Not likely to find a real comparison either, as I see the owners’ of these DACS to be mutually exclusive. And no real reviewer is likely going to write-up a DAC handled by the DIY crowd, for obvious reasons.

That said, I’m still interested in the DAC and finding unbiased objective reviews or comments on the unmodded unit from sources that are not part of the DIY crowd and from someone with sufficient listening experience to make meaningful comparisons with other DACs.

"One thing here no matter how much anyone mods the unit and all the Hype"

First of all there is no "Hype." The LKS unit is virtually not marketed at all. If you want to talk about "Hype" continue to write about PS Audio. Fact is you’re comparing $1600 product that you have never heard with a Direct Stream Jr. @ $4000 or a Direct Stream @ $6000.

And just for the record, Ric has recommended the LKS without any mods at all on the Digital Asylum site. While he, as everyone knows, has an interest in mods he had nothing to gain from this recommendation, actually to a working classical musician who writes very frequently on the subject of recorded music.

Also as a person who does mods, Ric has an interest in identifying good hardware at a good price as a subject for modification. That’s the bias, if you wish.

As for more bias, mine is for vinyl.

"My opinion, I sincerely doubt this [$1600 and then fully modded DAC] would be better than a Berkeley or DCS DAC. Not in the same league at all.

Do you mean the $5000 or the 16,000 Berkely DAC;
or do you mean the $11,000 or the $35,000 dCS DAC? 

A "sincerely" held opinion about a DAC that you have never heard.  But, you know, you might be right.

I love these threads.

@melm Which Berkeley, which DCS? Whichever one @gareneau was referring to.

Yes I’m being sincere in my opinion about beating these top DACs. But nowhere near as bombastic as the posts claiming it could be the worlds best DAC. Blows away others no matter the cost. Now THAT’S a crazy statement.

But sincerely (ha!) I do hope it turns out to be a really good DAC that can compare favorably with ones maybe in the $2000-$4000 range.

Be sure to read the Denafrips Terminator post for a completely different POV on ESS / delta sigma DACs.

In the gareneau post, someone was asking a question. You, however, were offing a sincere opinion. So I would respectfully stand by my questions.

Anyway, I find it interesting that you think the LKS may achieve the sound of up to a $4000 DAC, but not the sound of an $11,000 DAC for example. Since you haven’t heard the LKS, by what logical reasoning do you come to that conclusion? Do you go by weight? Volume? Absence or presence of op amps? Do you look inside and estimate the cost of their components and apply a multiplier? (If you do, by the way, don’t neglect the LKS’s Furutech, Cardas and Neutrik connectors.)

As for delta sigma chips, I would not claim they are the best, or even know whether there is a best. But I fear you may be a bit behind the times. Even the older ES9028PRO has been implemented very successfully, and that is the key, I think: implementation. Most who have heard the newer ES9038PRO have written that the early "glare" complained of is entirely gone, and so it seems on my LKS. If the ESS chips have an economic advantage that leaves engineering room for things like better clocks, and particularly a more sophisticated audio section. Sounds good to me.