High End 2015 • Hot Product

MSB unveiled the Select DAC last year, some of its allure being that any upgrades the company came up with in the year after purchase would be free to the owner. Somehow we doubt that many of the 50 or so buyers expected their $60,000 Select DACs to turn into $90,000 Select 2s, but that’s what happened.

The Select 2 is a completely new design in a new case that abandons the side-grilled format used by MSB in recent years. The new model is pretty radical. It has 16 hybrid DAC channels that produce enough current to make an output stage unnecessary. Eliminating a gain stage is effectively eliminating one of the barriers between you and the music, a significant breakthrough. The Select 2 is completely modular and accepts modules for any input or output type that is available, including a preamplifier stage with analog volume control and a headphone output. The clock is a new version of MSB’s femto clock with jitter of only 33 femto seconds; even by this company’s standards that’s very low. Finally there are two power supplies located in the separate chassis, and both chassis can be had in gold, silver or black.