Anyone done extended listening with a Simaudio Moon 750D?

[jay]

I heard a very brief listening at my local dealer's this weekend and was quite impressed with the new Moon 750D. Now, it's expensive as hell in my book for a DAC--I think it retails somewhere in the $12-13K range (it does have a built-in transport which is kind of a nice "bonus"). However, I heard it A/B tested with a $15K-ish Esoteric SACD player, and with several redbook CDs playing via the Esoteric as both a player and a transport feeding the 750D via coax, the 750D sounded much better across the board. And this is saying a lot because previously I preferred the Esoteric to Moon's previous flagship Andromeda.

 

Just curious as to if anyone else has had this in home and compared it to other DACs like the Berkeley or Weiss? My Moon SuperNova keeps up nicely with my Ayre QB-9 (albeit slightly more forward sound, I wouldn't call one better), and the Andromeda is supposed to be better than the SuperNova, and if the 750D is better than that?

 

[Falcon]

Hi

Courtesy to my dealer I had the 750D for ca 6 weeks alongside the Andromeda and Supernova. The 750D impressed me for the soundstage and the stereo effect - nothing comparable I heard before from any other system. However after hours of listening my conclusion was that while these two traits are fabulous the 750D goes for the effect and not for substance and actually it was a pretty tiring sound. I settled in and bought the Andromeda (although if my budget were lower I would have purchased the Supernova). On top of this two models of the 750D I had at home had major technical problems (maybe a too new product) - one even occasionally span the CD in an opposite direction (the dealer is trying to fix it with Simaudio), the 750D would miss some notes on the track or would start with a 'clicking' noise on the loudspeakers. Something not very reassuring overall and especially not in this price range. I am also critical of the Andromeda as while it does provide a very appealing and natural sound it is like listening to a philharmonic concert from 50-60 metres away from the soundstage (the 750D is rather 10 metres - depending on what you like). Personally I like to listen to music over many hours and the Andromeda is perfect for me even if in the ideal world I would love to see a mixture of the 750D and the Andromeda. Don't care how they position the products but I still think Andromeda has more to offer than the 750D - unless you want to go fully digital/computer based and get rid of your CD collection - I don't.