MUSICIAN Pegasus R2R DAC

[Daniel1969]

Hello all. It seems that people are talking here about a new product that is similar to Denafrips ones. In my opinion this is very true. Because I live close to Sandu from soundnews and we know each other for many years he was very nice and lent me Denafrips Venus after he had done his review. It is a great DAC and deserves a great system to shine. Also... few days ago he uploaded his review on the Musician DAC. I asked him to lend it to me for a while. After listening to it for a few days I decided to sell my European DAC, which is 2 1/2 times more expensive and I bought the sample Musician DAC from Sandu... In my opinion his reviews are honest and mostly based on listening to the DACs thru headphones. I do not like headphones too much... so, my own impresions are based on loudspeakers systems evaluation of hifi components.

 

Beeing new on this site I will not try to stirr the waters.

 

I had bad experiences with chinese DACs in the past... concerning fiability... so, I avoided them till now.

Anyway... IMHO, this DAC is a marvel at this price point. The USB card seems similar to the Denafrips new one, but the drivers are different, at least for Windows based systems. 
 

How it sounds in my opinion?

 

If you(the comunity) will ask me to write my own review I will do it in a few days... 

 

P. S. Please, excuse my English mistakes. It is not my native language!

 

[Daniel1969]

19 hours ago, DrMikeOz said:

If you've listened to the Venus and the Pegasus how do they compare ? 

I couldn't do a proper comparison between the two DAC's because Venus was in my system a few months before. Since then I did some upgrades of my power filters and cables and these made their own differences. So... I cannot make a valuable statement on this matter. Still... Venus is a very good DAC and most probably needs a very good system to shine as I always said. But, at the moment I listened to Venus I had another DAC in my system: Nuprime DAC 10H. I can make a comparison with that one.

 

Nuprime DAC 10H is a Sabre 9018K2M based  and the sound signature is different than Venus (Nuprime claims it is very neutral). While Venus was smooth and musical,10H seemed a bit more transparent (both on USB) and dynamic. But... I could feel that Venus needs a long burn in time. When I listen to it the first time was a total disaster... after about an hour things changed dramatically in a good way. Hi end DACs need to be on all the time in my opinion... 

 

My review on Pegasus will be delivered here soon, because I need a bit more days to be sure it has settled in. It will be my first written review, so you should take it with a pinch of salt... anyway, as a spoiler I can tell I am pleased, till now, about what I am hearing.

[Daniel1969]

Btw... if you want to read a good review on Venus:

 

http://highfidelity.pl/@main-968&lang=en

 

I quote:

"And the Denafrips converter is perfect in what it does. It offers beautiful colors and great resolution. However, it is not very selective and has no clearly defined bass attack. Space for it is only a background for instruments that are large, firm and tangible. So it's a specialized product. Powerful rock, country, rap, hip-hop - all these recordings will be smoothed and sound "polite". But all the rest will sound great. Even such demanding, dense productions as George Michael's new digital single This Is How (We Want You To Get High) ( MQA 24/96). "

 

The review is professionally elaborated and my findings were similar! 

[Daniel1969]

The Denafrips DACs warranty is 3 years. For Musician 1 year!

[Daniel1969]

Hello guys,

 

Here is my short review of Musician Pegasus DAC:

 

First of all... my system:

 

Main transport used :

 

Mac mini late 2014(Wireworld Electra C7 power cable) + Audirvana +

2xifi Audio iSilencer plus + USB cable  Acoustic Revive 1.0 SPS

 

DAC : Musician Pegasus

Preamplifier: Electrocompaniet EC 4.8

 

Power amplifier: 2x Electrocompaniet AW400

 

Power cables: 4xWireworld Silver Electra for all(DAC+preamp+monos)

 

Interconnects:

 

DAC to pre - 2 x Kimber Orchid XLR (yes, it is an AES/EBU cable :P)

pre to monos - Tellurium Q Ultra Black II

 

Speaker cabels: Van den Hul The Cloud

 

Speakers: Morel Sopran

 

Power conditioning for DAC+pre+monos: Nuprime AC-4 fed by Cardas Clear Beyond (an amazing power cable)

 

Power filter for network and Mac mini: Fisch Electronics Germany

 

Network cables: Wireworld Chroma from provider router to my router and Audioquest Carbon from router to Mac mini

 

SOUND:

 

Tested using an Thunderbolt Lacie external 2TB HDD filled with flacs, WAV, AIFF, DSF DFF - 16/44.1, 16/96, 24/88,2, 24/96, 24/192, DSD 64 and a few of DSD128. Also TIDAL Master streaming of normal CD quality and MQA unfolded by Audirvana (not fully unfolded anyway)

 

Transparency is great for an R2R DAC (better than Denafrips Venus, as far as I remember, but I already said, I updated my system before having Pegasus..

 so, not a fair comparison) a bit less than Electrocompaniet ECD 2, however.

 

Resolution - on par with my former ECD 2 (2400 euros)

 

Soundstage - huge... a bit better than ECD 2

Trebles - delicate and lots of air

Midrange - as good as any R2R DAC I listened too (a bit better than ECD 2)

Base - spot on and hitting low (maybe a bit less than ECD 2, but I am nitpicking here)

 

Dynamics - here I can tell that it is very close to ECD 2, but not at the same extent, anyway... better than Venus, as far as I recall

 

Transients - excellent for an R2R DAC

 

It reacts very positive to better power cables

 

IMHO - the best DAC I listened to at this price point. An amazing R2R DAC at this price

 

P.S. Tested mostly on USB, but: 

1. using Apple TV 3rd generation on Optical out (very good sound, especially on Youtube)

2. streaming on coax from  Electrocompaniet RENA S-1 streamer (great for TIDAL and local files on USB stick)

3. I do not have a I2S HDMI transport... so, I cannot comment on that

4. Far better on USB than any other digital inputs (in my opinion the USB card is top notch (same as in Venus).

[Daniel1969]

Hello guys... after a few months with Pegasus DAC I can totally recommend it. It is getting better and better, especially on USB... one of the best sound quality/price I have ever encounter. Well done Musician team!