MUSICIAN Pegasus R2R DAC

[Vhond]

Still curious about the sound comparison between a Pontus II and Pegasus...

 

Someone?

[RayWell]

Holo company has released a new R2R DAC "may" in modification: L1, L2, KDE, has anyone compared it in the path with Pegasus ?

[Vhond]

But this isn't a fair comparison..

 

The new Holo "May" Dac is more then 3 times the price of a Pegasus.

[john57]

I thought about the Holo May Dac,  but the form factor  is not suitable in my environment. The cheaper Spring version is not available. 

[RayWell]

My review acoustic system with Musician Pegasus in setup.
From the middle of the clip test music samples..

[Gladac]

On 6/18/2021 at 5:39 PM, Vhond said:

Still curious about the sound comparison between a Pontus II and Pegasus...

 

Someone?

Somewhere on some forum someone decided upon Pegasus after compared it with Pontus II and saved the money. Try to dig it. Though Pontus II looks impressive, extra 1000$ or more is really debatable IMO. Hope this would help.

[R1200CL]

Deleted

[Gladac]

Before buying "better" DAC then Pegasus,  maybe few cheaper upgrades should be considered first.

 

After buying Pegasus, I did some upgrades to my NUC Tiger Canyon music server. First I replaced NUC case with fanless case Akasa Plato TN. This upgrade lowered the noise floor considerably, I heard more details and clearer. I did not expect that. This was the most cost benefit upgrade so far.

 

Next, I installed Matrix element H with riser cable PCIe to M2. Matrix Audio support failed big time. They were reluctant to confirm the compatibility with riser cable M2/PCIE, and even with Windows Server 2019. So it was plunge into unknown for me costing over 400€. The external LPSU25 12V 1,25A was from Audiophonics. I was so relieved that everything worked fine. 

The Pegasus benefits greatly from this improvement. The remaining digital glare disappeared, as well as sibilance, the sound is now much more musical and relaxed.

Maybe like going from Pegasus to Denafrips Venus II. I am not sure since I heard those two in different rigs and rooms.
 

[John Hughes]

On 6/22/2021 at 1:53 AM, RayWell said:

Holo company has released a new R2R DAC "may" in modification: L1, L2, KDE, has anyone compared it in the path with Pegasus ?

Yes, I upgraded from the Musician to the May KTE Level 3.  The Musician is a great DAC.  Did some nice things in my system. In particular it did high frequencies wonderfully, lots of energy, air and extension.   Bass was good too. It was my first R2R dac, and I was definitely a convert to R2R with my experience of the Musician.  It sounded more like music and less like digital than any previous dac I had owned.  

 

The May however, is as many people have said, in a league of its own.  I was gobsmacked at how much MORE it was.  Bass is stunning and now goes deeper than I have ever heard in my system.  Highs are extended without a bit of grain. The midrange is incredibly transparent. Soundstaging is deeper and wider.  For the first time I think digital can better analog in some aspects.  It was worth every penny!

[Gladac]

Well, in Europe the KTE Level 3 is more then 4 times more expensive then Pegasus. The way you described the sound of it, it is 10 times better. And yes, the sound of digital source can be better then analog in many aspects. The bass is one of them.

[Gladac]

I changed DIY Dual USB cable with IFI Audio Gemini 3.0 USB 2.0 and Audiophonics LPSU25 5V 1,25A. The LPSU remains cold even after 24/7 operation.

 

Well, I don t know much about burning USB cable, but first impressions are positive, the bass timber and definition increases, everything is clearer a bit, more details. Not a substantial difference (for such an expensive cable) but still difference. The Pegasus proved again not to be weakest chain in my rig.

 

I believe I nearly reached my audio summit, I am very happy with Pegasus sound. The only draw back is 6 boxes in my rack instead of two. 

[Zauurx]

The choice of USB cable is independent of the DAC.
I don't wonder about cables anymore, it's an Audiocadabra Xtrimus between my USBridge and the Pegasus and a pair of Grimm SQM XLR between the Pegasus and my Audia.

But I share the feeling of quality on this dac.
Powered by HQPlayer in DSD 256 (NOS NoDop) with ASDMEC filter and poly-sinc-gauss xla, the soundstage width, depth and life of each instrument is amazing.
A Holo May or a Musician Aquarius are certainly above (power supply quality) but the price is not related... not for me in my listening environment.

 

I just planned a fuse change... for fun but I don't listen to my system anymore, just the music  !!

[AudioLibiertarian]

On 3/11/2021 at 9:30 AM, EddieF said:

Do you have an update after reaching 300 hours?

 

I'm a new Musician Pegasus owner and close to 300 hours. There have been no issues other than Roon 1.8 on macOS was limited to DSD DoP and not offering native DSD. So I moved Roon to Windows 10 PC, downloaded and installed the Pegasus driver. Now I can choose and play native DSD up to DSD256. 

 

The Pegasus is in my main stereo system connected via balanced XLR to Rogue Athena tube preamp, Wyred 4 Sound Class D amp, and Martin Logan Spires. I listen primarily to high rez downloaded files of acoustic jazz and jazz vocalists from HDTT, Native DSD, BlueCoast, HDTracks and others. The Pegasus is very impressive. There is nice weight to instruments and fullness to vocals. Warm and rich sounding. There's excellent soundstage depth and noticeable layering. Good soundstage height as well. The bass is deep and tight. So far the Pegasus is meeting my expectations.

HI , Sorry for late reply...

 

The Pegasus was a great unit, but it did not surpass my current dac in my system. I will be probably be trying the new Aquarius soon

[M.f.lima]

On 7/6/2020 at 12:17 PM, Daniel1969 said:

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

 

Better than ECD2?

[output555]

On 6/26/2020 at 11:55 AM, Blake said:

From my perspective, I would only purchase Denafrips branded product, because when you purchase Denafrips branded product you are also getting the outstanding service from Alvin at Vinshine.   With Musician brand product, you won't get Alvin's service.  In my opinion, getting Alvin's service is worth paying an additional premium over Musician product.

 

 

 

I have to disagree. Vinshine doesn't allow returns which I think is reprehensible, especially since most everyone in the US is buying them without trial. So, they're selling you a product at full retail with no courtesy to return if you don't like it. Whereas, Aoshida the distributor for Musician has a very fair no-questions-asked return policy--and provides very good customer service. I was going to buy a Denafrips until I discovered Musician...no contest after seeing Aoshida's superior return policy. The quality of the two brands is the same as far as I can see.

[Mjw21a]

I’ve not heard the Pegasus though I’m rather delighted with the sound of the Aquarius. With about 500 hours burn in on it, and about 150 hours on the Gustard U18 and red WireWorld Starlight 7 HDMI cables this is comfortably outperforming my previous reference, a Farad Super3 powered Mutec MC3+USB and Abbas Audio DAC 2.2SE.

 

 The Gustard needs another 150 hours and I’ve a custom pure silver I2S cable being made up so there will still be a quite noticeable amount of improvement to come which frankly seems hard to believe though there it is.  :)

[Zauurx]

18 minutes ago, Mjw21a said:

I’ve not heard the Pegasus though I’m rather delighted with the sound of the Aquarius. With about 500 hours burn in on it, and about 150 hours on the Gustard U18 and red WireWorld Starlight 7 HDMI cables this is comfortably outperforming my previous reference, a Farad Super3 powered Mutec MC3+USB and Abbas Audio DAC 2.2SE.

 

 The Gustard needs another 150 hours and I’ve a custom pure silver I2S cable being made up so there will still be a quite noticeable amount of improvement to come which frankly seems hard to believe though there it is.  :)

I think it's better than the Pegasus (if that's you post about) but it's way beyond that about price, without adding the I2S choice (doesn't the USB work?): Aquarius + U18 + cable

[Mjw21a]

I’ve compared. The built in USB supports way higher sampling rates, however it sounds far better with either AES/EBU from a Mutec MC3 or I2S from a Gustard U18. Go figure right? Could be due to the AfterDark Emperor Double Crown OCXO clock I use with them though I guess. I find no benefit upsampling. Native sounds best.

[Dandou]

On 12/22/2021 at 1:23 PM, Mjw21a said:

I find no benefit upsampling. Native sounds best.

It's the same for me. I tried upsampling up to 1536 KHz, and DSD512, and could not hear a tangible benefit. 

I play everything in bit-perfect. 

[olegm]

On 8/24/2020 at 5:46 PM, olegm said:

Hi everybody, i also have got this DAC for review, if someone interested: https://soundex.ru/en/obzory/sources-obzory/musician-pegasus/

 

 

I have this dac at home for 2 years already. Mostly i used it for watching TV, not for music. But i noticed, that it was sounding better and better. So i took it  to system of my friend with Dynaudio C4 and Mark Levinson CD player (10k EUR), we compared CD's on ML with Files form MAC computer by USB, and i can say, that both sounded great. Pegasus had even more details and bass and depth of scene. ML was little bit more analogue. But all the bad things which you can hear first half of year or more of using Musician Pegasus, like lack of bass, harshness on highs etc - totally dissapeared. Sound was amasing. I also checked at home MiniDSP SHD DAC and compared it with Musician - Musician didn't left any chance for SHD (though SHD has also room corrector). So my verdict now is - this is really BEST BUY product. But you have to warm it up for really long time. 

[2pacshakur892]

hello, i have a problem. I recently changed the dac nad m51 for this musician pegasus, but when I plug it into my usb jcat femto, it is not recognized. when connected to the regular usb of the pc, it works. Has anyone had this problem?

[Account Closed]

4 hours ago, 2pacshakur892 said:

hello, i have a problem. I recently changed the dac nad m51 for this musician pegasus, but when I plug it into my usb jcat femto, it is not recognized. when connected to the regular usb of the pc, it works. Has anyone had this problem?

Contact Marcin at JCAT. Likely a driver issue.

[tuna56]

9 hours ago, 2pacshakur892 said:

hello, i have a problem. I recently changed the dac nad m51 for this musician pegasus, but when I plug it into my usb jcat femto, it is not recognized. when connected to the regular usb of the pc, it works. Has anyone had this problem?

I'm not familiar with the JCAT, however, the Pegasus needs power form the source. Make sure the JCAT is sending the 5v on the USB.

[2pacshakur892]

28 minutes ago, tuna56 said:

I'm not familiar with the JCAT, however, the Pegasus needs power form the source. Make sure the JCAT is sending the 5v on the USB.

thanks. jcat has some jumpers to enable sending 5v. I put these jumpers but it still didn't work. I sent Marcin a message, I'll wait.