BISON OSUGI

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1050.00 from CRANE ENTERPRISES

Summary:
I agree with other reviewers that Steve Rochlin is way off base in dissin’ this DAC. As far as I'm concerned, he and his on-line rag have no credibility.

I had a GOLD III with the P1000 power supply (something Rochlin never tried) for over three years and it was a delight every time I used it. It was the poor-man's Platinum DAC and has been discontinued. I have now moved on to the GOLD4, or Power DAC.
MSB is perhaps the most advanced DAC company on the planet and keeps pushing the bar higher.

Strengths:
Greatly improves CD resolution and an excellent value.

Weaknesses:
None.

Similar Products Used:
Audio Note Kit 1.1, a relative mediocre performer.
Perpetual Technologies P3-A with P1-A and Channel Islands power supply: a close second but the total is more money.

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Price Paid:  $650.00 from web

Summary:
before buying this unit ,I was using a MSB111 with unsampling, actually I bought the Gold link thinking theres only one version the latest and greatest . But to my chagrin Its a earlier vintage unit which a few reviewers slammed pretty hard "Steven Rochlin" in particular,so this tainted my opinion, then I tried it again after sufficient burn in and sounds phenoninal Why do we put so much stock in reviewers comments? Steve is/was a local guy to me/i bought several pieces off him /mostly in the used vintage dept. I always thought he had more money than brains and his employer thought the same. People wake up. Opinions are like a'holes sometimes,and its amazing how we can get a piece of equipment and cause someone said this our perception is tainted.Well Steve the only reason you had all that money is cause yourbrother in Key West left it to you,you do the math

Strengths:
sounstage.....bass.... definition

Weaknesses:
not much resale value due to opinions

Similar Products Used:
msb link 3/ Rotel 991/Rotel 1070

Price Paid:  $1100.00 from Music Direct

Summary:
This is a review of the Gold Link III with upsampling on and P1000 Power Base. This is the one of the best investments in a piece of audio gear that I have made. Wide, deep and high soundstage, excellent low level detail retrieval, smooth, clean and detailed midrange and highs, deep, tight extended bass. Using Sony SCD777ES as transport. Really cleans up some of the less than perfectly engineered CD,s and reduces listening fatique. Highly Recommended.

Strengths:
Well constructed, excellent value, superb sonics

Weaknesses:
Must be used with P1000 Power Base to obtain best performance.

Similar Products Used:
Audio Alchemy, California Audio Labs

Price Paid:  $1300.00 from musicdirect.com

Summary:
Most open, airy, clear, natural sounding DAC I have ever had in my system. I have a NAD S500, CD player with full class A analog stages, and burr-brown dac. When I a/b this with the gold link (fed from the NAD's digital outpu) the difference is quite striking. The NAD's dac sounds muffled, like listening to music with pillows over your ears. What a diffence the gold link makes in direct A/B comparison! The music instantly opens up, sound stage and ambience suddenly appear, voices sound breathy and natural. String "bite" on guitars is so much more realistic. You can hear the pick scraping the strings sometimes, etc. etc.

Strengths:
openness, recovery of ambience, reproduction of voice, transients, "attack".

Weaknesses:
I consider it expensive at $1300 but worth it.

Price Paid:  $1290.00 from musicdirect.com

Summary:
some CD source now sound much better, some much worse...

Strengths:
Much increased detail extracted from CDs. Much tighter bass from CDs. Noticeably more realistic "attack" in the transients. The first "whap" of a drum really shocks you just like "live". Better stereo seperation.

Weaknesses:
Some Cds are basically unplayable now. I assume they are poor recordings not up to the detial extracted using the MSB

Similar Products Used:
NAD silverline CD