Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
mine is a MSB full nelson link 3 dac and p1000 which i bought in Feb 2001... and i have been using it for more than 8 years!!

it worked right out of the box till now so the reliability is just amazing and the long time it spent in my system is also a strong testament of it's quality and longevity....

yes of course i was tempted to upgrade many times over the years but i didnt succumb to the new and newer dacs .... right now i am still very satisfied with what i am hearing.....

what i get is good resolution, a sense of air and realism.... bass has adequate power and depth.... voices sound wonderful and alluring..... in all, it's tough to complain anything for the price i paid in 2001...

remember to choose the 132 kHz upsampling option... it's that important and that good..... the 96 kHz upsampling pales in comparison.....

msb is still selling this and now you can order one with a usb input....

Price Paid:  $300.00 from used, on Audiogon.co

Summary:
I bought this after using a Pioneer 563 SACD/DV Audio player. SACD sound was fantastic but there were few SACDs available, and I had 300 standard CDs! The MSB Link Dac 3 with upsampling card made all the well recorded standard CDs sound almost as good as SACDs ! The sound inproved noticeably after switching to a better digital cable ( Black Mountain Cable Peak, MSRP $600). Still better with MFSL and other gold CDs, but very good with most standard CDs. Many early CDs sound harsh, becuse they ARE harsh. This unit is a good way to get back to the real sound of audio, LPs, when you have music only available on CDs.

My system: Spica SC-50 speakers, NHT subwoofer, Outlaw Audio 1050 Receiver, Piuoneer DVD player. Kenwood KD-500 table, Mod Squad Phono Drive, Dynavector MC cartridge.

Strengths:
Very well built, heavy, profesional quality unit.

Weaknesses:
New ones with the add-on boards are expensive.

Similar Products Used:
Theta Coral 307, Monarchy Upsampler

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
After two years of faithful service it suddenly stopped working! Just went dumb. No sound coming out it. The lights are all on, the upsampling even changes lights when toggled at the back, but no sound. Poor durabilty. This DAC is also highly system dependent. Used it with Pioneer DV 525, there is no noticeable improvement. I used it with Rotel RCD 971 and boom! Suddenly all the air around instruments, improved imaging and bass punch is there. Audition first before buying.

Strengths:
Godd imaging, bass.

Weaknesses:
Durability problem and highly system dependent.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I have the Full Nelson version and it was very nice. A toss-up though between it and my Classe CDP .5. The transport I'm using, a Pioneer PD-65, sounded better! BUT when I added the Monarchy DIP (Super Drive) there was a big improvement. THEN when I added the P1000 Power Base.....HUGE IMPROVEMENT. Everything is better and a huge leap up from the Classe and Pioneer. If you have an MSB Link Dac I, II, or III go out and get the P1000 power base. It's like night and day.

Strengths:
combined with the P1000 powerbase and Monarchy DIP it is AWESOME.

Weaknesses:
Doesn't sound great without the P1000 powerbase.

Similar Products Used:
Monarchy Link DAC I w/o upsampling

Price Paid:  $449.00

Summary:
I just but it for a short time , but it make me amazing on it . My qeuipment is B&W matrix 803 with and DIY EL34 AMP ,first of all , My audio player is one Pioneer 733a DVD player . The audio sounds not bad , but it seems there are some " lost " in it . When I plug in MSB LINK DACIII , what a amazing word !The imporvment are more clear now. especaill the low costs US 449 . It worths every one want to imporve your CD audio.

Strengths:
rich and color sound with overtone.

Weaknesses:
power is poor , maybe I need to add one " power P1000 " for it .

Similar Products Used:
Rotel 771CD , Marantz CD19a