Around four years ago, I reviewes the great Reference DAC, which could be equipped with various input and output modules. Shortly afterwards, MSB added the Digital Director to its converters, a concept that Jonathan and Daniel Gullman explained to Roland Dietl. The culmination of the various new approaches is now the Cascade DAC.

For example while the modules for the digital inputs of the Reference DAC, which can be used to configure the converter according to its owner's requirements, are housed in the same casing as MSB's own "Hybrid DACs MKII" - more on this below - they are located in the casing of the so-called Digital Director of the Cascade DAC. The Cascade is not a single device, but a system consisting of three individual components. First, there is the Director, which is also responsible for operation: the four buttons and the elegant rotary knob on the top of the device can be used to select the inputs, adjust the volume and make settings in the menu. The front of the Director is adorned with a large, brightness-adjustable LED display that is also easy to read from a distance. It is updated in time with the audio clock, whose time reference is provided by the femto clock, to ensure that the analog system is not affected by harmful digital noise that would otherwise be generated by the display. The display with its associated circuitry is housed in a separat cavity in the CNC-milled housing block. This is to ensure optimum high-frequency insulation.

In addition to the input modules, the display and the control elements, the Director also houses an analog power supply and two high-performance DSPs with the associated FPGAs, each of which can perform 12 billion computing operations per second – that's four times the performance of the previous DAC generation. This much computing power makes it possible to use new, significantly longer digital filters, which MSB has tailored specifically to the hardware of the Cascade DACs. In an interview, Jonathan and Daniel Gullman, the sons of MSB company founder and now managing director and product developer,, explained to Roland Dietl that MSB had offered various filters to choose from in the early days, but that customers wanted the one "right" filter. That is why they have now taken on the task of listening to different filters and then refining the best one. The aim was by no means to always achieve a pleasant sound. Instruments can also sound rough if they do so in the original. The aim is for the DAC to play "correctly" and true to the original.

All digital signal processing in the Cascade therefore takes place in the Director. It then provides the optimally processed data at the interface called MSB Cascade Link. Diode lasers and optical fibers are used for data transmission in order to guarantee a noise-free data flow with a high bandwidth without electrical noise in the upstream. The raw, uncompressed data is transmitted directly to the converter modules. MSB Technology has designed the Cascade Link to transport not only the data to be converted but also the control commands from the director to the actual DAC and the clock data in the opposite direction. From a technical point of view, this takes place via SFP modules of the type SFP1G-LX-31 from FS, which are specified for a wavelength of 1310 nanometers and a maximum distance of 10 kilometers. The modules are connected via single-mode duplex fiber optic cables.

This brings us to the second part of the Cascade system: the Analog Converter. According to its developers, this is more of an analog than a digital component, as the data stream arriving via the Cascade link is immediately converted into the analog world by eight hybrid DAC MKII modules. These are fully symmetrical, high-precision ladder DACs that can process both PCM and DSD natively and are therefore called "hybrid". The parallel connection of four modules per channel is designed to improve the precision of the conversion and reduce the output impedance. It is part of the company's philosophy not to connect any active components downstream of the resistive conductors: MSB dispenses with any buffers or current/voltage converter stages. The ladder DACs only feed a passive resistor network with constant impedance for volume control. This is done in steps of 0 to 106. For this purpose, latching relays with precious metal contacts, whose coils are switched to ground when inactive to avoid signal distortion, connect various precision resistors in such a way that none of them has too high a power dissipation, which should benefit the maximum linearity of the signal. The level can of course be adjusted not only with the rotary control on the device, but also with the one on the attractively designed remote control. This is made entirely of metal and can be recharged via a micro-USB cable if required. If you select the "Startup Vol" setting in the menu, reach the value 100 and turn one more step clockwise, the converter switches to DAC mode, the volume control is deactivated and "Preamp off" appears on the display.

MBS has upgraded the DAC - or perhaps better: the housing with the eight ladder DAC modules - in the Cascade trio to a complete preamplifier: it has two analog RCA and two XLR inputs as well as an XLR output. Behind the inputs are buffers with an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio, extremely low distortion and a gain of either zero or six decibels. After that, the signal passes through the same passive resistor network that is also driven by the converter module outputs. MSB has also placed the Femto Clock MKIII in the same enclosure, right next to the converters, to keep jitter, which would increase with every additional distance between the clock module and the conversion point in the DAC module, as low as possible.

Strictly speaking, there is not one, but two clock generators: one each for the 44.1 and 48 kilohertz sampling rate families. MSB uses two different oscillators in order to be able to dispense with circuits for generating the two clock rates from the signal of just one oscillator. This is because these circuits would add interference and distortion to the sensitive clock signal. The oscillator circuit of the frequency family that is not currently required is deactivated so that the active frequency family is not affected. The company website also explains once again that a clock for audio applications is not about clock accuracy over time, but about minimizing jitter and phase noise. The third component of the Cascade DAC system is the Powerbase, the sophisticated analog power supply for the Analog Converter. To reduce contamination of the current by local computers, lighting and household appliances, an additional AC filter is located in front of the three high-power transformers wound to MSB specifications. On the secondary side of the electrically and magnetically shielded transformers, coil and capacitor banks then remove a large part of the residual noise from the direct current after the discrete silicon carbide rectifiers. This is then stabilized by discrete, extremely low-noise linear power supplies. The five individual voltages are then available for the Cascade DAC at a ten-pin socket. MSB developed the sockets as well as the so-called "Summit cable" with the Swiss company Fischer Connectors.

As new interfaces are constantly being added in the comparatively fast-moving world of digital technology and previously tried and tested ones are becoming less important, devices with a certain number of fixed inputs would quickly become outdated and lose their value. This is why MSB has already equipped its earlier DACs and now the Director with slots for input modules. The Cascade system comes with an "Optical/Coaxial Module" with one RCA and one Toslink input each, which occupies one of four slots. As with the optionally available "Balanced XLR Module", there is a BNC socket as an isolated word sync output for clocking the devices supplying the signals. As the data and bit rates as well as the data formats for S/PDIF connections are limited, it is of course advisable to use more universally applicable modules. In my experience to date, data obtained via Ethernet produces better sound results than data supplied via USB. This is why the "Network Renderer V2" is the input of choice for my review. MSB has designed its own processor card and software with sonic performance and low noise in mind. The Renderer V2 interface, which is MQA and Roon compatible, replaces a high-quality external streaming bridge, is priced at a customer-friendly 2050 euros - not only by MSB standards - and runs completely stable with the JPLAY app.

Those who prefer a USB connection have a choice: On the one hand, there is the normal "USB input", which accepts data rates up to 384 kilohertz and DSD256 and of which there is also an MQA version. However, USB sounded better than via this input during the review of theReference DAC when it was equipped with the "ProISL Interface", which was connected to the "ProUSB Input" via a fiber optic cable. In the absence of a ProUSB input, I am unfortunately unable to judge whether this type of galvanic isolation between the USB source and the MSB converter is also advantageous for the Cascade system, in which data is only transmitted between the Director and the Analog Converter via optical fiber anyway. Finally, the American digital specialists also offer the "Dual ProI2S Input Module" for connection to older components of their own production. The assignment of the contacts is not compatible with standard HDMI interfaces. Fortunately, providing different input modules is not the only measure with which Jonathan and Daniel Gullman want to future-proof the investment in their components. As Jürgen Sachweh, head of German MSB distributor Hifi2Die4, noted, "old" DACs are taken back on very generous terms when an upgrade to a new, higher-quality device takes place. His example: If a customer has bought a Premier DAC for 31,000 euros and after 2 years would like to buy the Cascade DAC for 109,000 euros, then the 31,000 euros will be fully credited against the price of 109,000 euros.

However, just as I am looking forward to testing the Cascade DAC, the MSB trio also presents me with problems - namely when it comes to accommodating it in my two racks and wiring it in parallel with my own components, which I need at least for a brief comparison. This starts with the power supply: there is just one free slot in the Audioquest Niagara 1200, which supplies all the digital devices. How good that Jürgen Sachweh points out that MSB regards the Analog Converter/preamplifier unit with its power supply unit as an analog device: Accordingly, the Powerbase draws its power from the Niagara 5000, which feeds all analog components. It's just as good that MSB has incorporated stainless steel spike mounts into the top of the trio's housing, meaning that two or three of them can be stacked. Finally, the Analog Converter and powerbase find a place under the Melco N1Z/2EX-H60, which is decoupled with Thixar Silent Feet 20. The Director can claim one level of the Artesania rack next door all to itself. After a little cable swapping, the Cascade and my digital chain have the same good prerequisites: They are connected to the PowerSwitch via Ansuz Digitalz D-TC Gold Signature and to the WestminsterLab preamp via Audioquest Dragon.

Even during the first functional test with a few briefly played test tracks, it becomes clear that we didn't have to make such an intensive effort to level the playing field for the Cascade. You have certainly already experienced for yourself that converters are the type of device that reacts most positively to a long warm-up phase on the mains. But the Cascade system, which has just been wired, demonstrates with the first known bars that it operates at a higher level than my carefully assembled and in many places optimized digital chain. The MSB pampers with a slightly larger, airier space, an intense musical flow and that certain something that defies classification in the usual hi-fi disciplines. It is already clear that further engagement with the Cascade will be pure joy.

I like to give the Cascade plenty of time to slowly get up to operating temperature and approach the sonic optimum. It is also the signal supplier when working with the fantastic darTZeel pre/power amp combination NHB-18NS and NHB-108. Logically, the enormous capabilities of these exceptional amplifiers are easier to discover with sources of the very best quality - and vice versa: the MSB trio has certainly played a not inconsiderable part in the fact that I have enjoyed music files via the Swiss premium amplifiers more intensively than ever before in my listening room. But the Cascade also works its magic through the WestminsterLab Quest and Einstein's The Poweramp: albums newly acquired from Qobuz such as John Surman's Words Unspoken, Niels Kugelmann's Stormy Beauty and Julia Hülsmann's The Next Door simply come across as extremely coherent, flowing and homogeneous. The reproduction is free of any technical artifacts and simply "right" or "natural" - even if I usually shy away from using the last two adjectives. But I can't avoid it here.

With well-known albums such as Changing Places by the Tord Gustavsen Trio, I know, even without a direct comparison, that the Cascade, for example, gives the much-played first two pieces a suppleness and yet a high level of inner tension that I didn't know before. Suddenly you become aware of the different intensity of the attacks in a relaxed melody line, but this does not distract from the essentials. Gustavsen's playing is bursting with energy, but listening to ‘Melted Matter’, for example, you don't feel like you're witnessing a spectacle; instead, you're almost drawn into the realistic-seeming space. The rubbing of the brushes on the snare is extremely finely differentiated, while the head of the bass drum, lightly tapped with the mallet, still develops a certain pressure. The reproduction of the instruments is incredibly vivid. But you're not here to indulge in pure rapture. That's why I switch back to Auralic Aries, Chord M-Scaler and Dave with their various modifications and start the music file "Sunrise" from Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner, ripped from the LSC CD: Over the rumbling of the organ, the brass instruments give an idea of the size of the recording space, the timpani solidify the first impressions, especially in terms of the depth of the stage, and the rest of the orchestra enters: What a grandiose beginning! The MSB then lends the rumbling more structure, the room seems even more expansive, the instrument groups are surrounded by more air, the reproduction has more urgency: there is not the slightest doubt as to which converter makes this short sequence a deeper emotional experience.

Up to now, the Cascade has acted purely as a DAC. And in this function it was first allowed to convert the beginning of the first movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra: It does this more convincingly than all the DACs that have previously played in my listening room – only the dCS Vivaldi came near to it, but unfortunately this has been back with the distributor for so long that I can't compare its fantastic performance with that of the MBS from memory. However, it is easy to describe what changes when the MSB takes on the role of a preamplifier instead of the WestminsterLab Quest: relatively little! The imaginary stage shrinks slightly in terms of depth, but the sound image is now slightly more powerful in the bass range. This may be a matter of taste for listeners with bat ears, but in terms of cost, the decision is clear: I would also entrust the Cascade with the tasks of a preamplifier in my chain.

To top it all off, I listen to one of my favorite LPs via the Cascade. To do this, I connected the turntable to Einstein's The Turntable's Choice and this to the XLR inputs of the DAC. Zakir Hussain's album Making Music is on the platter of the LaGrange. Even if I now listen to the title track instead of "Anisa", which I usually choose, the Cascade's preamp captivates me with a dynamic and openness rarely heard before: It's great how powerfully and quickly the colorful sounds of the instruments unfold in the space created by Jan Eric Kongshaug. If you then switch from the MSB to the Quest, you swap a little openness for a roughly equal portion of warmth in the sound. I don't recognize any differences in quality, but rather marginal advantages, sometimes in the preamp, sometimes in the preamp section integrated into the DAC. The MSB makes it easy to do without a dedicated preamp. It's a pity that I don't own an MSB that I could trade in to make the Cascade system more affordable for me!