I was pretty much where you are about this time last year. Before listening to any of them, PS Audio was among the top products on my list – I was attracted to the features/price ratio and the reviews I read. There were some other products on “my list” as well (I am not sure, but I think the Auralic and the Lumen were among them).
I found some high-end audio stores (which is a lot harder to do these days than I ever anticipated) and arranged for demos of I’d say five products, including the Merging (which seemed too pricey for me). I took music with me and, in the process got a chance to also audition Room and JRiver for the first time. I also took a music lover with me who was skeptical about the whole thing – she thought what I had was “perfectly fine.”
I did a lot of ABBABA listening to the same tracks, along with some “blind listening” and heard a broad range of music (fitting my musical tastes). I listened to it on equipment that was comparable to that which I own (wanting to make sure I knew what I was listening to and not wanting to start a cascade of upgrading the entire system to “chase” an improvement I heard in a shop). We went to the stores during the week and spent several hours in each store. We visited each store at least twice (and one 3-4 times).
I ended up buying the Merging because it simply sounded better to me. It was cleaner and the instruments were more defined. The wind and acoustic stringed instruments seemed to be in the room with me (especially when I closed my eyes) and there was a lot of sound stage definition (locations of instruments were distinct – both from left/right and front/rear perspectives). This was a very new experience for me.
There was a piece shared by one of the salespeople that had a distinctly 3D effect – sound from an instrument seemed to begin in the rear of the sound stage, float above the instruments and land in the front/center of the soundstage. Regrettably, I don’t know what the piece was. I heard it on the Merging and the PSAudio – twice each. Only with the Merging did I experience what I just described.
I was very careful to audition the equipment without JRiver or Roon (I was using neither at the time). In hindsight (especially now that I am using both, but in separate locations), it would have been better to have figured out which (if any) of them I was going to use. When I got Roon working (and to a similar but not as great extent, JRiver), I realized that the software makes a dramatic difference in the listening experience. There are moments when I wonder how much (and which) of the improvements I experience is from to the (far less expensive!) software upgrade as opposed to the addition of Merging to the mix. Maybe it would be better for me not to know – I haven’t “reverse engineered” my set up to find out.
I am very pleased with the Merging and have in installed in my home system … or I should say systems. I have a splitter that connects it with 2 amps and 2 receivers. There are 8 pairs of speakers attached to this box and the sound from the even most inexpensive (i.e., Niles outdoors speakers) is amazing.
Whenever I am looking at a major purchase and I have contact with someone who owns something I am considering, I ask the following question, “if you were to do it again, would you do anything differently?” I have a couple of regrets about the Merging – all of which I am responsible for.
(1) I wish I did a better job of understanding component connectivity. I have components (e.g., phono, CD player) that I planned to connect to it. Unfortunately, the connections that come with the Merging do no optimize the signal quality of the components – for some of my older (but still good) components, it is not possible to connect them with the Merging. The transition to Merging would have been easier for me if I did not anticipate being able to run all of my components through it.
(2) I’d want to know a lot more about the status of MQA and Roon Ready designations and how they apply to Merging. With all of these products, there is a lot that they do and even more that is indicated as happening “soon.” It is hard to know what will actually happen and if, in either case, it will be consequential.
I would buy the Merging again, though spending even $5000 on a piece of audio equipment is pretty unimaginable to me. I did so because my music collection is entirely digital and it has been ripped to high quality WAV files. After a number of years of listening it through Logitech Transporters, the music seemed to be missing luster. I found myself not listening to a lot of it because it didn’t seem “interesting.”
When I stopped to think about the investment I had made in CDs (I am not much of a downloader), the investment in the Merging (or even the PSAudio, my second choice) seemed prudent. When I realized that my investment in media exceeded even the cost of the Merging, the decision seemed to be an easier one to make.
I am very happy with the purchase. Even the “skeptic” who accompanied me on this journey is impressed!
I hope that you find something you like as much as I like the Merging.
John
Unlike the DirectStream, the DAVE is an excellent preamp for itself; if you don’t have a need for non-digital inputs or other external preamp features, I would absolutely plug it straight into your power amp. The USB input is pretty good, definitely the least compromised of USB inputs of all the DACs that I’ve spent time with. I use a microRendu for Roon streaming and still found that the UltraCap power supply improved USB performance, however. Another thing to note is that the DAVE’s filters are incredibly long and introduce ~100ms delay, which isn’t a problem with music, but can cause sync problems with video.
and destroyed what I thought was a great preamp. My VPI scoutmaster/Rogue Audio Ares couldn’t be happier using the Lindemann DSD as a volume control. There’s no desire to fiddle about with settings. It upsamples even crap to DSD and one would be hard pressed to call even MP3 bad through the Lindemann. It has a Built-in music server (but I’m using Roon through microrendue) and my 25 (top of the line model) has a CD player as well.