Demograf Audio Hyperion vs MSB Analog DAC: listeners’ comparison

In September 2016 an MSB Analog DAC spent a few days in Dmitriy Gubchenko’s listening room, and two forum members came to compare it with a Demograf Audio converter on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 chip with an EL8 tube output stage. That unit was an earlier build on the same chip and output tube that the Hyperion offers today. The comparison was made on loudspeakers, with a turntable as a third reference. Both listeners stress that their views are personal. Below we summarise what each heard.

These impressions are summarised and translated from owners’ posts on an audiophile forum. They are the subjective views of their authors, not measurements or claims of Demograf Audio.

The first listener: “very close, but each has its own touches”

The first listener, abasia, found the MSB a good unit that plays different genres confidently and dynamically. He also acknowledges its class, which he considers very high, and assumes its designers built in their own idea of how music should sound. That idea, he says, is simply not his.

Soundstage

• Switching from the Demograf Audio DAC or from vinyl to the MSB, he heard the space between the loudspeakers disappear: the pair turned into two good-sounding monitors.

Treble and violins

• He heard a certain stridency in the MSB, most noticeable on violins.

Bass

• Well defined and clear, with a short decay that at times made it seem slightly unnatural to him.

Listening fatigue

• To him the MSB drew attention to itself with many small details, and he found this tiring.

Against vinyl, he notes that every record sounds different. Even so, he found the Demograf Audio DAC more natural and closer to the presentation of vinyl than the MSB, and he could listen to it without strain for as long as he liked. In his view the two DACs are very close in sound, but each has its own touches, and those of the Demograf Audio DAC are closer to him.

The second listener: scale, voices and foundation

The second listener, Pavel, rates the MSB’s overall level as good: one could listen to it and not look any further. As he puts it, the problems begin with comparisons. He describes himself as a listener without perfect hearing or a gift for words, and adds that one switch between the DACs was enough to hear most of the differences.

Soundstage

• The MSB’s stage seemed normal to him but did not extend beyond the loudspeakers, like looking through a small window. The Demograf Audio DAC gave a very large volume of sound, with a sense of flight and freedom.

Detail and quiet sounds

• He found the MSB noticeably less detailed. Quiet sounds such as background noises, decays and echoes were noticeably louder on it, but to him this did not help: it felt as if the music had moved to an empty, reverberant hall.
• The Demograf Audio DAC balanced levels differently: what is quiet stays very quiet, yet everything is clearly audible and more natural.

Timbre and instruments

• He heard the Demograf Audio DAC as juicier, richer and more pleasant. Switching to the MSB, the grand piano sounded to him more like a synthesiser, and strings and wind instruments lost volume. This is where he came to describe the MSB’s sound as small-scale.

Bass

• The MSB has bass, but to him it lacked support from the low range, as if part of the frequencies had gone missing. He calls this a lack of foundation.

Vocals

• The point he liked least: on the MSB every voice sounded thinner and less embodied to him.

He mentions other differences that he chose not to describe, because he was unsure how to put them into words and felt they would need rechecking. The listeners also played an ordinary vinyl pressing and the same piece on CD, and Pavel found that they sounded practically the same.

Summary

Both listeners rate the MSB Analog DAC as a capable component, and one heard it as confident and dynamic, with clear, well-defined bass. Both preferred the Demograf Audio CS4397 DAC in this system. They heard it with a wider, freer stage, fuller voices and instruments, more natural levels of quiet detail and a presentation closer to vinyl. The first listener stresses that the two DACs are close; the second heard the differences at the first switch.

Which Demograf Audio piece fits

• Hyperion is the current Demograf Audio DAC on the Cirrus Logic CS4397. It takes USB (Amanero) up to 24-bit / 192 kHz and DSD256 as well as S/PDIF coaxial. The stock output stage is solid-state; a tube output stage, EL8 and AL4 among the options, can be fitted to order. More owners’ impressions are in our Hyperion owners’ reviews.
• The Reference Tube DAC is the classic-chip alternative, built in five versions named after their chips: Calliope (TDA1540), Persephone (TDA1541), Aphrodite (TDA1547), Artemis (PCM63) and Katerina (PCM1704).
• Other owners compared their Demograf Audio CS4397 DACs with the Rockna Wavedream, dCS Debussy.

Every Demograf Audio converter is made by Dmitriy Gubchenko. Each is made to order and covered by a one-year warranty (extra warranty available: +1 or +2 years).