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For an audio review everything thus far was foreplay. Only listening would be true consummation. Yet ears priding themselves on fine detective work felt closer to coitus interruptus. Real satisfaction arose from the hard implications. The chosen system took advantage of the $7.000 Meitner MA-1's remote-switchable inputs to compare the iMac and MS5 feeds. Meanwhile the Esoteric C-03 preamp's switchable inputs compared the Meitner's analog outputs to those of the QAT. This gave me three different signal paths off the same 11-track playlist. That list was shared and sync'd up for parallel play between the two servers for instant 3-way comparisons.


Expectations for significant audible offsets were to be disappointed. So were hopes for small but consistently identifiable differentiators. In the end the three feeds were too closely matched to generate a definitive hierarchy. Before I describe the small window of difference—which caused no clear-cut advantages but rather shifting allegiances depending on cut—let's jump to the takeaway.


The news for computer users like myself was brilliant. The iMac running PureMusic 1.85 in hybrid memory play suffered no audible disadvantages against a purpose-designed upscale music server. None. With it the plausibly purist argument that for the discerning audiophile computers are inherently evil lost its sting and purgatorial promise. Of course saying that is far from the same as claiming—or believing or hoping—that simply sticking any old USB cable into the proper slot of a laptop and hitting play to feed a generic converter will equal the QAT. Not! There's a lot more to it than that. This simply isn't the place except to underscore that the MS5 eliminates the entire and extensive learning curve of PCfi in one fell swoop for instant sonic gratification. The only minor learning curve left for complete computer newbies (who wouldn't be reading this in the first place) is interacting with the remote pad interface. No matter how slow you might be to catch on there, you couldn't possibly hurt the sound with any lack of knowledge. Lack of audiophilia nervosa is probably the core appeal of this approach. All configuration and optimization has been done for you already.

QAT's wifi antenna connected to the MS5 via USB

From the other end of this exercise, QAT too emerged smelling like roses. Their MS5 kept perfect pace with a $7.000 converter from one of the best minds in the business. Going up against about $10.000 with my iMac and Ocellia USB cable, that made their $5.500 MS5 a very attractive proposition. From my ongoing exploration into USB-enabled DACs, a $3.000 sticker as represented by the Eximus DP1, Zodiac Gold or Resonessence Invicta marks the point beyond which audible returns diminish sharply. In any but the most resolved systems they might arguably be mostly theoretical. The engineers at QAT have clearly hit that marker. I have no doubt that on the digital map their MS5 occupies that exact sweet spot. To get audibly better to a degree you'll actually care about should cost (more) dearly.


About that window now. The differences I heard occupied a narrow range of wet:dry and textural:spatial variations. Tracking that behavior across 11 tracks from various albums had me fairly confident. The QAT/iMac face-off showed the MS5 to be slightly more decay-focused where the iMac was more transient-centric. On a Jacques Loussier track with the Pekinel sisters handling two more pianos for a Jazz Bach threesome (plus obligatory drums and double bass), I had a small preference for the QAT. That was due to what seemed marginally longer ring-outs and with them slightly denser imagery and moister space. On a Diego Amador flamenco cut meanwhile where piano assists the typically fiery guitars to accompany an intense singer, the iMac's minorly crisper rendering of the arpeggio attacks and hoarse vocal harmonics tipped my scale in its favor.


And so it went from track to track. Something wasn't exactly the same. Yet locking it down to anything more definitive proved elusive. Each time I thought that I'd detected an actual advantage rather than simple difference, closer inquiry revealed it to be erroneous and imaginary. Sleuthing pride was at an all-time low.

Aries Cerat Gladius with FirstWatt SIT2

Ditto for the QAT/Meitner comparison. This pitted analog output stage against analog output stage. The QAT seemed a mite denser and rounder, the Meitner a tad more feathery, teased out and leaner. Once more listener preferences shifted with the material whilst the narrowness of offset presented no opportunity for a clear hierarchical ranking. This reconfirmed a growing suspicion. This particular market segment of converters has grown mature. Most competent designers enabled by sufficient funds end up in more or less the same spot. When dealing with server solutions rather than simple DACs, it's actually the user interface that becomes the decisive element. Enter appliance mentality. Does 'x' washing machine sport the various spin cycles you want? You're not concerned with clean. Your clothes will come out clean regardless. Your decision hinges on features.


On features my iMac-based server outscored the QAT as predicted. But the QAT-app'd iPad as remote covered all the essentials in style. Just avoid QAT's lesser pad. My main functional gripe was QAT's routine inability to retrieve cover art. On my iMac anything its ripper doesn't grab—I've performed the comparison against the far slower EAC to rely on iTunes exclusively—I always find online. Such manual covers get temporarily saved to iPhoto where I can crop or scale them if needed, then drop & drag them into their respective album folders. Not one album on my iMac lacks proper cover art. Out of 23 albums imported to the MS5, seven did.

Where the concept of audiophile I'm-no-computer music server still misses is in its reliance on the Internet for meta data retrieval; and wifi for the UI. Whilst a meta-data library can be provided on a USB stick, that requires constant online updates. The real deal breaker for this writer is the wifi communication. I don't want a microwave transmitter in my music temple. As soon as somebody introduces an iPad-type remote that can be hardwired via HDMI or Ethernet cable; or which uses a plug-in adaptor for old-fashioned infrared... I'm in to navigate my iMac from that. Love the functionality; can't tolerate the present radiation; am in the extreme minority; next.
Sonically QAT's MS5 compares very favorably to computer-fi systems that are priced from alike to close to double. It combines a high degree of sophisticated three-dimensionality for excellent soundstaging recording permitting. Then great ambient retrieval coexists with sufficient tone density to never feel cool, lean, flat or aloof. This is a clearly mature well-balanced design that's contemporarily aware, meaning its internal converter and output stage perform on par with what one presently expects from the very latest top crop of $3.000 standalone DACs. But the nagging fact remains that a MacMini with PureMusic, iPad remote and AURALiC's Ark MX+ can achieve something equivalent for rather less yet offer even more functionality. To completely get and want the MS5 means you're part of the audience that refuses a computer-computer for hifi purposes to prefer a computer in disguise instead; and who want to bypass the steep learning curve of PCfi and end up with perfect sonic calibration and optimization from day one. Then this QAT becomes a finely thought-out superbly built sonically advanced solution you should investigate.
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