5/29/2023 0 Comments Qobuz reviews![]() Since Mark Sossa of Well-Pleased Audio Vida is the US importer and distributor for Merason, and most of us at PTA already know and like the guy, it was fairly easy to ask him for the Frerot. When I found out that Merason had a tiny, somewhat minimalist and reasonably priced DAC, I said “This must be the place.” When Dave McNair reviewed the $5500 Merason DAC-1 a few months ago, I paid attention when he talked about HOW GOOD IT SOUNDED. I wanted my digital streaming services to sound at least as good as my $4500 CD player that’s now almost a decade old, and hopefully better when it came to the hi-rez FLAC and WAV files I have stored in a spare hard drive. I’m just not getting that at home.Īmong the DACs I’ve tested in my main and ever-evolving system, some felt glassy, some felt a little restricted in dynamics or low frequencies, some were just kinda okay, good enough for evenings on the veranda with hundreds of my friends but not for some serious driving time. I’ve heard plenty of amazing sounding DACs at high-end audio shows, producing state-of-the-art digital sound. It’s fine, but I’m generally back to spinning LPs within a couple of weeks. On those occasions that I have a DAC in the big system, I’m usually lukewarm about the overall sound. That’s one of the biggest things that’s kept me from actually buying a DAC as a permanent part of my reference system. Then there’s Choice “c,” the part about sounding good. If I went shopping for a DAC right now, I’d be looking at something priced like the Merason Frerot. That explains Choice “a.” Choice “b” is important because I don’t want to start off at the top reviewing some dCS stack that I’ll never fully understand. Drivers that won’t download, functions that require additional downloads, things just not working like they should-I’ve experienced it all. I don’t like it when DACs are glitchy, or when the owners’ manuals are not walking me through everything like I’m an idiot because I might just be an idiot when it comes to this stuff. I love the convenience and the flexibility and the sheer pleasure of having immediate access to millions of recordings. You see, I’ve had problems with using DACs in my main system, at least so far. The Merason Frerot was the first one mentioned. So I asked them to help me find a DAC to review that was a) easy to use, b) relatively inexpensive and c) sounds great enough for me to seriously consider as a viable source within my reference system. Whenever there’s a DAC that needs reviewing in general, I usually call on either of them because they’ve had a lot of seat time with various DACs for their day jobs, and those two are always hiding out in the virtual Part-Time Audiophile War Room and talking about DAC things in their little DAC language of theirs. Why is the Merason Frerot the first DAC I want to review? Well, I spent a lot of time discussing DACs with two of our reviewers, Dave McNair and Grover Neville. I’m feeling that I need a more permanent solution. But when I ship those products back, it’s time to remove that 20’ AudioQuest Cinnamon USB cable, hang it in the Big Cable Closet, and go back to streaming Qobuz on my laptop. Most recently, I enjoyed the flexibility of having a DAC inside the Innuos Zen Mini music server I just reviewed. ![]() Over the last few years, I’ve had a few of those inboard DACs in review products such as the Rotel Michi X5 integrated amplifier, the Bryston B135³, the Rotel A14 and a Simaudio Moon 390. ![]() Lately I’ve had a hankering to spend more time streaming through my main system, as opposed to my laptop, and that requires another type of DAC. I do have plenty of experience with DACs over the last few years, but in most cases we’re talking about an inboard DAC or a digital product that includes a DAC because, well, why not? I use DACs to stream Qobuz, and most of the time I’m merely using an AudioQuest DragonFly-the Black, Red and Cobalt models are the only DACs I’ve actually owned or used for longer than a few weeks. My review of the Merason Frerot DAC is the first time I’ve ever done a formal review of a stand-alone digital-to-analog converter. ![]()
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