 in a time where extreme high sampling rates and lots of features seem to rain. The Swiss company Mirazon brings a very basic DAC that does 192 kHz at best, uses a 7 year old DAC chip, has no remote control and no display. What are they thinking? Again a review based on a request from a viewer and I was immediately intrigued. For it's a DAC that is based on a 7 year old DAC chip by Burr Brown, the company that was already taken over by Texas Instruments some years ago. And it comes from the same country as brands like Nagra, Goldman and Weiss, Switzerland. A country that is not known for its cheap products. While the Mirazon DAC1 on test here isn't a low end product, at 4850 euros it's more affordable than the products from the year 4 mentioned brands. But let's first see how to use the DAC1. It has to be connected over analog inter-connects to an amplifier. That can be an integrated amp, like drone here or a pre-amp and a power amp combination. Both XLR and RCA cables can be used. Either way the amp needs to be connected to a set of loudspeakers unless you want to use headphones. If your music is on a computer you can connect that to the DAC1 over USB, spirit or tostling digital connection, depending on the interfaces on the computer. You then best use music jukebox software that works bit perfect, like OREVANA, AMARA or J River Media Center. Another way of working is to use a network player that is connected to the PC or to a NAS over the network and to the DAC over either AES-EBU, tostling or spirit. Usually such a setup is controlled by a tablet or smartphone. But you can also use a CD player and connect that over AES-EBU, tostling or spirit to the DAC1. You can even use both a network player and a CD player, although not at the same time of course. The DAC1 has a stainless steel cabinet with either a white or black acrylic front. Stainless steel is a bit of a contradiction in terminus, for it has the property of showing fingerprints easily. But it looks great. Being 455mm wide, it is slightly wider than the usual 440mm. It's 290mm deep, 100mm tall and weighs 8kg. On the left we find the power switch, the digital lock indicator, an indicator for a digital signal present on the USB input and four indicators that show what input is active. Switching sequentially between inputs is done with the input selector. On the rear the IC mains input, the AES-EBU input, the SPIDF input, the USB Audio Class 2 input and the tostling input. To the left the balanced analog outputs on XLR and the single ended outputs on RCA. Inside we see two canned 50VA Torodile transformers, one for the digital and one for the analog circuit. The low AC voltage outputs of the transformers are converted to DC voltages on this part of the circuit board. Here for the digital electronics and to the right two identical circuits, one for each channel. The digital electronics, basically just interfacing, can be found here. Despite the fact that the DAC chips can handle 192 kHz, the AES-3 inputs, all but USB, are limited to 96 kHz PCM. DSD is not supported at all. The USB input is taken care of by the Amunero Combo 384 eSolar module, here limited to 192 kHz because of the DAC chips. These can be found here and here, another Burr-Brown PCM 1794 AES. Burr-Brown calls them advanced segment DACs, meaning that the incoming signal is 8 times oversampled and then spread up in two ranges that are individually converted to analog, adjusted in amplitude and added again. This way, a better linearity can be achieved. I measured that to conclude that below 115 dbfs linearity is gone. Current DAC chips achieve better but it is questionable how audible that is. Time resolution is more of a factor, according to my ears and that is influenced by the quality of the clock signal and the reconstruction filters. Marathon has opted for linear phase filters. After the digital channel conversion we see discrete class A IV conversion and output buffer circuits. High quality capacitors and transistors being mounted on miniature cooling profiles, very methodical PCB layout, it all leaves a high quality impression. I'll show you one more detail. The cover panel has slots in which raised portions of the front and the back panel slides. This makes the cabinet very rigid and tells something about the designer. Something good. The advantage of a minimalistic design can be that it is very easy to operate, as it is in this case. Connect your amp and your source, select the corresponding input and you're set. No remote control, no display, no settings to set and if you want to change the volume, that's done on the amplifier. Selecting music, that is done on the digital source, being it a network player or CD player. As said earlier, the speed of Toslink and AES-EBU are limited to 96 kHz 24 bit. The USB input goes up to 192 kHz 24 bit. It's audio class 2 so it will work directly with all operating systems save windows that might need a driver to be downloaded depending on the windows version. I used my setup 1 for testing. 1A or 1B is not a factor here since the only difference is the DAC and that is replaced anyway. The DAC 1 was connected to the Air AX520 amplifier that drives the AudioPhysics Scorpio loudspeakers over AudioQuest Robinhood Zero loudspeaker cable. The digital source is the Grim Audio Mu1 that is a Roon Server, Roon Endpoint, ReClocker and Scaler in one. It is connected to the SOtM SNH10G network switch over the Network Acoustics ENO Streaming System AG. Initially the connection between the Grim Audio and the DAC 1 was the Siltek AES-EBU cable while the up and down Scaler in the Grim Audio was switched off. Later on the Scaler was set to 96 kHz. The third way tested was via the USB output of the Grim Audio. This essentially is a direct connection to the Intel Nugth i3 in the player and thus of clearly poorer quality. The fourth way was via the Allo USB signature streamer with Allo Shandy dual linear power supply with Roopi Roon Endpoint software. In both cases an AudioQuest Diamond USB A2 USB B cable is used. The first thing I noticed is that it is pleasant to listen to the music on the DAC 1. You might consider this a strange remark but I am really serious. Right from the start you listen to the music and not to the technical properties of the DAC. It lures you into the music and that's an important characteristic of a DAC. But being a reviewer I do need to dive into the sound qualities. The low end is powerful though not fat. Creamy rather and it's seducing. It doesn't have the transient behaviour of the chord you go to. It rather is like the Denaflips Terminator Plus. The step image is excellent for this class as is the focusing. Switching on the 2FS scaling on the Grimm improves the transients, the spatial imaging and the focusing further. But that's mainly due to the great scaling of the Grimm Audio. Time to use the USB output on the Grimm Audio. As said this is essentially a normal Linux computer output and that isn't the best way to connect a DAC. The Anamero module that converts the USB signal into I2S saves what there is to save but the difference is clear. I mention this especially because many still play music on a costly DAC using the USB from a normal computer. A far better way is to use a network player, network bridge or DDC. I have playlists on all three types. See the notes below this video on YouTube. I also used the AlloUse bridge signature as a network bridge for Roon and that gives clearly better results, although the refinement of using the AES-EBU output of the Grimm Audio is not met. To classify the DAC one, it ends in the lower quarter of my setup one. The Merison DAC is a very musical sounding DAC. Sit back, play your favourite music and it will bring you hours of joy. Do a stressed A B test against some other DACs and you will find properties that it will do better and others that are less. But try to sit back and play your favourite music with the other DAC before you design. I know some of you can't go for this DAC since it's limited to 96 kHz over AES-3 and then by 92 kHz over USB while there are enough DACs that do 786 or even higher. The question is, does that sound better? Directly followed by the question, what music is available at that sampling rate? But you might think you better have it. For those that can find that rational, listen to the Merison DAC one and then decide. You might be surprised and don't forget to invest in a good digital source. I've tested and owned the SOtM and Aurelic products that are great sources. As is the LO-USB signature with dual power supply. And of course, all in their class. They are far more important than 768 kHz and about DSD, who owns a lot of DSD recordings. For those mostly classical music lovers, a DSD capable DAC might be a better solution. But popular music is hardly ever available in DSD. I own several hundreds of DSD albums, mainly ripped SHCDs. And on my set of 1A, I often hear no difference between the SHCD version and the CD version, both ripped. And if I hear a difference, it's most likely due to different mastering. That was the case when I still used the Aurelic LSG2 streamer. That could send unaltered DSD to the Cordave. And that is the case now when the Grimm Audio converts DSD to 176.4 kHz PCM. So the question whether you should buy the Merison DAC one, if you're in the market for a sub 5000 euro DAC, is not does it sound very good and emerging, but rather can you live with the theoretical restrictions of 192 kHz and no DSD. A true bombshell to leave you with. But I will be back with the Mitec Liberty DAC 2 next Friday at 5pm C European time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed on new videos around. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or a link to this video on the social media. It's much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and let me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.