MSB TECHNOLOGY LAUNCH THE MSB DIGITAL DIRECTOR

The MSB Digital Director has been designed to enhance essential DAC functions, externally managing digital audio sources, noise isolation and processing.

MSB says that the Digital Director is a DAC Upgrade. It works with all existing MSB Discrete, Premier, Reference, and Select DACs.

The MSB Digital Director

MSB DIGITAL DIRECTOR

The MSB Digital Director Has been designed to enhance essential DAC functions, externally managing digital audio sources, noise isolation and processing. It is made in California, USA.

The MSB Digital Director works with MSB Technology existing DACs

The Digital Director features four digital only input module slots. It fully synchronizes all clocks prior to transmission to the DAC and provides complete source isolation from the DAC engine through a Pro ISL connection and optical control link. There is one Pro ISL Input module and Control Link Module included to connect with existing DACs. Two-way communication between Director and DAC shares DAC display, controls, and remote functions. MSB says that using the Digital Director gives increased processing power for their advanced new digital filters.

INCREASED ISOLATION

In keeping with MSB’s core design principles, the Digital Director supports and augments all current DACs. Two-way communication between the Digital Director and the DAC enables input selection and system settings on a single display and control. By outsourcing digital input modules to the Digital Director, the DAC becomes a dedicated conversion engine while the Digital Director manages and isolates all incoming noise. MSB Technology says that their proprietary ProISL laser fibre optic connection eliminates noise coupling into the DAC.

Inside the MSB Digital Director

MSB DIGITAL DIRECTOR DSP

The MSB Digital Director uses two high performance DSPs, each capable of sustaining 12 billion operations per second that work in tandem with two dedicated FPGAs. This is more than four times the processing power currently available in the DACs onboard processors, extending the life of new and existing DACs well into the future. New digital filters are designed to ensure MSB DACs offer an authentic reconstruction of the original analogue signal.

Around the back of the MSB Digital Director

LINEAR POWER SUPPLY

The Pro-level MSB Digital Director includes an upgraded low-noise linear power supply. Designed and built in-house, it features the same custom isolated transformers found in their DAC powerbases.

MSB Digital Director connections

CNC BILLET CHASSIS

Starting with a 65lb plate of ‘Kaiser Select Precision Plate’, the chassis is machined in MSB’s own in-house CNC shop. After more than six hours of machining, more than half of the aluminium is removed, resulting in a 23lb finished product.

THREE MSB DIGITAL DIRECTOR MODELS

The new MSB Digital Director models are as follows:

The Select Digital Director with linear power supply.

The Reference Digital Director with linear power supply.

The Premier Digital Director with switching power supply.

Find out more about MSB DACs in our recent review of the MSB Discrete DAC here.

MSB TECHNOLOGY AT HIGH END MUNICH 2022

You can hear the new MSB Digital Director in the MSB Technology room as it debuts at High End Munich 2022. Atrium 4.2 room E221.

HiFi Pig Says: The MSB Digital Director is for those who are very, very serious about digital music, I can imagine it has a high end price and we are looking forward to hearing what it can do in the MSB Technology room at Munich this week.