Out of box it beats Musical Fidelity V90-LPS with my HOMC Denon DL-110
586857
I bought this piece of Schiit one morning before I had my coffee strictly because I'm a Schiit fan.  I had already been using the MF V90-LPS for my Pro-Ject debut with a Denon DL-110 HOMC for the past 9 months.  The MF LPS provided a nice upgrade over the phono stage in my Adcom pre-amp.  I was happy, but I'm a huge fan of what these American Schiit heads have been doing so I couldn't resist.  I figured I could always give it to my brother if I didn't like it.  Last night the UPS guy delivered this Schiit and I nearly Schiit my pants.

Cold, out of the box, with out any burn in, this thing destroyed the sound of my MF LPS.  At first I thought it might just be the extra gain for with the HOMC setting, and it might be, but wow!  Much clearer, more inner detail, more sound stage, greater resolution, better bass, better drive, blacker blacks (i.e. its quiter).  It had me playing records until 2 in the morning.

I might update this later after some burn it, but for now I highly recommend for HOMCs.  I'm not sure if the difference would apply to MM and LOMC or not.  But the fact is, if you're looking for an affordable phono stage under $400, I would start right here.
4190789
Awesome old school 2 channel stereo sound
Old school meets new school with remote iPod dock and xm satellite
555849
I purchased my SC-68 from my local brick and mortar store, which are audiophile professionals. Although the purchase wasn't from Amazon, the decision to buy Pioneer over the Denon 4520ci was due to the reviews on Amazon; thank you!
I will first start out by saying that the quality of this receiver is outstanding. I love the Optimum 2 channel and the Neo:X-THX movie sound fields. I also love the Apple APP, this perk is worth the persuading anyone to Pioneer over Onkyo or Denon. My wife noticed the picture quality from the start. I didn't however use the MCACC, I didn't care for the settings. But, I didn't expect too.
My set up is;
Klipsch THX KL-7502 (center)
Klipsch RF-7 bi-amped (right, left)
Klipsch THX KS-7800 (dipole SB)
2 Elan surrounds :(  which I will upgrade to the 7502s next year.
2300866
I have it set to about half power, and it's plenty potent.  Clean sound and easy configuration with the LFE input.  I recommend this sub very highly.

I finally added the ".1" to my surround sound system, and boy golly it was worth it.  This sub does a fantastic job of filling in the low end of movies and music.  I'm hearing, and feeling, things I'd never before been able to notice.
1710420
The highs are very crisp. The "3D" stereo effect is amazing. At low volume the bass, especially lower bass parts, I find a bit weak. So I've turned up my equalizer (Windows Media) settings and that hepls. Midrange is fine. So overall for a $100 set without a subwoofer I am highly satisfied.
4296327
I have a really nice surround sound system with an Oppo DVD player.  I want to see if I could tell the difference of a SACD recorded album.  Blew me away.  The music selection is phenomenal.
1639478
This reciever sounds phenomenal once you get past the set-up stage. Set-up does require a little more patience than it should unfortunately, but it's worth it. I've upgraded from a Sony STR-DH520 and WOW what a difference. My digital music sounds 10x better. The Bluetooth audio feature works like a charm!

However, I highly recommend doing your homework on your TV regarding your hdmi connections. If your TV doesn't support Hdmi ARC or Hdmi 2.2 for 4k upconversion, this reciever may not be for you. My only complaint is the 3 second lag where the TV goes blank if the decide to turn on/off reciever depending if you want to use the reciever for sound or not.
31206
This added what was missing in my listening room setup, and I love it.  It gives just enough of the bottom notes when needed, and doesn't overdo it, but you can make it thump if you want to.  Using with an Audio-Technica AT-LP120, Yamaha A-S300, Maverick TubeMagic D1, and some inexpensive Micca bookshelf speakers.  Truly rich sound experience, and loving listening to my old vinyl now.
3579068
Although having it hooked up with my inexpensive 7.1/700 w surround system, it delivers that tight low which is the signature characteristic of JBL's studio reference models. It will bite you and literally shake your house with its 12" woofer which you need to have for the realistic low. It brings a totally new experience over my DVD and CD titles. And I had to watch/listen to them all over again realizing how much the bottom I missed out. One note; you've got to use a quality sub cable with it. With an additional 100 dollar investment on cable, I noticed an immediate difference in sound it delivers; much tighter and crisper bottom. For less than 300 dollars, I have to say it is a quite amazing offer.
207561
Best sounding Dolby atmos I've found thus far.
2520271
Although I own what most would consider to be a very high-end hi-fi system, I never had any luck getting satisfactory sound from my laptop- until I tried the v-link II.

The laptop I am using as my "music server" is a Sony Vaio running Vista. I wanted the Sony so I could natively play hi-res DSD files (basically these are SACD resolution files) recorded on my Korg MR-1.  And I wanted Vista to avoid the XP kernal mixer (notorious for massacring PC sound).

Until the v-link II, no matter what I tried, I could not prevent occasional and unpredictable crackling/popping sounds when playing digital music files (always lossless- flac,wav,or DSD) no matter which DAC I used.  Needless to say, I didn't listen from my large collection of digital files very often.

Well the v-link II has cured that problem.  After only a couple hours listening I am not prepared to say that the laptop now sounds better than a CD played using my CD transport through the DACMAGIC, but it sounds better than I have ever heard before from my laptop - and definitely I will be listening to a lot more digital files now.

It will take extensive listening time - and some further experimentation with various DACs and digital music files - to see just how good I can make the laptop sound.  But at least now I have a playable starting point.  What I am hearing after only a couple hours is really excellent "resolution" and separation of instruments, excellent bass, OK midrange with not too much sibilance, and very clean and "airy" treble.

Thanks Musical Fidelity!

p.s. I believe there is an even NEWER version of the v-link due out any day now (2/3/2012) that support 192 khz files (the MSRP is $300. that's $100 more than the unit I am reviewing). If I had realized I was not buying the newer model I would have waited and bought it instead. The model I am reviewing here only supports 96 Khz output.

I only gave the unit 4 stars because when I opened it, the aluminum case had a big scratch right in the middle top.  Pretty ugly and impossible to hide.  Perhaps amazon sent me an "open box" or returned unit, or Musical Fidelity scratched it during manufacturing, no way for me to know.  But if I had paid any more than the going price here I would have returned it for that reason...

UPDATE: Well it's been another 10 hours of solid listening and every hour using the USB out with the V-Link II I am enjoying it more.  After 3 years of trying to get very high quality playback from digital files, I am now there!  Not a hint of crackling or harshness and I have played back everything from classical to country.  Wish this unit was available 3 years ago!
4936397
This does everything I wanted in a phono preamp, and does it for a bargain price.  I had Pyle speakers before, and I was impressed with the quality, so I chose this when looking for a preamp for my turntable, so I could run my vinyl stuff through a soundcard and get it into digital.  I'm really happy with it!  My albums sound big and rich on the car aduio system, great on the headphones, wonderful on the studio speakers.  I think this little unit will deliver more quality than the 30-year-old records can, I'm very happy with the results - and the price.  I'd say go for it!
2424467
I switched from Chord Chrimson Plus RCA's (best analogue interconnects Hifi 2011), to Big Surs, to connect a Musical Fidelity V90 DAC (OSX laptop running TIDAL) to a Rega Brio 3 and a pair of well positioned KEF LS50's on stands, in a small room.

I could detect a small improvement in bass control and richness through the Audioquest Big Sur vs the previous cable without perceivable differences in the rest of the sound spectrum nor differences in sound-staging.

I did not A/B test the cables with higher quality signals like DSD, CD or Super Audio CD.

5 stars because it does what is says on the box: provides sound improvement on an already great sounding system.
4157874
I bought it for $184 on Black Friday and connected with Pioneer Elite VSX 45 AVR - setup took little more time than expected but the sound quality was really awesome. Only drawback is Subwoofer - need to Power ON & OFF it manually.
1239671
I replaced my old Onkyo HTR-520 with this one. My Onkyo had stopped responding to the remote a long time back. I found a good deal on the Yamaha at Amazon. The Onkyo was all about power. However, i must say that the Yamaha beats it in sound quality. Music sounds astonishingly natural. Vocals sound so clear and natural. I could even hear the singers take their breath. Very impressive. It has a THD of less than 0.06% below 50 watts. you would not possibly want to hear music above 50 watts on each channel. Sound is well balanced. The 7-Channel Enhancer algorithm is superb. I give 5 stars.
3555633
I have an NAD 7100 receiver. I bought this to convert sound of a CD/DVD player with optical out only. The DA21X "premium" does a great job... for a $25 converter. (Be sure to get the premium one with the "X", not the standard).  Ok, for the price it is quite amazing. Audiophile quality sound... Um, no. Turn up the volume really loud and it gets a little harsh. So is this a great deal and does it work very well? Yes. Perfect for TV/DVD sound? Yes. Listening to background music? Yes, fine. Audiophile sound? Hahaha, NO. But hey, it's $25 bucks. I say, get one anyway. And, now at least I can play my CD collection (at low and medium volumes and for background music, its fine, excellent sound). WAY better than nothing!
1759596
I have the domestic SACD, the newer Japanese SHM-SACD and now this DVD-A. My AVR doesn't support DSD, so my Oppo player converts DSD to PCM -and- downsamples to 88.2 khz. I wanted to hear the DVD-A since my system will play these at full rez. I am VERY pleased with the sound of the DVD-A! I don't listen to the stereo mix, for that I have the SHM-SACD (which is stellar). The 5.1 mix is the same as the domestic SACD, but I can hear more. The details are crisper. One of these days, I'd love to hear full DSD, but for now, it's DVD-A all the way!