I have owned the MHDT Labs "Steeplechase" DAC for around 10 years and have been using it the whole time on the main system in our mountain house. It didn't sound much different than the old Moon 100D DAC that it replaced there. I liked that the MHDT Labs DAC had a built-in power supply and not a wall wart. It's a reasonably revealing system with Anthony Gallo Acoustics Strada2 Wall Mounted Speakers and a pair of the same company's best powered cylindrical subwoofers. The main amplifier is an ICEpower 125ASX2 driven by a class A input stage that I built, and the line stage is an older remote controlled Classe Audio preamp with lots of inputs. The system also has analog sources as well.
My "Steeplechase" DAC only cost around $500 back around 10 years ago, shipped direct from MHDT Labs, and it had the same little tube output stage as the Pagoda. I imagine it isn't very different than the Pagoda that got so badly panned in this thread. I figured if anything my old, cheaper MHDT Labs DAC was probably even worse, and being that the Pagoda was all the way at the right side of the SINAD stack sort I thought it would be interesting to compared it to a brand new Topping E30 DAC. I also needed to use a separate 5 VDC power supply with the Topping E30 DAC so I used a nice 25 Watt Linear 5VDC power supply I had on hand. The Topping E30 was also tested on this site and ended up at the far left hand end of the SINAD stack sort, and it only cost $120 so this was not a big chance to take.
Well my wife and I didn't do a very well controlled listening test and simply listened to 4 songs from my music server that we know well into the Toslink input of the MHDT Labs Steeplechase DAC. Then I substituted the Topping E30 DAC and linear power supply, and we listened to those same 4 songs again via the Toslink input without touching the system volume control between the two DACs. They both sounded very close to the same volume. It took us a while listening and we both concurred that the Topping E30 sounded ever so slightly clearer and better overall, but the difference was very small to both of us. We have been using the Topping E30 and separate linear power supply for a couple of weeks now, so here are my comments on the DAC "upgrade":
1. Music still sounds good and enjoyable on the system! This is important as I was afraid that removing the small bit of masking that was taking place via tube distortion could make the warts of some recordings more apparent and result in a less forgiving and less enjoyable sound.
2. The Topping is pretty cheap in construction, in keeping with its very cheap price, and it is very tiny - cables do move it around and limit how you can place it.
3. The Topping has a nice display, but it's a shame it always quickly reverts to showing only the volume, because it always shows zero dB - as I don't use it for a volume control, and thus it is always set at full volume. I control system volume with the line stage preamp. I would rather see the data rate, and wish there was a choice.
4. I don't really like not having a built-in power supply with the Topping, as it's a little messy having a separate power supply slightly bigger than the Topping itself.
5. I liked the bigger heavier form factor of the MHDT Labs DAC better, and also that it had more inputs with better switching buttons, and a built-in power supply.
6. The Topping has glitched and gotten stuck twice, but a power reboot fixed it each time.
7. There is clearly no forgetting that the Topping is a cheap product, and the MHDT Labs was a more expensive product, every time I use it - albeit the MHDT Labs is now a little obsolete.
I am keeping the MHDT Labs DAC as a back-up in case the Topping fails, and also that I do miss its physical form factor compared to the Topping.
What I found most interesting was that going from one DAC with a SINAD probably sorted all the way to the right edge ("bad"), to another DAC with a SINAD sorted close to the left edge ("great") wasn't a very noticeable "upgrade" to us, and it took several minutes of continued listening to conclude that the Topping was indeed ever so slightly clearer and better overall from a transparency standpoint. Clearly we did not feel this was a major system upgrade from a listening standpoint - although it was apparently so from a test and measurement standpoint.