Metrum Octave DAC - Experience?

[mfsoa]

Anyone heard one? I think Bhobba has written about this little guy but I was wondering if anyone else has heard one.
Hard to find a negative comment on it, especially at its price point. I know the caveat that it "needs" a reclocker to sound its best but I'm not using a computer but a Touch at least for now. I guess I could use the enhanced digital out and go USB from the Touch and then convert to SPDIF with a reclocker. This path would be most compatible with a future computer server upgrade.

Methinks an Empirical Audio Synchro-Mesh might be the ticket between the Touch and Metrum...

Anyway what else blows the Metrum out of the water or sounds better than any other DAC at 5x the price of the Metrum 

Still liking my Peachtree DacIT but hey why not dream?

-Mike

[machinehead]

Yes thats what I read, you need a jitter reducer feeder. What about the Ressonence Concero which does exactly that. I read a recent review that hammered the SynchroMesh...
Here...
http://dagogo.com/empirical-audio-synchro-mesh-reclocker-review
I own the Concero, a great DAC and works really well as feeder...(from reviews)

[mfsoa]

Hi Mike,
Yeah but that's Doug, the follow who went on at length about the sound of opamps is the solid state position in the EE dac when he was using the tube output, completely bypassing the SS opamps.    Despite these inaccuracies I do think he's got good ears though and seems to be genuinely concerned with helping others maximize their listening pleasure  .

Reading between the lines he sure seemed to have a bone to pick with Steve who dared to question Doug's almightly EE dac.

Overall I didn't think the review was in the "hammered" category at all and only confirmed what Steve N. has said about the Synchro-mesh - That it would have little to no benefit for a really good transport but a would really benefit a crummy one like a Sonos or Touch.

If I may thread-jack my own thread - While I have done almost no "comparative, audiophile-type" listening for a long time, I have been listening to the sound of my Touch as transport (stock w/ stock Jerome pwr supply) vs. the digital outs from a CD player (Linn Unidisc SC) and am amazed at the difference in the sound from my Peachtree DacIT (switching digital cable from the Touch to the CD player - everything else the same, using a CD burned from the file on the PC that I used to stream to the Touch. Quality of burned CD vs. original is a topic for another day).

The sound of the digital out from the CD is so much better - more organic and "whole" vs. flat, no depth cardboard cut-out imaging from the Touch that it is convincing me that the stock Touch is simply unsuitable for use as a transport in a high-end audio system. And this after implementing Soundcheck's TT 3.0, which did significantly improve the digital outs of the Touch.  Hence my interest in the Synchro-mesh, and my renewed interest in ditching the Touch and finally going to a dedicated server.  Maybe if/when the Touch croaks...
Thanks for the reply, Mike

-Mike

[richidoo]

Are not the EE opamps always in signal path?

I use ESS 9018DAC and found that it kills the high jitter from stock Sonos much MUCH better than other Dacs I have tried with Sonos. I am a believer in the jitter elimination of the ESS chips. But I would love to hear the synchromesh added to see if Doug missed anything. Not all reviewers ears are alike.

[mfsoa]

Only one pair of opamps are in use when using the tube and both pairs are used when using the SS out.  I encouraged Doug in several PMs that unless he clearly stated which output he was using, we could not know which opamps he was using, kinda rendering all of his opamp articles meaningless.  I'd like to know what is being reviewed when a reviewer is reviewing something.

Back to business, I too would like to hear a SynchroMesh as I think it might really improve the SQ of the Touch as a digital transport.

-Mike

[machinehead]

Mike,
I dont follow Dougs reviews that closely, but he must have a bone to pick, because the review was not good.

Downstairs I run USB out to my Eximus DP1 Dac which sounds pretty darn good using the USB Mod.
Upstairs I chucked my SB Classic and am going direct out USB to the Concero using Audirvana 1.4.6
Something wasn't sounding up to par until the 1.4.6 update. The programmer got to use a high end system to voice a new integer mode and its a much, much better SQ. Also using iZtrope you can upsample and create your own sound filters which seems promising with endless combinations to change the sound.. Could be my doom! lol
At this point I would get rid of the transport.

The DACit has great reviews.
Does it have USB?

[bhobba]

Yea know the DAC well - owned it for quite a while.

Demoed it to quite a few people compared to my PDX fed with an Off-Ramp and its 50-50 to which people preferred.  It also needs to be upsampled to remove the slight HF droop you get with NOS - on that DAC you hear it as a slight mushiness.

Its a very transparent sounding DAC meaning you get the feeling it is giving you whats on the recording warts and all.  It is not for people who dislike digital - that transparency is digital transparency - you know its digital.

However this is a very fast moving landscape and right now my choice would be the new Chord QuteHd - its the first DAC everyone that heard it thought was better than a PDX.  It was found that PDX had suboptimal valves and the Chord was not stock in that it was fed with my Off-Ramp and had a linear power supply - but it was better.  Later better valves were used and the gap narrowed.

Also it does DSD and via DSD without the better power supply and no Off-Ramp - just stock - it bested a PDX with the better valves.

Thanks
Bill

[mfsoa]

Thanks Bill and Mike,

For now I'm stuck in Squeezebox land as I have 3 in different places around the house and adding a 4th soon, so there's a lot of inertia there.

But for my good system I do think a dedicated server (it would be a PC) would probably sound better than the Touch but now we are talking some investment in time and money. And can I even share music storage between my SBoxes and a server? 

Mike the DacIT has USB in but I don't think it's asynch. I haven't tried the USB yet.

-Mike

[JBNY]

Hey there,  I want to chime about using the Synchro-Mesh used in one's system. I have had it in my system for about 2 months. I bought it new from Steve in January. I bought it for the sole purpose of improving the sound from a sonos connect. I have had sonos in my systems for about 8 years. Prior to the Synchro-Mesh I had a Monarchy Audio DIP reclocker for about 2 years. My DAC is a wyred4sound DAC1 with upgraded caps to be sonically the same as their DAC2.

Synchro-Mesh made a good improvement on the sonus. Soundstage opens up, you get better placement of sounds in space, the mids and highs have better definition. Overall it makes sonos sound better. How much better I think really depends on how good your DAC is to begin with. I think the w4s dac for the price, is a great sounding DAC and does a very good job with jitter. The Synchro-Mesh used with it on the sonos, sounds slightly better than the DIP with sonus, the DIP sounds much better than the sonus by itself to the DAC. So for my Sonos (which is the sole reason I bought it) it is a very good fit.

I dumped my CD player in favor of computer audio about 5 years ago. So, although I still have my old Arcam CD72 in the closet, I have not plugged it into my main system in years. So I tested the Synchro-Mesh with my home computer streaming setup, which is async USB audio from a Zotac AD41 Zbox running Linux based XBMC V12 which allows for bit perfect audio. On redbook and high res music. I did not see an improvement at all using the Synchro-Mesh. The sound, depending on recordings, ranged from about the same to a noticeable degradation. I think the benefit of the Synchro-Mesh is very dependant on the source combined with the jitter reducing ability of the DAC itself. So YMMV.

So for me, it works great in it's intended purpose, cleaning up the sound from my Sonos, not so much outside of that.

My other equipment is comprised of: Modified Jolida Fusion Preamp (mullard and golden Lion tubes), Wyred4Sound ST-1000 (upgraded wiring and outputs) amp, Von Schweikert VR4 (modified to VR44 last year), a combination of audioquest IC and digital cables. Power Chords are a combination of Siltech, Audioquest, wireworld and Pangea.

Sorry to highjack, but there was lots of talk on the SM and just wanted to throw in my 2cents.

[shadowlight]

And can I even share music storage between my SBoxes and a server? 

Mike,

You will be able to share the music storage between the sboxes and server with out any issues.  The decision that you will have to make is do you want a dedicated music storage server and music playback system or can you live with music storage/playback on the same system.

My Squeezebox server/music storage system is located in my study.  All I had to do was share the music folder via Windows share and on the laptop with JRiver I mapped that drive and pointed JRiver to it as my music library and JRiver took over from there and I was up and running 

[mfsoa]

Good thing I didn't pull the trigger on an Octave-

Octave MKII:

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2013/03/metrum-acoustics-launch-mkii-octave-dac/

Bhobba, when are you going to hear this guy? 

-Mike

[bhobba]

Bhobba, when are you going to hear this guy? 

Mate virtually all the DAC's I hear I have to buy which, of course, gives me a different perspective than reviewers who are beholding to the the manufacturers, but puts a constraint on what I get.  Unfortunately the new Metrum is not different enough for me to fork out the dosh.

However a guy whose ears I trust has heard it and telly me the USB implementation is very good and the DAC that way is up there with DAC's using converters like the Audiophellio.

Thanks
Bill

[rollo]

  We have a PDX level 2 USB  DAC in  NY for home demo.



charles