Could this be the new Killer, reasonably priced DAC?

[Ammonite Audio]

http://www.nosminidac.nl/Octave_English.html

I happened upon the new Metrum Acoustics Octave DAC which is produced in Holland and sells for a very reasonable €668. Interestingly, it does not use the normal audiophile DAC chips, employing "industrial" ones instead. A review is already out on 6 Moons, but I shall look forward to reading the forthcoming HiFi Critic review. Martin Colloms has put a little taster on the HiFi Critic forum, stating:

The Metrum Octave DAC (coming issue ) provoked laughter when we connected it up , it was so light that when audiophile cables were fitted, it fell off the shelf.

And we laughed again when we listened to it , but then for all the right reasons

This is clearly not a "fanfare" product like the Young DAC or Audiolab MDAC, but that's probably a good thing.

[Ali Tait]

Looks interesting.

[Peter Stockwell]

The Octave is soon to be available, somebody posted on pfm, I think, about this about 18months to 2 years ago, when only the Dual (discontinued, by the look of it) and Quad models were available. The Quad comes in at about 450€ with psu.

Been on my radar for some time, but ... Do I need another dac ?

No, methinks.

[sq225917]

Looks funky I don't suppose there's much. Chance of a demo anywhere.

[Reid Malenfant]

Interesting Paralleling transistors can reduce the noise floor in such things as an MC head amp. If I remember right 8 transistors in parallel lowers the noise floor by 6Db or more, I'd expect the same or similar with ICs which in theory should result in rather good performance. The fact that they are fast just adds to the to the melee.

[morris_minor]

A bit of a punt, unheard - but I've just ordered an Octave. About 6 weeks delivery, so something to look forward to in the New Year

[Puffin]

Blimey! When can I come and have a listen

[morris_minor]

Blimey! When can I come and have a listen

Send me a PM mid January. Will hopefully have a) arrived, and b) had a few hours under its belt by then

[DSJR]

I think an Inca-Yellow Morris Minor is even more exciting

Seriously, I hope this thing is great, but the review linked to on their site is 90% waffle and less than 10% actual info..

[Welder]

I quite interested in this. I like the theory of NOS Dacs but I’ve yet to hear one that doesn’t sound like a rather noisy valve amp in soft clipping mode.

On a side note, I read the 6 off world review and I have to ask, does anyone have a feckin clue about what the guy is on about? Really, way to write a few paragraphs of totally meaningless bollocks

Oh, Dave got there first.