Metrum NOS MiniDAC Octave arrived . . .

[morris_minor]

My Metrum Octave arrived today, and here are some pictures to whet your appetites - one with a CD case for scale.

Will post impressions when I've run it for a while . . .

[Reid Malenfant]

They look very nice Bob I just don't get why people design a top quality DAC & leave off an AES/EBU input & balanced analogue outputs though

If I can source a source with balanced outputs then that's what I'll go for, I think MartinT is probably of the same persuasion


Never the less I'll be interested in how it sounds, hope it's a cracker

[sq225917]

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

[morris_minor]

Yep. I hope it improves on my current DAC - a Sonifex Redbox DAC1 - which I got around 5 years ago for dealing with CD playback from a Pioneer universal player.



This is now in my office (now main stereo) system hanging off a Squeezebox - which is where I'll be using the Metrum.

I'll also compare it with the DAC in the Squeezebox Transporter - though I've never felt that was lacking in anyway (unlike the little SB receiver in the office).

Anyhow, some interesting times ahead. Not least because Richard from Vantage Audio is bringing up my SL7 on Wednesday and taking away my SL-QL1 for major surgery.

[morris_minor]

Well, 1 day in and I'm very happy

Having the Octave in the chain is the audio equivalent of someone having cleaned the windows, or polished the brass. A tweak upwards on the saturation control in Photoshop. If you know what I mean?

My active Harbeths have never sounded better, and any doubts I had about their bass response (or lack of) evaporated immediately. The change in sound over my Redbox DAC1 was not subtle. Much to the amusement of my 11 year old son I just sat there saying "wow" with a big grin (amusement followed with "Dad, turn that down, I'm trying to listen to YouTube").

To sum up my initial impressions, I'd say digital files (from my Squeezebox) have never sounded so much like good vinyl. No high frequency glare, just everything sounding "right".

I've asked Cees if there's any burn in period, but I'm leaving random tracks playing overnight to get some mileage on the clock.

There's always a honeymoon period, I find, with new kit. I'll have to see how I get on with it in the weeks and months to come.

[morris_minor]

Reply from Cees . . .

3-4 weeks powered up is needed for best performance - no need to feed it data all the time . . .

[Reid Malenfant]

Reply from Cees . . .

3-4 weeks powered up is needed for best performance - no need to feed it data all the time . . .

Hmm, if no data is fed to it then the analogue output stages won't do anything...

I'd expect better results with it being fed data to crunch on & everything doing something even if it's not connected to anything Burn in means the whole lot surely, DAC & output stages

[morris_minor]

I'd have thought that too, Mark. I'm going to be using it a lot anyway .

[Welder]

I was quite interested in this Dac but now you've said it sounds like a record player I'm not sure it's worth hearing.

[morris_minor]