Originally Posted by
Ammonite Acoustics
My Mutec MC-3+ USB arrived today and, after a bit of head-scratching with regards to setup, it is now playing music. Initial impressions are that it's pretty astonishing, compared to my previous USB audio chain of Intona USB isolator and Gustard U12 USB/SPDIF converter, feeding my Naim DAC-V1 via coaxial digital. Having worked out which menu settings actually result in music being played, the Mutec is delivering a lovely organic, sweet and detailed sound that places performers, instruments clearly within the recorded acoustic space. You really get to 'feel' the acoustic space with the Mutec in the system. All very nice, and (to my uneducated ears) musically articulate too.
One of the reasons why I bought this thing was to determine whether a cheap but convenient Windows sub-notebook could be elevated from so-so to a really good USB music source. I had already found out that a purpose-built music PC can be a significantly better source than the sub-notebook, but that involved a dedicated audiophile SoTM USB card, plus various SATA filters. That music PC has had some sort of SSD fit and won't boot up, but so far it does look like the Mutec gadget really is agnostic towards the source quality - it claims to fully isolate and re-clock the signal, and to my ears seems to do that successfully and to fulfil its original promise to me.
So, although it's early days and it will probably settle in like all new equipment does, I think this one can be chalked up as a resounding success. It means that one smallish and neat box can replace two existing ones, which is always a good thing, but more importantly digital music replay seems to be finally approaching what I get from vinyl. If you look at the Mutec from a value point of view, its cost is not so steep if it means a cheap computer source can be used instead of an expensive one, and it does a much better job of USB/SPDIF conversion than anything I've heard so far. Even better, it's German and properly supported in terms of drivers etc, which is often a problem with some of the Chinese stuff.