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In Reply to: RE: REVIEW: Metrum Acoustics Octave DAC Processors posted by sbrians on March 22, 2014 at 08:33:25
My experience of the Metrum Octave II was quite different. I do have a good amount of experience with so-called NOS DACs. Presently I have an older NOS dac, modified, that is based on the 1545 chip and also the Audio DAC Kits 3.1 Signature. Both have that lovely flow and timing that NOS dacs seem to have. I found the Metrum to also have that same lovely flow, a kind of 'fluency' that other dacs seem to miss. But also, like you, I have Tinnitus and found that it had a bit of a hyped, thin high end; this tended to make my tinnitus worse. Compared to my other DACS, it seemed to have a less rich tonal quality, though it did have a very nice clarity in the mid-band. I heard this thinness on a friends Octave I as well.
I'm posting this not to contradict your experience, but I've found it helpful in the past to get variety of views of a product, with different experiences. One possible explanation is perhaps I didn't have enough hours on it. But I did try it out for a couple of weeks and had run it in for a couple hundred hours. It might be interesting for you to compare it to other NOS dacs and see if you find the same qualities you like in them as well.
Follow Ups:
I do not doubt you. Of course, I have spent years getting my system to not sound cold or analytical (I went down that wrong path years ago, where only audiophile recordings sounded good). Maggies really take work to get to sound good; stock is very bright to me.
I really wanted to hear the MHDT Stockholm, Altmann, etc, but could not afford those. I did consider the Scott Nixon DAC in the more affordable category. But then I came across the Octave at ~$800 and figured that it was worth a try to get the sound that I wanted, and it worked out very well for me.
What I heard was that the Metrum is much closer to the sound that you like, with much more texture, smoothness, musicality etc. than the other OS DACs that I have heard, I could imagine that the older chips could have more texture, etc.
Speaking of thin-ness, this was the property that varied most during during break in. It never became harsh or had glare, but was a little thin and less involving at times. By thin here, I don't mean so much a lack of texture as lack of warmth in the low end. This aspect would oscillate on the order of a day; if it was a little thin one day, it would be a little different in a day or two. Until about 3 months of power on, mostly w/ signal going in. At 4 months, the sound quality became constant.
I would imagine that using 1 or 2 old R2R DAC chips would have more texture, but less dynamics than the 8 chips in the Octave. I'm sure the design around the chips would affect dynamics a lot. I can only imagine, since I have not heard.
Although I am sure some folks would disagree with you, I am not surprised by your comments. I've not heard one, but considering the experiences and sonic preferences of some of those that like Metrum DACs (eg. Srajan) I would expect them to present music with enhanced contrast and in a possibly lean manner, at least with the music I mostly listen to.Disclaimer: I seem to be sensitive to brightness/ enhanced transients/ metallic flavour/ midrange glare et al, so others' MMV... But, I won't let said sensitivity get in the way of listening to music I enjoy.
Cheers
“As long as we have any intention to be right… we should be wary. So long as words have the slightest ego attachment, they are dishonest.” Charlotte Joko Beck
Edits: 03/25/14
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