Merging Technologies Anubis On The Desktop

The Merging Technologies Anubis is a multifunctional audio tool, used mostly by people in the business of making music. I purchased one over a year ago to use while recording the Audiophile Style podcast. After season one of the podcast concluded, I started thinking about using the Anubis as a HiFi tool and HiFi component. I wrote about using it as a tool to assist sending audio from an Aurender through HQPlayer. Now, I've moved the Anubis over to my desktop. For the most part it's great, however there are some caveats and potential dangers of which people should be aware. 

The Anubis, at the most basic level, is an A to D and D to A converter. It does far more than this, but for high end audio purposes, let's stick with how audiophiles use the product. I own the Anubis Premium version that supports PCM through 32/384 kHz and DSD through DSD256. 

Externally the Anubis is crafted like a Swiss timepiece. OK, not that intricate, but the craftsmanship and feel of the product are ver nice. The all metal chassis is built like a brick. I've never dropped the unit, but I wouldn't worry to much if I did. As a desktop DAC the Anubis has two physical features that I use all the time, a volume knob and mute button. Both are really easy to access in a split second. 

The volume knob is luxurious. A big dial right on the front that can't be mistaken for anything other than volume up/down. It actually has multiple uses while in the unit's settings, but not while listening. While playing music at my desktop, it's just nice to grab the big dial and adjust the volume, turning it is as smooth as silk. Pure Swiss design. 

The mute button is large and simple to find at a moment's notice. When it's engaged, it illuminates orange, and can't be missed. At my desktop, a physical mute button comes in incredibly handy. 

My Anubis shipped with a 12V power supply that's very unique, at least in the HiFi world. It has a locking mechanism, requiring one to align two tabs upon insertion, and unscrew when removing it from the unit. I love this feature. At my desk, I often kick the cables or bump them when adjusting one of the way too many components I'm testing. This locking feature was 100% bulletproof in my experience. Unfortunately, the locking PSU is now an optional component. 

A few weeks ago I was rerouting some cables under my desk and I thought I had a power strip issue. It was acting really strange. The Anubis remained powered on, while all the other components had no power. Then it hit me, the Anubis can be powered via Ethernet (PoE+). I'd completely forgot about this feature. Now, it's one I can't live without. Running a single Ethernet cable to the Anubis, is incredibly clean for a desktop component. When I use headphone with this system, there's one Ethernet into the back, and one headphone cable out the front. That's it. 

The Anubis is highly configurable with respect to both inputs and outputs. In addition to traditional headphone jacks on the front, it has four analog outputs on the back. Two are more traditional looking combo jacks that accept balanced XLR cables, and two are quarter inch jacks (accepting both balanced and single ended cables). This is very nice because it enabled me to connect the XLR outputs to a pair of Schiit Audio Vidar amps and if I ever want to add a subwoofer to this desktop system, I can use the quarter inch jacks with a TRS to XLR cable(s). I currently use the Vidar amps connected to the Wilson Audio TuneTots. 

Getting audio into the Anubis is done via Ethernet using Ravenna / AES67. It's also possible to connect a microphone to the unit for taking phone/video calls on one's computer, but that's a little out of scope here. Ravenna / AES67 is the only way to get digital audio input the Anubis, no DLNA, no Roon Ready, no HQPlayer NAA, or even USB. Granted, the Anubis is endlessly upgradable via software and Merging could add any capability it wants in the future, but for now, it's Ravenna. 

I'm a big fan of Ravenna. It's an incredibly robust protocol that's used to capture live performances, among other things, where there are no second chances. It has to work, or it's thrown in the trash in favor or something else. Low latency, high sample rate support, gapless, DSD, and as many channels as a home user could possible use, are all well within the specifications of Ravenna. 

I talked to Merging's Dominique Brulhart about Ravenna / AES67 back in 2017. The audio of our conversation is available here - Ravenna Conversation.

Caveats and Dangers

The Anubis is very different from the Merging NADAC because the NADAC was specifically designed for home audio use. The Anubis was designed for the studio, where professionals are used to configuring products and even maintain annual support contracts with manufacturers such as Merging Technologies. 

Configuring the Anubis isn't for the faint of heart. In most cases, an application called ANEMAN is required for the initial setup. This app is fraught gotchas for home users. Errors will popup, without an actionable message. I ran into this when trying to connect the output of a device to the input of the Anubis, without 24 bit content playing at the same time or having been played last. If 16 bit is/was played, an error appears that say nothing like, "use 24 bit content during setup." I touched on this in my article about using HQP with Aurender, located here - Ravenna / HQP / Aurender.

In addition to the caveat that configuration may be over many home users' heads or beyond what they are willing to do, there's a potential danger involved with the configuration. While testing a different configuration on the Anubis' advanced web configuration page, I thought I was routing audio to an additional output channel, just like the currently working channels. It turned out to be a costly mistake. 

I routed the audio to the right speaker, but also didn't realize it would be at full volume, without a way to control it via the volume knob. Of course, while making configuration changes I play music so I know immediately if something works or not. In this case, I sent Metallica's cover of Thin Lizzy's Whisky in the Jar, full blast into the right Wilson TuneTot and my right eardrum. I freaked out, trying the volume knob without success, not thinking to hit the mute button, and ripped the speaker cables from the rear of the TuneTot. Thankfully they were banana plugs. 

My eardrum survived unfazed, but the speaker didn't. A funky burning smell soon emanated from the speaker, and my morning was ruined. I crossed my fingers as I reset the configuration, reconnected the speaker, and resumed playback at reasonable levels. My luck had run out. I blew the speaker. It was totally my fault for not knowing exactly what the Anubis configuration change would do before making it, and for not at least using music with very low inherent volume while testing. This was totally avoidable, but people should know this type of thing can happen when configuring complex components not customized for home use.

Currently, the TuneTots are back at Wilson Audio for repair, and I feel quite dumb about the whole thing. 

In Use on My Desktop

I used the Anubis on my desktop a couple different ways. One on my Mac using Audirvana, and the other playing music from an Aurender. There are pros and cons to each option.

Using the Anubis with a desktop computer requires installation of either the Merging Audio Device - MAD Driver (Windows) or Merging RAVENNA/AES67 Virtual Audio Device (Mac). My desktop is a Mac Mini (M1) with Pro Display XDR, so I installed the VAD. Once installed, I was able to use the Unite feature of the driver, to connect it to the Anubis over my network. This is fairly easy and recommended if conditions for its use are met. If my Mac had two Ethernet ports, I could also connect the Anubis directly to the Mac and Unite them, bypassing my network, but also requiring the 12V power supply as my Mac doesn't output PoE. *** See update below.

Audirvana see the Merging VAD driver as an audio device, similarly to how it sees a DLNA endpoint or eve USB DAC. Sending Redbook and high resolution PCM to the Anubis worked pretty well, albeit a touch slow on sample rate changes. The sound quality was great! The Anubis is no slouch when it come to high quality playback. Think about it, this device has to have very low noise because of its use with items such as a microphone requiring quite a bit of preamp gain. If the Anubis had any issues, they'd be heard in recordings and playback. The Anubis sounded great when connected to the Wilson Audio TuneTots via XLR outputs, the RAAL-requisite SR1a headphones connected the same way, and both my Etymotic ER3SE and ER4SR earphones. 

One issue I was unable to resolve before publication, is with DSD playback***. The Merging team assured me that DSD using DoP from a Mac was fully supported, even though I couldn't get it to work. I have no reason to doubt these guys, as they have always been very responsive and first class people. When attempting to play DSD using DoP because native DSD isn't supported on Macs, the Merging VAD driver said it was receiving DSD / DoP and the Anubis said it was either receiving 176 kHz or DSD (both could be correct), but there was either no sound, or I had to turn the volume up almost full blast to hear very distorted music. I tried on two different Macs with two different operating systems and two different hardware architectures. No luck on either. 

UPDATE 02/23/2022

*** I heard back from Merging the morning after publishing this article. The team showed me that my configuration was incorrect, which caused DoP not to work. The way to get DSD via DoP working from a Mac to the Anubis is to use the Monitor Mission on the Anubis and RAV/AES67 mode in the VAD driver in macOS. This also requires ANEMAN for setup, not the simpler UNITE feature. 

Note: PCM was gapless at all supported sample rates.

The pros of using the Anubis with a desktop computer are an easier setup if one doesn't play DSD on a Mac and can use the Unite feature, and the ability to play desktop audio sounds / video calls, videos through the unit, and connect a microphone is needed. On Windows native DSD works just fine. The cons of this method can be slow sample rate changes, DoP requirement on Mac, trouble with DSD playback on Mac*** (see update above), and very specific operating system requirements. The sound quality using the Anubis with Audirvana was great with all music I played, from Japanese jazz to Metallica to Aoife O'Donnovan. 

Using the Anubis with an Aurender was also very nice, but a different experience. After enabling Ravenna within Aurender Conductor, the ANEMAN app is required to complete setup. I've ben down this road many times, so setup wasn't too bad. Still not simple and not for a novice, but not too bad. Once setup is complete, playback froman Aurender to the Merging Anubis is rock solid and the sound is great. I left the Aurender playing for several days at a time, to test both Ravenna and the ability of these two devices to communicate flawlessly. The experiment produced perfect results. Not a single issue over long periods of time, nor an issue during regular playback at my desktop. Zero dropouts and zero sample rate switch slowness. 

The cons of using an Aurender with Anubis are the difficulty of setup and the fact that Anubis can't easily play audio from one's desktop computer such as a video call. This should technically be possible because the Anubis can monitor several audio streams during recordings, but setting this up will require additional assistance. The pros of using Aurender with Anubis are playback at all PCM sample rates and native DSD through DSD256 without a glitch (all gapless as well). Note: Make sure to enable Native DSD within Aurender Conductor. I installed the Conductor app on my Mac to control playback, so an iPad wasn't required all the time. Sound quality with this system was great with all my music as well. The Anubis is a very solid DAC.

Wrap Up

The Merging Technologies Anubis Premium is a great audio tool for both professional users and audiophiles alike. Those looking for a straight up DAC will likely approve of the great sound quality of the Anubis, but should confirm this professional tool's configuration requirements are suitable for their skill level. If one is ready to try the Anubis, its flexibility, features, Swiss design, solid build quality, network audio stability, and great sound quality should be more than enough to improve one's musical enjoyment, no matter where it's installed. I continue to use my Anubis Premium on my desktop daily. 

Product Information:

• Merging technologies Anubis Premium  $2,499 as tested
• Merging technologies Anubis Premium Manual (PDF)

Associated Music:

• Audiophile Style 50 (Qobuz)
• Computer Audiophile PJ4CA Playlist (Tidal)

Associated Equipment: