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Metrum Acoustics Pavane


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I have one on order. It will arrive in a couple of weeks. My present DAC is W4S DSDse driven by a Hynes powered Off-Ramp 5 throgh I2S HDMI. When the Pavane is fully burnt in I will report on what I found of differences between them.

 

Cees at Metrum told me there are some new reviews coming up in a while. Might be worh waiting for if you are interested in more professional views and analyzing. The 6moons review I found a bit cryptic.

Auralic Aries LE - Intona - W4S RUR - Curious Cable - Metrum Pavane DAC - PS Audio BHK preamp - McIntosh MC601 - Magico S3 - 2 x JL Audio f112. LPS: Paul Hynes SR7, Empirical Dynamo, HDPLEX, SBooster. Cabling & power conditioning: Lessloss, Synergistic Research. Isolation: Stillpoints Ultra SS.

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I have one on order. It will arrive in a couple of weeks. My present DAC is W4S DSDse driven by a Hynes powered Off-Ramp 5 throgh I2S HDMI. When the Pavane is fully burnt in I will report on what I found of differences between them.

 

Cees at Metrum told me there are some new reviews coming up in a while. Might be worh waiting for if you are interested in more professional views and analyzing. The 6moons review I found a bit cryptic.

 

Certainly not 6moons most informative effort. I am eager to hear your impressions. To my ears, most properly designed modern dacs sound quite similar, which is not necessarily surprising, or a bad. I am wondering if Metrum's approach sounds better, or just different.

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  • 1 month later...

Yes, I got one a few weeks ago replacing a W4S DAC-2 DSDse.

 

It still needs a couple of hundred hours burn-in before I should make a judgement, but so far everything sounds very promising. I have to get back at you in a week or so after some additional trials and testing.

 

At the moment I´m driving The Pavane through the USB input using quite heavy filtering from both the Empirical Short Block and two chained UpTone Regens on LPS. Smile on my face!

Auralic Aries LE - Intona - W4S RUR - Curious Cable - Metrum Pavane DAC - PS Audio BHK preamp - McIntosh MC601 - Magico S3 - 2 x JL Audio f112. LPS: Paul Hynes SR7, Empirical Dynamo, HDPLEX, SBooster. Cabling & power conditioning: Lessloss, Synergistic Research. Isolation: Stillpoints Ultra SS.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This DAC makes super upsampling DAC like the PS Audio Directsream DAC sounds defective in comparison.

 

Metrum NOS R2R sound is realistic, analog, and beautiful.

 

Super upsampling 1bit DSD DAC sounds thin, flat, and unnatural.

 

Upsampling really took the industry back decades in sound quality and people like me fell for it. With the Metrum I am reminded of the analog sound of the late 90s and boy does it sound good.

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Everybody says it sounds beautiful what do you mean by that? Is it airy is it transparent is it foot tapping?

 

 

This DAC makes super upsampling DAC like the PS Audio Directsream DAC sounds defective in comparison.

 

Metrum NOS R2R sound is realistic, analog, and beautiful.

 

Super upsampling 1bit DSD DAC sounds thin, flat, and unnatural.

 

Upsampling really took the industry back decades in sound quality and people like me fell for it. With the Metrum I am reminded of the analog sound of the late 90s and boy does it sound good.

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  • 5 months later...
This DAC makes super upsampling DAC like the PS Audio Directsream DAC sounds defective in comparison.

 

Metrum NOS R2R sound is realistic, analog, and beautiful.

 

Super upsampling 1bit DSD DAC sounds thin, flat, and unnatural.

 

Upsampling really took the industry back decades in sound quality and people like me fell for it. With the Metrum I am reminded of the analog sound of the late 90s and boy does it sound good.

 

Upsampling has always been silly, but there are many FPGA DAC's out there doing DSD well. What FPGA DAC comparisons have you done? While I like the R2R sound, I'm not keen to go any path that ignores the potential of DSD... 4 years for retail DSD DAC development vs 30 for CD tells you that DSD is still at bleeding edge of product development cycle and will make huge strides over the next 4 years.

Regards,

Dave

 

Audio system

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Upsampling has always been silly, but there are many FPGA DAC's out there doing DSD well. What FPGA DAC comparisons have you done? While I like the R2R sound, I'm not keen to go any path that ignores the potential of DSD... 4 years for retail DSD DAC development vs 30 for CD tells you that DSD is still at bleeding edge of product development cycle and will make huge strides over the next 4 years.

 

ilok hasn't posted for 5 months - MIA

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  • 4 months later...

Hi,

I just received a Pavane for evaluation.

I am using Roon + HQ Player.

What would be the best settings in HQP?

 

Also, After 12 hours of continuous playing (unit is not new) I feel that it is very bass shy.

Compared for example with an Ayre QB-09 DSD or even a Chord Mojo.

Any idea why?

 

Thanks

Mac Mini Late 2014 (16G/SSD) w Uptone JS-2 w OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini RAID (JS-2) / Roon

Aqua LinQ w EtherCon cable (Ghent) w Uptone EtherRegen w Uptone JS-2

Aqua Formula xHD w Ocellia RCA Interconnect & Shunyata Delta NR

Kora TB 200 Integrated Amplifier w Audio Art Power Cable

Magico V2 w Ocellia speaker cables w Shunyata Dark Field Elevator & JL Audio E-Sub e110 X 2

All equipment, including subwoofer on Modulum platforms (modulumaudio.com)

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Hi,

I just received a Pavane for evaluation.

I am using Roon + HQ Player.

What would be the best settings in HQP?

 

Also, After 12 hours of continuous playing (unit is not new) I feel that it is very bass shy.

Compared for example with an Ayre QB-09 DSD or even a Chord Mojo.

Any idea why?

 

Thanks

hmm... any chance the asynchronous USB converter in the Pavanne is lacking? Do you have a way to feed it coax to see what happens or an external asynchronous USB converter to bypass what came with the Pavanne?

Regards,

Dave

 

Audio system

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I've had a Metrum Pavane for a couple of months. I certainly don't find it bass shy at all. Bear in mind my speakers are Harbeth M30.1s, which don't really do deep bass. But I have noticed no lack of bass, compared to other DACs I've owned.

 

I like this DAC a lot. For reference, I have owned an Auralic Vega, Chord Hugo, Chord QBD76, Meitner MA1, Calyx Femto, Hegel HD25, Bel Canto DAC 3.5 and a few others over the last couple of years. The Pavane does not have the forensic detail of some of these DACs (such as the Meitner) but has a big, warm, rich, musical sound that I am enjoying enormously. All other dacs I compare it to now sound thin, bright and lightweight. Instruments and voices have substance and heft. The only criticism I have is that it is not quite as extended at the top end as some other DACs, but this is not significant enough to be a concern.

 

Time will tell if it is a long-term investment (and I rarely seem to own a DAC more than 6 months) but for now I am perfectly satisfied with it.

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It's been 3-4 days now. This DAC is excellent and very natural indeed. No digital glare, no fatigue.

But someone asked earlier in this thread "is it foot tapping?" - and to this I have to say "not really".

 

I am used to a "bigger" sound. I will soon switch back to my (temporary) Chord Mojo for A/B comparisons.

The distributor will also soon carry Aqua... So I will get to try a La Scala. Maybe this will be a better match....

More to come....

Mac Mini Late 2014 (16G/SSD) w Uptone JS-2 w OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini RAID (JS-2) / Roon

Aqua LinQ w EtherCon cable (Ghent) w Uptone EtherRegen w Uptone JS-2

Aqua Formula xHD w Ocellia RCA Interconnect & Shunyata Delta NR

Kora TB 200 Integrated Amplifier w Audio Art Power Cable

Magico V2 w Ocellia speaker cables w Shunyata Dark Field Elevator & JL Audio E-Sub e110 X 2

All equipment, including subwoofer on Modulum platforms (modulumaudio.com)

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I've had a Metrum Pavane for a couple of months. I certainly don't find it bass shy at all. Bear in mind my speakers are Harbeth M30.1s, which don't really do deep bass. But I have noticed no lack of bass, compared to other DACs I've owned.

 

I like this DAC a lot. For reference, I have owned an Auralic Vega, Chord Hugo, Chord QBD76, Meitner MA1, Calyx Femto, Hegel HD25, Bel Canto DAC 3.5 and a few others over the last couple of years. The Pavane does not have the forensic detail of some of these DACs (such as the Meitner) but has a big, warm, rich, musical sound that I am enjoying enormously. All other dacs I compare it to now sound thin, bright and lightweight. Instruments and voices have substance and heft. The only criticism I have is that it is not quite as extended at the top end as some other DACs, but this is not significant enough to be a concern.

 

Time will tell if it is a long-term investment (and I rarely seem to own a DAC more than 6 months) but for now I am perfectly satisfied with it.

 

They may not do deep bass, but your 30.1's are truly magical speakers. By your description of the Pavanes sound, it sounds like a match made in heaven. Just out of curiosity what amp(s) and preamp are you using with the 30.1's?

 

JC

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They may not do deep bass, but your 30.1's are truly magical speakers. By your description of the Pavanes sound, it sounds like a match made in heaven. Just out of curiosity what amp(s) and preamp are you using with the 30.1's?

 

JC

Apologies for the delay in responding. I agree - the 30.1s truly are magical. I am using Exposure amps - an MCX preamp and 20 year old 16 mono power amps.

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  • 2 years later...

Hello 

Metrum Acoustics Pavane Level 3 i2s + Ambre: 

After auditioning Metrum onyx, I was very impressed by the sound signature. i.e. analogue-ish.

So I went ahead and got Pavane L3 i2s + Ambre. 
Decided to sacrifice USB altogether.

 

Setup:
Roon(iMac)-->RJ45--> Metrum Ambre -->i2s--> Metrum Pavane Level 3--> Audioquest Water RCA--> Violectric V281--> Audeze lcd i4 (Balanced Effect Audio Horus).

 

Last 24 hours has completely changed my perception of music. The tonality is simply outstanding. The pitch black background, deep & tall soundstage is a treat for ears. The sound is so natural.

The mids are bodied, natural, emotional, textured & lush. There is an excellent imaging & layering of instruments, vocals in a three dimensional space.

A special word on the black background/noise floor. Pavane has a very low noise floor -155db at 2v rms. This helps in presenting the subtle background sounds which gets drowned in noise (RF,EMI,ground loops).These sounds just elevate the music enjoyment to an another level. 
The microdetails are so evident, one does not require extra effort to focus on these sounds, They are just there in front of you. 

I had auditioned Chord Dave alongside my hugo2 around a month back. I didn't experienced the same level of enjoyment or eargasm.
The sound from pavane is just effortless.There is no element of fatigue.  
NO harshness/edginess/sibilance. Some may think its HF roll off, that's not the matter at all. It has fast transients, well extended trebles with non fatiguing/non ear piercing sparkling sound.

It is a definite step up from Metrum onyx in all the departments.

I don't miss Chord Dave at all tbh.

The built quality is awesome. It weighs around 10 kgs. The black glass top adds class to its body.

Metrum recommends 3-4 weeks of burn in for Pavane & 1-2 weeks for Ambre.

Pavane is the best DAC I have ever heard in my short audiophile journey. Metrum have hit the bulls eye with pavane.?

 

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DDC: Singer SU6, Metrum Ambre

DAC: Metrum Pavane, Weiss 205

Amp/Preamp: AGD Audions, Herron VTSP 360 Ref

HP: Raal SR1a, BS650, BP580, HE6sev2, Yamaha HP1

Speakers: Kairos 

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