Metric Halo ULN-8 vs. newer DACs

[Telstar2]

On ‎18‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 1:27 AM, dth31 said:

But they virtually never use Firewire connections and maybe you hit upon a reason why Mac mini/Firewire/LIO-8 just "works"

The FireWire standard declined and was eventually abandoned. This has nothing to do with it's merits and demerits as audio interface. For sure it was better than USB, ut USB is "universal" so it stayed. It was diffused only among pro devices so (almost?) nobody made "audiophile" FireWire cards and all that paraphenalia.

 

Besides, AKM chips are among the best sounding of the delta-sigma crowd.

[jp11801]

anyone here that still has the Metric Halo ULN 8 or LIO 8 try it with the new 3d card? I am running this via ethernet to a Mac mini running Roon and to my ears the results are stunning. Would love to hear other opinions. 

[blademaster]

On 9/20/2019 at 6:01 PM, jp11801 said:

anyone here that still has the Metric Halo ULN 8 or LIO 8 try it with the new 3d card? I am running this via ethernet to a Mac mini running Roon and to my ears the results are stunning. Would love to hear other opinions. 

 

I've upgraded my LIO-8 to 3D back in May 2019 and was super happy with the sonic improvements.  Music was more nuanced and I noticed more low level detail.  Also, the timing and pace was more accurate.  I've recently upgraded to the newest firmware and PB9.  I felt the newest firmware/PB9 was sort of a let down.  The vocals became more edgy and bright.  Vocals were also pushed back and thinner sounding.  I felt it lost some of the original euphoric full bodied magic.  Did you upgrade to the latest firmware and software?  What are your thoughts on it?  Would love to hear! 

[fds]

Have just recently upgraded my LIO-8 to 3D. Very happy with the improvements when using it now directly connected to my iMac via USB (instead of FW). I was somewhat afraid of the upgrade since I liked its perfomance under 2D already quite a lot. However, with 3D the highs in particular got quite a bit better while its other strengths remained unchanged. However, I have been using its USB input without checking for the firmware in the MIO software. 

 

One of my main motivations for the upgrade was the hope to use it with the Sonore opticalRendu (oR). Unfortunately, this is still problematic. So far only AirPlay/Shairport make the LIO-8 play music when connected to the oR. The results are very satisfying apart from some slight click/pops that occur frequently. Thereby, it is not usable in this way at present. (In contast, when using an RME Babyface, no clicks/pops occur in this mode and DLNA works perfectly well via JRiver Media Center 25/26 running on the iMac as a DLNA server.)

 

Now one of my hopes was that a firmware update will fix these issues. Not good to hear the described experiences with PB9 though. Is there a way to go back to the previous firmware to get back its magic? May I ask for which firmware the LIO-8 still had its magic?

 

So far I did not try the new ethernet inputs. Did anyone here compare USB vs ethernet inputs? Or did anyone here succeed in getting the LIO-8 or ULN-8 working with one of the Sonore Rendus?

 

 

 

[fds]

I am still trying to fix the problems encountered when using the LIO-8 with the opticalRendu. Unfortunately, even with the newest firmware pb10, the pops/clicks are still there. Their frecquency of appearance doubles when doubling the sample rate. Just got in contact with both Sonore and Metric Halo to solve this. Both got immediatly back to me. Very nice. So let's see how this will evolve.

 

In the meantime, I am using the new ethernet input on the LIO-8 3D using a direct connection to my iMac (running JRMC26) and also using optical fiber with an opticalModule in front of the LIO-8. Ethernet cables are still SUPRA CAT8 but I am tempted to upgrade to better cables (SoTM, Sablon, ?). It sounds very impressive in particular when using fiber and opticalModule in between two SUPRA CAT8 cables. Lots of euphoric and full bodied magic in there still with the newest firmware. Thus, I am already very happy with the 3D upgraded LIO-8 at this point.

[fds]

On 9/21/2019 at 2:01 AM, jp11801 said:

anyone here that still has the Metric Halo ULN 8 or LIO 8 try it with the new 3d card? I am running this via ethernet to a Mac mini running Roon and to my ears the results are stunning. Would love to hear other opinions. 

 

Are you still using your 3d upgraded Metric Halo device? Did you compare it with your new Lumin T2 maybe? Maybe you want to try an opticalModule and fiber in front of these devices?

[fds]

While I had reported about problems when using the LIO-8 with the opticalRendu, I am happy to say that they have been resolved. The Metric Halo team was able to locate a bug in the firmware and provided an updated one to me. Now with the new firmware, the LIO-8 works very nicely when fed by the opticalRendu in DLNA or NAA or ROON Ready mode. (Squeezelight is still not working maybe due to the LIO-8 being a multi-channel converter?)

 

Yesterday I had used this combination with opticalRendu as NAA and HQPlayer to upsample redbook PCM -> 176.4kHz with Sinc-L, Sinc-M, and closed-form-M. This improved clarity by a lot and made the soundstage more 3D. It was probably the best performance I have ever experienced with the LIO-8. 

 

Of course, HQPlayer can produce even better audio data but here the limitation is in the DAC section of the LIO-8 that does not go beyond 192kHz and that does not allow to play DSD files. Having experienced the power of HQPlayer with my little portable Chord Mojo at 384kHz or higher and DSD256, I now hope very much that Metric Halo will offer an updated new DAC card to allow the LIO-8 to play such files in the future. 

 

 

[jtwrace]

Has anyone ever seen Audio Precision measurements of the LIO-8 DAC?