Metrum Musette

[pabe12]

Why does it have to be 75 Ohm, what difference does that make? I have read that before but not understood the reasoning behind it.

The S/PDIF implementation in the Metrum DACs is specified for 75Ohm; if you use a cable with a different impedance then the transmission between source and receiver is not perfect and you risk the occurrence of signal reflections on the transmission media (the cable). These reflections look like (attenuated) signals, and could blunt the capability of the receiving side to properly detect the bits with correct timing and value. Thus leading to increased jitter and other nastiness.

[Jud]

The S/PDIF implementation in the Metrum DACs is specified for 75Ohm; if you use a cable with a different impedance then the transmission between source and receiver is not perfect and you risk the occurrence of signal reflections on the transmission media (the cable). These reflections look like (attenuated) signals, and could blunt the capability of the receiving side to properly detect the bits with correct timing and value. Thus leading to increased jitter and other nastiness.

 

The S/PDIF implementation is specified for 75 ohm, period, I believe. It's good that Metrum follows the spec.

[pabe12]

The S/PDIF implementation is specified for 75 ohm, period, I believe. It's good that Metrum follows the spec.

 

Yes indeed. I once asked Cees whether the BNC connection perhaps was 50Ohm, but no, it wasn't - he confirmed it was 75Ohm just like the RCA connection.

 

Someone expressed regret regarding the little stubs of wire from the back of the chassis and the PCB; it's possible they aren't pukka 75Ohm wiring. How much that ruins the "transmission line" characteristics I don't know. I'll try and ask Cees at some point, if I remember...

[bensoundresearch]

Hi George,

Regarding wether the musette requires the 5V line in to operate, I asked a representative from Addicted to Audio in Australia who emailed Metrum and they indicated that yes it did.  The extra detail was added that only 3V was actually used by the Musette.  I wanted to know because I plan to use SOTM SMS 200 which only has a USB out and wanted to know whether a ifiusbpower type device that supplied clean 5V USB power to the DAC separate from the USB data from the SMS 200 would help.  Seems like it might? 

 

On a related topic, I wanted to ask you how you thought the French TDA1543 based NOS DAC3 compared to the Metrum.  (I actually have never owned a DAC.  My CD player died recently.  I hadn't used it much over the last several years preferring my Origin Live TT to Salience phono stage vinyl set up.)  So does the DAC3 compete with the Musette?  Or is the Musette much better?

 

Also if anyone knows why plugging in a SSD directly into the SOTM SMS 200 would degrade the sound, but plugging in a 12V powered hard drive dock would cause no such degredation please let me know.  This seems to be a finding in a SOTM SMS 200 review on stereonet.com.au.  It seems that the hard drive dock (Astone 250e) successfully used by the reviewer, Bilbo, is no longer available and more recent Astone models are not seen by the SMS 200.  I have emailed a distributer in Australia, Crux Audio, but haven't heard back.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

[George Hincapie]

I upgraded my Musette last week with the DAC Two modules. Took 10 mins from start to finish for me to fit them. Cost was around £150 and Cees shipped promptly from Holland.

 

 

[trappy]

2 hours ago, George Hincapie said:

I upgraded my Musette last week with the DAC Two modules. Took 10 mins from start to finish for me to fit them. Cost was around £150 and Cees shipped promptly from Holland.

 

 

Please do tell us how it sounds when you're a few hours in. My palms are kind of itching for the Amethyst as a DAC with a decent headamp (but not necessarily a preamp) would be very handy.

[ismewor]

Just want to find out does the DAC Two now support higher than 192? or still the same as DAC One?

[George Hincapie]

6 hours ago, ismewor said:

Just want to find out does the DAC Two now support higher than 192? or still the same as DAC One?

 

That depends; there are two versions of the DAC Two module. One supports up to 192KHz and the other supports up to 384KHz.

[newworld]

On 5/6/2017 at 6:07 AM, bensoundresearch said:

Hi George,

Regarding wether the musette requires the 5V line in to operate, I asked a representative from Addicted to Audio in Australia who emailed Metrum and they indicated that yes it did.  The extra detail was added that only 3V was actually used by the Musette.  I wanted to know because I plan to use SOTM SMS 200 which only has a USB out and wanted to know whether a ifiusbpower type device that supplied clean 5V USB power to the DAC separate from the USB data from the SMS 200 would help.  Seems like it might? 

 

On a related topic, I wanted to ask you how you thought the French TDA1543 based NOS DAC3 compared to the Metrum.  (I actually have never owned a DAC.  My CD player died recently.  I hadn't used it much over the last several years preferring my Origin Live TT to Salience phono stage vinyl set up.)  So does the DAC3 compete with the Musette?  Or is the Musette much better?

 

Also if anyone knows why plugging in a SSD directly into the SOTM SMS 200 would degrade the sound, but plugging in a 12V powered hard drive dock would cause no such degredation please let me know.  This seems to be a finding in a SOTM SMS 200 review on stereonet.com.au.  It seems that the hard drive dock (Astone 250e) successfully used by the reviewer, Bilbo, is no longer available and more recent Astone models are not seen by the SMS 200.  I have emailed a distributer in Australia, Crux Audio, but haven't heard back.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

Allow me to share my experience from using Sotm SMS 200 and external dacs.

 

The Sotm's USB output is very sensitive to the length and type of USB cabling used. When I used it to provide power for an external dac, it would lose connection through 6' generic cables. With shorter lengths, say less than 3' audiophile cables there was never a problem. I'm not sure whether it was the length or the quality of cables that made the difference, but I can confidently say that a 3' Supra cable was absolutely superb. I had also tried Audioquest and Wireworld.

 

It seems like your dac will not rely on 5v from USB alone, so I don't think it would be an issue, but it's something to consider if you would like to make sure that your USB connection performs at its best.

 

Also, research a little into grounding. When I tried powering the Sotm with an iFi iPower there was some kind of buzzing noise from the tweeter. At the end of my inquiry, the kind folks at iFi suggested that I buy their grounding device to make the problem go away. At which point, I realized that adding boxes is not something I wanted to get into, and promptly sold/returned everything and went for a one-box solution.

 

I think it would be just fine to use the Sotm with a powered HDD. The Sotm is just a small computer that majors on delivering clean signal. If all of the connected devices are powered externally, it will stick to what it does best. And the unit itself sounds great with the supplied power supply.

 

So if I were in your shoes, it would be, generic cat6-Sotm-Supra USB cable-Metrum, and that's it. No fancy power regenerator, no recrapifier, no nothing, preferably all plugged into the same outlet. That's how it sounded best to me in my system. Hope this helps.

[George Hincapie]

7 hours ago, newworld said:

...I realised that adding boxes is not something I wanted to get into, and promptly sold/returned everything and went for a one-box solution.

 

I think this is a really great point and one that I keep coming back to time and again. I have spoken with Cees a lot recently and I am encouraging him to add an ethernet port to future DACs (or make it available as a replacement board for the USB slot on current models) and have it certified as a Roon Ready end point. Can you imagine the SQ that would provide? A Metrum DAC and Roon with the shortest possible data path? OMG!

 

He is thinking about it, but he has 3 projects to deliver currently, so it'll be Dec 2017 at the earliest before he can progress the plans he has. Until then he has recommended I just use a Pi as an end point.

[newworld]

1 hour ago, George Hincapie said:

 

I think this is a really great point and one that I keep coming back to time and again. I have spoken with Cees a lot recently and I am encouraging him to add an ethernet port to future DACs (or make it available as a replacement board for the USB slot on current models) and have it certified as a Roon Ready end point. Can you imagine the SQ that would provide? A Metrum DAC and Roon with the shortest possible data path? OMG!

 

He is thinking about it, but he has 3 projects to deliver currently, so it'll be Dec 2017 at the earliest before he can progress the plans he has. Until then he has recommended I just use a Pi as an end point.

I've read some of your other posts. Whatever happened to the Auralic Aries? I'm pretty certain that would sound better than the Pi. If you haven't, try the USB connection and wireless. When I was auditioning the Aries, it sounded great this way.

[George Hincapie]

23 minutes ago, newworld said:

I've read some of your other posts. Whatever happened to the Auralic Aries? I'm pretty certain that would sound better than the Pi. If you haven't, try the USB connection and wireless. When I was auditioning the Aries, it sounded great this way.

 

I still have the Mini, with an MCRU/Longdog Audio LPSU, in my headphone system and it's excellent.

 

I sold my Aries Femto - the original was replaced under warranty. The replacement worked but the bloody letters kept coming off every time I dusted it and I just got fed up having spent £1500 on something that looked, frankly, crap.

 

The Pi is a Roon end point using a HiFi Berry Digi+ Pro and a Tomanek LPSU, so the performance is actually very good indeed, but you are right, it's not end game. Whether I end up with an Aries G2 or a Metrum DAC with integrated Roon end point, time will tell.

[newworld]

15 minutes ago, George Hincapie said:

 

I still have the Mini, with an MCRU/Longdog Audio LPSU, in my headphone system and it's excellent.

 

I sold my Aries Femto - the original was replaced under warranty. The replacement worked but the bloody letters kept coming off every time I dusted it and I just got fed up having spent £1500 on something that looked, frankly, crap.

 

The Pi is a Roon end point using a HiFi Berry Digi+ Pro and a Tomanek LPSU, so the performance is actually very good indeed, but you are right, it's not end game. Whether I end up with an Aries G2 or a Metrum DAC with integrated Roon end point, time will tell.

That reminds me of this dealer who tried to sell me a demo Aries with a missing "c" and pass it off as a feature.

 

I've owned and home-demoed Sotm SMS 200, Auralic Mini, Aries, and Altair at the same time, and that's how I decided not to pursue multiple boxes. The Altair hasn't left my place since. I absolutely get why it's called a streaming DAC, not just a streamer. I certainly hope that Metrum will follow the same path. It seems like that's where the industry is going, with many fantastic all-in-one integrated amplifiers popping up.

[George Hincapie]

I can't remember if I posted about my Musette upgrade. I wrote this on another forum - hope you guys can see it and find it useful.

 

https://hifisubjectivist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=48572

[Rak]

George, I have Metrum EVA evaluation board with Transient DAC-TWO-192:
https://www.audiohobby.eu/et/metrum-acoustics-dacs/11585-metrum-eva-evaluation-dac-module-with-dac-two-192-transient-r2r.html
Inside Transient DAC-TWO consist 2 dacs and the output is balanced.
I use a transformer from old profi console to make balanced to unbalanced signal and fed to RCA.
The sound is better :-)

 

[George Hincapie]

8 hours ago, Rak said:

George, I have Metrum EVA evaluation board with Transient DAC-TWO-192:
https://www.audiohobby.eu/et/metrum-acoustics-dacs/11585-metrum-eva-evaluation-dac-module-with-dac-two-192-transient-r2r.html
Inside Transient DAC-TWO consist 2 dacs and the output is balanced.
I use a transformer from old profi console to make balanced to unbalanced signal and fed to RCA.
The sound is better :-)

 

 

Very nice Rak! Enjoy the music!