Metrum Acoustics Octave - Page 11

Has anyone compared this dac to Audio-gd's NFB-2 with DIR9001? Thinking of upgrading since i'm looking for a somewhat smoother sound. Equipment is a digital interface with psu and clockupgrade, NFB-2, Phoenix, Balanced T1's. Maybe i should find a balanced dac but in the end it's the sound quality(and flavor) that matters.

Got home yesterday and my AP2 was waiting for me there. Connected to the Octave and had a quick listen - as far as I can tell, the upgrade is huge over SPDIF of my MoBo.

Has anyone given optical a serious chance on this DAC? I notice that new users have given lots of burn-in time to S/PDIF and that the sound has always changed for the better. Would it not make sense that only a cursory listen using optical would yield less than stellar results without any burn-in? I emailed Cees and he was pretty neutral in his response, not indicating that one form of input was any worse than the other but basically stating that jitter is very low with either choice.

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on one.... the euro vs the dollar sure helps.

I'll be posting a WTB in the Trade forum, so if you got one for sale, let me know.

I PMed the seller, the posting below it said it was bought.  So, I'm not sure it's available. 

Yep, I bought it. Sorry!

Hoping it will compliment the sr-009 well. Liking what I've been hearing about it so far!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlingBlade 

Has anyone given optical a serious chance on this DAC? I notice that new users have given lots of burn-in time to S/PDIF and that the sound has always changed for the better. Would it not make sense that only a cursory listen using optical would yield less than stellar results without any burn-in? I emailed Cees and he was pretty neutral in his response, not indicating that one form of input was any worse than the other but basically stating that jitter is very low with either choice.

I tried it, but it isn't as good as using a high-quality transport, such as a good USB to S/PDIF converter. That though, makes this DAC a ~$1500 or more proposition if one wants best results.

So far, for me, with high-res classical and jazz it's glorious.

Your review was great, really appreciated the effort.  

Reminds me, sometime I will add some measurements I took. Basically though, it has a very slow roll-off with 16/44.1 material, but becomes much steeper with high-res input, as well as all the typical NOS-DAC aliasing disappearing, though I think the latter is more obvious when playing a sine wave at a single frequency than one would actually get with music playback.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

Reminds me, sometime I will add some measurements I took. Basically though, it has a very slow roll-off with 16/44.1 material, but becomes much steeper with high-res input, as well as all the typical NOS-DAC aliasing disappearing, though I think the latter is more obvious when playing a sine wave at a single frequency than one would actually get with music playback.

I rarely listen to sine waves, unless you count that binaural beats stuff. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by No Disc 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

Reminds me, sometime I will add some measurements I took. Basically though, it has a very slow roll-off with 16/44.1 material, but becomes much steeper with high-res input, as well as all the typical NOS-DAC aliasing disappearing, though I think the latter is more obvious when playing a sine wave at a single frequency than one would actually get with music playback.

I rarely listen to sine waves, unless you count that binaural beats stuff. 

It's useful to know how the filters, if any, are implemented, as a very slow roll-off can be distinct with some music.