European made dacs - Page 8

Why, what evidence and experience do you have to make such a sweeping statement? 

 

I presume you know the Latin meaning of your "handle"? 

 

 

I must have forgot to add this face behind my statement, sorry.

 

Phew ..., this is a very serious topic it seems, almost got shot by a second.

Edited by RedBull - 9/7/12 at 8:26am

 

Well at the time I composed it I thought I did - something to do with wisdom.... right?

Yes and also  good taste, good sense, discernment, discretion, prudence, intelligence, forethought

 

Thats a lot to live up to 

 

Surely need to add:

 

dCS (UK)

Linn (UK)

Meridian (UK)

Audio Note (UK)

Cyrus (UK)

Edited by SleepyOne - 9/7/12 at 12:20pm

 

No worries, if you notice me falling short just call me on it 

Abbingdon Music Research (UK)  DP-777. Own that one and love it. Tubed preamp + Dual DAC (NOS + HD).
 

CH Precision  

 

http://www.ch-precision.com/site/

I have the opportunity to buy a metronome technologie c20 dac, I know it went for several thousand dollars in 2003, I can pick it up for 700. Does anyone know about this dac? I will be using my laptop with USB/spdif converter to the dac to my vintage marantz 2250b. It has to be better than my maverick d1, right? If someone can chime in on this unit I would really appreciate it.

Yes I have had my Metrum Octave for some months now and simply amazed how well it performs. I have compared it to several DAC's costing 3 to 4 times as much, both upsampling and filterless and the Metrum offers a great all round performance. It gives a very natural sounding playback and cant wait to hear the new HEX if the performance of the Octave is anything to go by.  I was going to buy and Audio Note 2.1x signature which costs over 4000 Euro, but having compared the two side by side I really prefer the Metrum.  Its is very sensitive to the SPDIF cable though I have found and its important you use one which is true 75 ohm otherwise it will degrade the performance considerably.  You really should get hold of one and try it I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I am sure you will find many in the hifi trade quite dismissive of it, which makes me laugh at it shows their lack of objectivity, just because in the main its sold direct cutting out their 50 to 100 percent margin. However; there are a small but growing number of distributors and dealers who are now reselling the Metrum, so this is starting to push up prices.

 

I am always very skeptical of the the latest and greatest having been so disappointed over many years of audio hype.  The review in HIfi Critic gives a very fair view of what to expect from the Metrum Octave 

 

 

 

 

Metrum octave hifi critic.pdf 802k .pdf file

 

 

 

 

    

 

Edited by complin - 10/30/12 at 1:55am

Although the type of cable can make an audiable difference its the 75 ohm impedance including the connectors which is important.  Unfortunately some cables sold as SPDIF are nothing more than a standard RCA with 100 ohm or more impedance. Some people are removing the RCA off the back of the DAC and replacing it with a bnc socket.  I have tried it with 3 good SPDIF cables, Madridal copper "fat boy", Black Cat Veloce silver/copper and the Van Den Hul The ultimate carbon.  They all sound slightly different, but at the moment prefer the VDH.  

 

 

The Van Den Hul is nice, but seriously outclassed by an XLO Limited LE-4 COAX cable.  I'd recommend you certainly give it a try.