[George Hincapie]

There is a considerable improvement in SQ when switching between DAC1 > DAC3. My suggestion would be sell the Menuet and put the proceeds towards an Onyx DAC2. See how that sits with you before undertaking the DAC3 upgrade yourself.

 

[BlackMagic]

Friend mentioned previously in Thailand, decided to upgrade his Pavane to DAC3 level. There will be 8 x DAC TWO Modules therefore available in a few weeks’ time. They are great upgrades for Flint, Musette & original Pavane. However some circuit adjustments are required in Pavane. PM me for more info.

Now sold.

 

[George Hincapie]

Friend mentioned previously in Thailand, decided to upgrade his Pavane to DAC3 level. There will be 8 x DAC TWO Modules therefore available in a few weeks’ time. They are great upgrades for Flint, Musette & original Pavane. However some circuit adjustments are required in Pavane. PM me for more info.

Interested to read your friend's impressions of DAC3 and the differences between DAC2 and DAC3.

 

[George Hincapie]

Trying my new HPA with Adagio.

 

[roncagg]

Fantastic! just bought a used Sonnet Morpheus with i2s to replace my onyx (dac3), and use it with the Metrum Ambre streamer, a nice improvement over the onyx in my system. My LTA mz2 (wish I had George’s mz3!) preamp does not have a remote so I’m feeding the Morpheus into it with variable voltage, running the LTA with volume all the way up (effectively defeating it), and controlling volume with the DAC remote. Works wonderfully and now I have a remote! Probably a better volume control too… I don’t see a downside to this arrangement but wanted to put it out there for any comments and to see if any others have tried that. I will try amp-direct (lta ultralinear) soon but might miss the 6sn7 tone. Adagio has the same type of volume control, wonder if that’s worth trying with the mz3 in the same way. Fun things to try.

 

[George Hincapie]

Fantastic! just bought a used Sonnet Morpheus with i2s to replace my onyx (dac3), and use it with the Metrum Ambre streamer, a nice improvement over the onyx in my system. My LTA mz2 (wish I had George’s mz3!) preamp does not have a remote so I’m feeding the Morpheus into it with variable voltage, running the LTA with volume all the way up (effectively defeating it), and controlling volume with the DAC remote. Works wonderfully and now I have a remote! Probably a better volume control too… I don’t see a downside to this arrangement but wanted to put it out there for any comments and to see if any others have tried that. I will try amp-direct (lta ultralinear) soon but might miss the 6sn7 tone. Adagio has the same type of volume control, wonder if that’s worth trying with the mz3 in the same way. Fun things to try.

What a lovely system you have! Congratulations to you. The Adagio is from my speaker system, I am struggling to decide which DAC to go for with my headphone system, so have bought a Denafrips Ares II and Iris DDC to tide me over. There are four or five DACs I'd like to try with my MZ3 to learn which gives the best synergy.

Super interested to read how Onyx DAC 3 compares to Morpheus. I owned Onyx DAC2 some time ago, and was able to upgrade it to Adagio. Onyx is a superb DAC.

The way you are using Sonnet for volume control seems fine to me. I am no expert, but ZOTL design seems kind to tubes, so the approach should not cause difficulty for your amp. Enjoy!

 

[roncagg]

Ah I see, have fun trying some out. One day I'd like to try a Lumin product for it's all-in-one feature set and good (digital) volume control. I think it would be fun to try something like that with active speakers like Genelec G threes (which are all analog) for a very compact nice sounding system. The Morpheus will give me a taste of directly driving actives once I get to that point. As far as the SQ comparison, I find that the Morpheus gives me a little more of what going from DAC2 to DAC3 did in the Onyx: definitely firmer/deeper and more articulated bass and slightly expanded soundstage (the latter is hard to quantify given the variation among recordings' mixing tricks!)

 

[George Hincapie]

Ah I see, have fun trying some out. One day I'd like to try a Lumin product for it's all-in-one feature set and good (digital) volume control. I think it would be fun to try something like that with active speakers like Genelec G threes (which are all analog) for a very compact nice sounding system. The Morpheus will give me a taste of directly driving actives once I get to that point. As far as the SQ comparison, I find that the Morpheus gives me a little more of what going from DAC2 to DAC3 did in the Onyx: definitely firmer/deeper and more articulated bass and slightly expanded soundstage (the latter is hard to quantify given the variation among recordings' mixing tricks!)

An integrated streamer and DAC could be a good choice. Esoteric N05XD or a Lumin T1 perhaps?

 

[BlackMagic]

Interested to read your friend's impressions of DAC3 and the differences between DAC2 and DAC3.

Will report back but audio memory not reliable, as no direct comparison possible and due to travel will be 3+ weeks away from plugging in.

 

[thecrow]

Anyone able to share a photo of the original usb cable that came with the metrum hex?

I am looking to confirm which of my usb cables came with my hex

thanks in advance for any assistance

 

[George Hincapie]

Does anyone know if the software in the Ambre is ever updated? Will any Pi OS work in it? Like Ropiee for example?

 

[BorisT]

Will any Pi OS work in it? Like Ropiee for example?

Hi! Any Pi OS should work. I’m Running PiCorePlayer.

 

[lithiumnk]

Does anyone know if the software in the Ambre is ever updated? Will any Pi OS work in it? Like Ropiee for example?

I’m using gentooplayer/audio Linux on ambre since 2019. I’ve replaced the stock rpi3 with rpi4 8gb. Ambre can act as both server & streamer with the above mentioned Linux OS. No need for a separate PC/laptop. With rpi4, pcm upsampling(upto 192/24) can be done easily including Spotify stream. I’ve connected an external ssd to usb3 port for offline playback. Other Softwares like bubbleupnp, Logitech media player (ipeng), HQP etc are also supported.

 

[George Hincapie]

I’m using gentooplayer/audio Linux on ambre since 2019. I’ve replaced the stock rpi3 with rpi4 8gb. Ambre can act as both server & streamer with the above mentioned Linux OS. No need for a separate PC/laptop. With rpi4, pcm upsampling(upto 192/24) can be done easily including Spotify stream. I’ve connected an external ssd to usb3 port for offline playback. Other Softwares like bubbleupnp, Logitech media player (ipeng), HQP etc are also supported.

That's certainly something to think about for the future, thank you. For now, I am just keen to seen if there is any SQ improvement to be realised by updating the 3 year old version of Ropieee.

 

[lithiumnk]

That's certainly something to think about for the future, thank you. For now, I am just keen to seen if there is any SQ improvement to be realised by updating the 3 year old version of Ropieee.

You’ll hardly notice any improvement with updated version of ropieee.