[pedalhead]

I've been fortunate to get the chance to have an Adagio with dac3 modules & Ambre here for a while on loan (just arrived today). Chain is: roon > Ambre i2s > Adagio dac3 > diy First Watt F7 > Susvara (thanks Hifiman for the loaner).

For reference, I owned a Metrum Hex a few years ago which I preferred to the original Yggdrasil when I compared them at home for a couple of weeks, so that tells you something about my preferences. Since then though, the only Metrums I've heard are the Amethyst and Flint, neither of which floated my boat.

The Adagio has only been warming up for a couple of hours, but I can already tell it's rather special. Early impressions are generally disposable, so big dose of salt etc, but the immediate standouts for me are as you'd expect of a totl Metrum...very natural sounding whilst being massively resolving; strong bass with lovely texture; fast without sounding etched; super dark space between the notes.

I'm doing that thing when I play one of my test tracks, and before I catch myself, I've listened to another few tracks from the album rather than switching straight to the next test track. I doubt I'll be taking my headphones off for a few hours . If anyone is interested, I'll report back when I've had a few days with it, and with some comparisons with a Soekris 1421 that I have here at the moment.

 

[George Hincapie]

I've been fortunate to get the chance to have an Adagio with dac3 modules & Ambre here for a while on loan (just arrived today). Chain is: roon > Ambre i2s > Adagio dac3 > diy First Watt F7 > Susvara (thanks Hifiman for the loaner).

For reference, I owned a Metrum Hex a few years ago which I preferred to the original Yggdrasil when I compared them at home for a couple of weeks, so that tells you something about my preferences. Since then though, the only Metrums I've heard are the Amethyst and Flint, neither of which floated my boat.

The Adagio has only been warming up for a couple of hours, but I can already tell it's rather special. Early impressions are generally disposable, so big dose of salt etc, but the immediate standouts for me are as you'd expect of a totl Metrum...very natural sounding whilst being massively resolving; strong bass with lovely texture; fast without sounding etched; super dark space between the notes.

I'm doing that thing when I play one of my test tracks, and before I catch myself, I've listened to another few tracks from the album rather than switching straight to the next test track. I doubt I'll be taking my headphones off for a few hours . If anyone is interested, I'll report back when I've had a few days with it, and with some comparisons with a Soekris 1421 that I have here at the moment.

Nice cans! I recently bought the Sundara and adore them

 

[George Hincapie]

I've been fortunate to get the chance to have an Adagio with dac3 modules & Ambre here for a while on loan (just arrived today). Chain is: roon > Ambre i2s > Adagio dac3 > diy First Watt F7 > Susvara (thanks Hifiman for the loaner).

For reference, I owned a Metrum Hex a few years ago which I preferred to the original Yggdrasil when I compared them at home for a couple of weeks, so that tells you something about my preferences. Since then though, the only Metrums I've heard are the Amethyst and Flint, neither of which floated my boat.

The Adagio has only been warming up for a couple of hours, but I can already tell it's rather special. Early impressions are generally disposable, so big dose of salt etc, but the immediate standouts for me are as you'd expect of a totl Metrum...very natural sounding whilst being massively resolving; strong bass with lovely texture; fast without sounding etched; super dark space between the notes.

I'm doing that thing when I play one of my test tracks, and before I catch myself, I've listened to another few tracks from the album rather than switching straight to the next test track. I doubt I'll be taking my headphones off for a few hours . If anyone is interested, I'll report back when I've had a few days with it, and with some comparisons with a Soekris 1421 that I have here at the moment.

If you are in the UK we should compare with my DAC2 Adagio.

 

[Rebel Chris]

I've had email contact with Cees. Orderd the DAC3 chip and I will visit the factory in Den Bosch for installation. It will bring my Amethyst almost up to the level of the Onyx with DAC2 chips. Sounds good to me. Hopefully I can listen to another DAC higher up and chat with Cees about Sonnet and Metrum.

 

[marcelnl]

try skipping roon, using Qobuz or local files for sound quality

 

[marcelnl]

mine should be arriving tomorrow (I hope), I never received a confirmation of the order other than on the website and no tracking, so it'll be a surprise when they arrive, Cees expected they'd go out tonight

 

[kumar402]

I've had email contact with Cees. Orderd the DAC3 chip and I will visit the factory in Den Bosch for installation. It will bring my Amethyst almost up to the level of the Onyx with DAC2 chips. Sounds good to me. Hopefully I can listen to another DAC higher up and chat with Cees about Sonnet and Metrum.

Looking forward to your meeting with Cees and his take on Sonnet and Metrum.

 

[marcelnl]

I've had email contact with Cees. Orderd the DAC3 chip and I will visit the factory in Den Bosch for installation. It will bring my Amethyst almost up to the level of the Onyx with DAC2 chips. Sounds good to me. Hopefully I can listen to another DAC higher up and chat with Cees about Sonnet and Metrum.

Get him to install I2S and use that rather than USB, I'm using it for a while in my Amethyst since I tinkered in the I2S board and the SQ increase was similar as going from USB to SPDIF

 

[sahmen]

I've been fortunate to get the chance to have an Adagio with dac3 modules & Ambre here for a while on loan (just arrived today). Chain is: roon > Ambre i2s > Adagio dac3 > diy First Watt F7 > Susvara (thanks Hifiman for the loaner).

For reference, I owned a Metrum Hex a few years ago which I preferred to the original Yggdrasil when I compared them at home for a couple of weeks, so that tells you something about my preferences. Since then though, the only Metrums I've heard are the Amethyst and Flint, neither of which floated my boat.

The Adagio has only been warming up for a couple of hours, but I can already tell it's rather special. Early impressions are generally disposable, so big dose of salt etc, but the immediate standouts for me are as you'd expect of a totl Metrum...very natural sounding whilst being massively resolving; strong bass with lovely texture; fast without sounding etched; super dark space between the notes.

I'm doing that thing when I play one of my test tracks, and before I catch myself, I've listened to another few tracks from the album rather than switching straight to the next test track. I doubt I'll be taking my headphones off for a few hours . If anyone is interested, I'll report back when I've had a few days with it, and with some comparisons with a Soekris 1421 that I have here at the moment.

I have a similar chain, with the exception of the amp, and also using my Sonnet Morpheus in place of your Adagio. I am particularly interested in how nicely the Adagio plays with the first Watt in driving the Susvara. I'll be keenly waiting for more impressions because I am considering a new amp for this chain and the First Watt/Pass Labs series amps are among those that are high on the list.

Please keep the impressions coming, if that is okay with you.

 

[sahmen]

try skipping roon, using Qobuz or local files for sound quality

I am wondering what roon has done to you... I have Qobuz on Roon, and can also play Qobuz separately, but I have not detected any sonic differences between the two Qobuz deliveries. Just wondering what I might be missing after reading your critiques of Roon. I still love roon for its integration of Qobuz, Tidal, and my local files in the same platform, and making the music seamlessly deliverable to several rigs and and devices at the same time.

Also I bought a lifetime Roon subscription about 4 years ago, so I'm sort of stuck with them, but I would like to hear your critiques in full, nevertheless. PM me, if you would like to keep the conversation from derailing the Metrum Acoustics Tap Dancing on this thread

 

[roncagg]

I love Roon as a music discovery tool (within my own library!) and it’s nice to have tidal for new discoveries too. I had the FirstWatt F7 and loved it, but love my linear tube audio ultralinear (with volume control) fed from my Onyx even better, it should allow me to hear the benefits of the DAC3 upgrade when I do that, once I hear how great it is from you all (thanks for being early adopters!)

 

[George Hincapie]

I've had email contact with Cees. Orderd the DAC3 chip and I will visit the factory in Den Bosch for installation. It will bring my Amethyst almost up to the level of the Onyx with DAC2 chips. Sounds good to me. Hopefully I can listen to another DAC higher up and chat with Cees about Sonnet and Metrum.

Get all the gossip!

 

[George Hincapie]

I have a similar chain, with the exception of the amp, and also using my Sonnet Morpheus in place of your Adagio. I am particularly interested in how nicely the Adagio plays with the first Watt in driving the Susvara. I'll be keenly waiting for more impressions because I am considering a new amp for this chain and the First Watt/Pass Labs series amps are among those that are high on the list.

Please keep the impressions coming, if that is okay with you.

You should consider the Metrum Forte. It's excellent.

 

[bk12]

I have an Amethyst, and really enjoying it. I am looking to convert my USB input to I2S. I understand that this is possible the the Amethyst, but I am not sure which module I need, and how to modify the unit for install. From what I have seen, this change requires rerouting of a few wires inside on this model, while the others are a straight plug and play. Can anyone let me know what exactly is involved with making this happen? I have sent emails to my dealer and Metrum with this question, but no responses as of yet (about a week).

 

[harmony1992]

I've had email contact with Cees. Orderd the DAC3 chip and I will visit the factory in Den Bosch for installation. It will bring my Amethyst almost up to the level of the Onyx with DAC2 chips. Sounds good to me. Hopefully I can listen to another DAC higher up and chat with Cees about Sonnet and Metrum.

plz post us some pics of Cees and the Factory tour!