[hearMotion]

Quote:

I am looking to change my soundcard into a dac.
Current setup : Foobar --> Auzentech X-fi Forte --> M stage --> k701.
 
i narrowed my options to hrt music streamer ii+ and NFB 3.
Guys, any idea which dac suits the m stage and k701 better?

The HRT I dont know sorry but if you do opt for the NFB-3 I can HIGHLY recommend a pair of AD797BRZ (on a Brown Dog adapter) for the M-Stage. I ran the full gamut of opamps for the Matrix out of an NFB-3 until the AD797BRZ and it was a "BAM - thats the one!" moment.
 

 

[Aspvr]

Anone knows if this page is legit?

http://www.matrixelectronics.net/

I want to order an m-stage but im afraid of counterfits

Thx

 

[project86]

Quote:

Anone knows if this page is legit?

http://www.matrixelectronics.net/

I want to order an m-stage but im afraid of counterfits

Thx

Looks kind of cheesy. They may or may not deliver a product at some point, but I wouldn't take a chance.
 
This is JTAMs website:
 
http://tamaudio.com
 
Highly respected seller.

 

[pp312]

 
Quote:

Looks kind of cheesy. They may or may not deliver a product at some point, but I wouldn't take a chance.
 
This is JTAMs website:
 
http://tamaudio.com
 
Highly respected seller.

Not sure I'd describe that website as "cheesy"; I thought it looked very professional. I've just ordered an M-Stage from HLLYAUDIO, who claim to be the "Authorised Overseas Distributor" for Matrix, mainly because they offer the Matrix with a "free" T-Amp for $280 all up. They seem quite genuine (and actually speak a comprehensible English, as I've just had an email from them); whereas other M-Stage sellers seem to be proliferating like mushrooms and look somewhat less genuine, despite (or because of?) cheap prices. However, I have no info to suggest anybody's ripping anybody off. All could be completely genuine and reliable for all I know. My main concern at this stage is reliability of the product, as I've heard of a couple of instances where units have arrived with one channel dead. It's a long way back to China, even from Oz.... 
 
 

 

[GtrBMart]

Quote:

Anone knows if this page is legit?

http://www.matrixelectronics.net/

I want to order an m-stage but im afraid of counterfits

Thx

I was similarly worried since it took me forever to find their website.
 

 

[project86]

Quote:

 

Not sure I'd describe that website as "cheesy"; I thought it looked very professional. I've just ordered an M-Stage from HLLYAUDIO, who claim to be the "Authorised Overseas Distributor" for Matrix, mainly because they offer the Matrix with a "free" T-Amp for $280 all up. They seem quite genuine (and actually speak a comprehensible English, as I've just had an email from them); whereas other M-Stage sellers seem to be proliferating like mushrooms and look somewhat less genuine, despite (or because of?) cheap prices. However, I have no info to suggest anybody's ripping anybody off. All could be completely genuine and reliable for all I know. My main concern at this stage is reliability of the product, as I've heard of a couple of instances where units have arrived with one channel dead. It's a long way back to China, even from Oz.... 
 
 

I used the word cheesy for several reasons.
 
1) They lifted some of their descriptions straight from my review, without my permission.
 
2) They obviously stole pictures from JTAM.
 
3) They say things like "Matrix high-end DAC headphone amplifiers are built by the top handcraftmanship."
 
4) Their privacy policy page says the name "hifidiyshop.com" as if they copied and pasted from there as well
 
5) Their return policy page mentions LightInTheBox which is yet another website. Seems that they did a lot of "borrowing" when they setup their site.
 
I'm not saying they are scammers. Maybe they are great people to deal with and just skimped on web design. But I certainly don't want to be the one to test that theory.

 

[sluker]

I ordered from David at HLLY and received a unit with one dead channel.
He replaced it but made me pay for shipping back to him ($50). I did get the TAMP 20 and have used it with my HE5-LE's via speaker taps it's great for a free amp.
But I have to say I was not happy to pay an extra $50 for a unit that did not work out of the box.

 

[Aspvr]

Well I followed project86 advise and bought a unit from Tamaudio.com lets see what happens.

Another question
 
Along with the Matrix M-stage I ordered a Beyerdynamics Dt990 Premium 600 Ohm, and a Asus Xonar Essence STX.
 
My setup will be Xonar > M-Stage > Beyer DT 990.

I don't know if this is the correct way to set this up
 
I'm new to all of this so if anyone has any advice...

 

[BmWr75]

Looks right to me.

 

[pp312]

Quote:

I ordered from David at HLLY and received a unit with one dead channel.
He replaced it but made me pay for shipping back to him ($50). I did get the TAMP 20 and have used it with my HE5-LE's via speaker taps it's great for a free amp.
But I have to say I was not happy to pay an extra $50 for a unit that did not work out of the box.

I can quite understand why you're not happy, and I hope I'm not soon similarly unhappy. Why these dead channels, I wonder? Someone here on the Oz StereoNet also complained of getting one with a dead channel, this time from Tam's Audio. Apparently he was offered return postage (bit fuzzy on that) but didn't want to wait umpteen (more) weeks for the unit to be returned and repaired; he wanted a replacement unit sent immediately while he returned the faulty one. Tam refused, and though I can understand why, I can also see the complainant's point-of-view. The fact is, this sort of thing shouldn't happen. The amps aren't THAT complicated; surely a short test prior to shipping wouldn't add much to the cost and would avoid a lot of bad feedback. It's so easy these days for a seller's or manufacturer's reputation to be damaged by just one thread or even one post on the right forum.
 
Incidentally, $50 seems a lot even from the US.
 
Also, I'd be interested in how you hooked up the headphones to the T-amp.   
 

 

[sluker]

I would not necessarily blame the distributors, I can see it being un-economical testing every unit before shipping, and even if you did anything can happen while in transit.
Unfortunately for me $50 is what it costs to ship anything outside of the US if you want tracking.
 
To hook up the TAMP to headphones I use a "speaker tap" or otherwise known as a "pig tail". If you search the HE-6 and HE-5LE forums there are details on how to make one and several HeadFiers (Hi-Flight) make nice quality units. However, I would only recommend this for hard to drive phones such as the current crop of magnaplanar headphones.
I primarily use this set-up with my HE5-LE's when I want them semi-portable. I would not recommend this with low sensitivity phones as it could easily blow the drivers if you get to happy with the volume control.

 

[pp312]

Just wondering if anyone has tried the M-Stage modded with an AD823. So far as I know the AD823 is a direct replacement for the OPA2134. Everyone seems to be concentrating on the OPA627 with no mention of any other op amps.  

 

[ETAHL]

Quote:

Just wondering if anyone has tried the M-Stage modded with an AD823. So far as I know the AD823 is a direct replacement for the OPA2134. Everyone seems to be concentrating on the OPA627 with no mention of any other op amps.  

There are lots of discussions about other opamps in the thread, besides the OPA627.
 
I haven't tried the AD823, but I have tried the AD797BRZ, LM4562, LME49860, LME49720HA and the OPA627 + with all of them in class A biased. Their impressions are somewhere in the thread.

 

[pp312]

You're quite right: there is a lot of info here on op amps (though none of it very conclusive as everyone likes something different); I was just too lazy to search. I still have a couple of questions though:
 
Why does everyone hate the stock op amp. Sounds great to me (with LCD-2).
 
I'm confused about the gain. I thought going to a higher number meant increasing the gain, but as I go higher I need to turn the volume up higher. Have I slipped into a parallel universe again? 

 

[ETAHL]

 
Quote:

You're quite right: there is a lot of info here on op amps (though none of it very conclusive as everyone likes something different); I was just too lazy to search. I still have a couple of questions though:
 
Why does everyone hate the stock op amp. Sounds great to me (with LCD-2).
 
I'm confused about the gain. I thought going to a higher number meant increasing the gain, but as I go higher I need to turn the volume up higher. Have I slipped into a parallel universe again? 

 
There is no hate. The OEM OPA2134 is a fine opamp. It is just not exotic enough for most folks here.

  Some of the opamps I have listed go for over $20, that is 10 times the price of the OEM opamp. Still, that is chump change compare to the price of amps people buy around here. If you can squeeze just a tad more performance for $20, that is still a heck of a deal.

 
Make sure you are not being confused by the gain DIP switch diagram. The white box is the protruding part of the DIP switch. Maybe you have it backwards.