[FrankCooter]

The Hex doesn't have any wow factor, at least I wasn't initially impressed with the sound. But it grows slowly and then it's difficult to switch to something different.
I'm really liking mine so far.
As I said previously, I can finally listen to every album in my collection, none of the sos-so recordings sound 'extremely' bad on the Hex. With other DACs I had in the past some of them were unlisteneable.

 
This is pretty much my impression too.
 
The digital "wow" factor is often the result of a hyper aggressive treble that masquerades as artificial detail. It can be impressive at first, but to some, quickly becomes fatiguing. People that are used to this type of artificial presentation might think the Hex is slightly rolled off in comparison to other dacs in this price range. I disagree . There's no lack of detail or frequency extension, but the  presentation is organic and natural, perhaps as close to fine analog as I've ever heard from a dac. Caveat is that is that my ears are 60 years old and I'm a die-hard vinyl guy.
 
I've also found that a lot of previously so-so early digital recordings have benefited by the Hex.
 
Satisfied customer here.

 

[songmic]

 

The Hex doesn't have any wow factor, at least I wasn't initially impressed with the sound. But it grows slowly and then it's difficult to switch to something different.
I'm really liking mine so far.
As I said previously, I can finally listen to every album in my collection, none of the sos-so recordings sound 'extremely' bad on the Hex. With other DACs I had in the past some of them were unlisteneable.

 
This is pretty much my impression too.
 
The digital "wow" factor is often the result of a hyper aggressive treble that masquerades as artificial detail. It can be impressive at first, but to some, quickly becomes fatiguing. People that are used to this type of artificial presentation might think the Hex is slightly rolled off in comparison to other dacs in this price range. I disagree . There's no lack of detail or frequency extension, but the  presentation is organic and natural, perhaps as close to fine analog as I've ever heard from a dac. Caveat is that is that my ears are 60 years old and I'm a die-hard vinyl guy.
 
I've also found that a lot of previously so-so early digital recordings have benefited by the Hex.
 
Satisfied customer here.

 
Organic and neutral, those are the characteristic qualities of a well-implemented R-2R DAC. The Hex doesn't try to impress you at first sight, it just lets the music flow as it should. No oversampling, nor upsampling. Just music.

 

[MacedonianHero]

The Hex doesn't have any wow factor, at least I wasn't initially impressed with the sound. But it grows slowly and then it's difficult to switch to something different.
I'm really liking mine so far.
As I said previously, I can finally listen to every album in my collection, none of the sos-so recordings sound 'extremely' bad on the Hex. With other DACs I had in the past some of them were unlisteneable.

 
 

   
This is pretty much my impression too.
 
The digital "wow" factor is often the result of a hyper aggressive treble that masquerades as artificial detail. It can be impressive at first, but to some, quickly becomes fatiguing. People that are used to this type of artificial presentation might think the Hex is slightly rolled off in comparison to other dacs in this price range. I disagree . There's no lack of detail or frequency extension, but the  presentation is organic and natural, perhaps as close to fine analog as I've ever heard from a dac. Caveat is that is that my ears are 60 years old and I'm a die-hard vinyl guy.
 
I've also found that a lot of previously so-so early digital recordings have benefited by the Hex.
 
Satisfied customer here.

 
 

   
Organic and neutral, those are the characteristic qualities of a well-implemented R-2R DAC. The Hex doesn't try to impress you at first sight, it just lets the music flow as it should. No oversampling, nor upsampling. Just music.

 
So tonight I'm sneaking in a listening session before we have to go out to see a musical my daughter and wife are dragging my son and I to see. This time I'm using my GS-X Mk2 / HD800s with the Hex and you guys are pretty much nailing it. Per Frank's comments on early digital recordings, I'm throwing in some of mine and the harshness that was present is certainly more tolerable. On some of my other favourite DACs (like the BDA-2, M51, W4S DAC-2), the "digital" nature really stood out. Thankfully the Hex the "music flows" as a "fine analog recording" without the etch/glare (again specific to these recordings) and all the micro details are still there with an improved spaciousness. 

 

[seb7]

So tonight I'm sneaking in a listening session before we have to go out to see a musical my daughter and wife are dragging my son and I to see. This time I'm using my GS-X Mk2 / HD800s with the Hex and you guys are pretty much nailing it. Per Frank's comments on early digital recordings, I'm throwing in some of mine and the harshness that was present is certainly more tolerable. On some of my other favourite DACs (like the BDA-2, M51, W4S DAC-2), the "digital" nature really stood out. Thankfully the Hex the "music flows" as a "fine analog recording" without the etch/glare (again specific to these recordings) and all the micro details are still there with an improved spaciousness. 

 
Good to hear. I have read some impressions that there is less spaciousness (more intimate closed-in sound) and details are glossed over with these kinds of dacs.
 
Do you feel the GS-X imposes any kind of coloration on the sound, or is straight neutral and lets the Hex sound shine through?

 

[Quinto]

So the Hex will have better timbre and sound more natural then the Grace M920?
 
Anyone heard both?

 

[MacedonianHero]

   
Good to hear. I have read some impressions that there is less spaciousness (more intimate closed-in sound) and details are glossed over with these kinds of dacs.
 
Do you feel the GS-X imposes any kind of coloration on the sound, or is straight neutral and lets the Hex sound shine through?

 
I'm listening to one of my favourite Chesky recordings and I swear I'm hearing minute details in the background that weren't there with my BDA-2! And I've done some A-B comparisons this evening and I'm fairly confident with this statement. With regards to spaciousness, that is one of the benefits with this NOS DAC...simply amazing. Gonna be hard to turn off my rig and go to bed tonight! 

 
I've found the GS-X Mk2 (truly endgame IMHO) is about as colourless an amp as I've come across...it's a microscope on your upstream gear (think wire-with-gain design philosophy) and when paired, I gotta say I am amazed with what I'm hearing so far!
 

  So the Hex will have better timbre and sound more natural then the Grace M920?
 
Anyone heard both?

M920 = Sabre based....so I'm going to say that the Grace has a few strikes against it for timbre. "Natural" and Sabre based DACs aren't two words I would put together (at least the ones I've heard). I think they can sound very good, but they can sound "digital" with an upper mids/ and treble shout and etch that can be fatiguing. While I haven't heard the M920 (so please take my comments with a grain of salt), the W4S DAC-2, X-Sabre, Benchmark DAC-2, Peachtree DACs have all been affected to differing extents.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Alrighty then....my A-B comparisons are done from this weekend and I've taken some notes. I'm planning on writing a review (for Headphone.guru and Head-fi) for the Hex DAC and I usually find comparing really good DACs on the difficult side, but this comparison wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Detail extraction, sound staging, timbre/tone all go to the Hex hands down. That's not to say that the BDA-2 is a poor DAC, I still think it sounds amazing as several times during the comparison it too left me speechless. But the Metrum Hex does sell for $3700 here in Canada and the BDA-2 can be had for $2200...so it does compete when the price is taken into consideration. 
 
I used my HD800s, LCD-X, SR-007Mk1, SR-009s headphones and my GS-X Mk2, Liquid Lightning 2, and KGSSHV amps and the results were consistent across the board. As they were with either CDs or USB.
 
But if you're looking for a natural sounding DAC (that never sounds "digital"), can extract details that many "gloss over" or miss completely and offers sound staging that can leave you breathless, the Metrum Hex should definitely be on your list! 
 
The BDA-2 is will be packed up and sent to it's new owner shortly and I will miss it (I still prefer it to the NAD M51, W4S DAC-2 and PWD-2), but it was outclassed by the Metrum Hex in almost every way. Wonder how the BDA-3 will compete? 

 

[TokenGesture]

Great impressions.  Would love to demo the Hex against my Octave (which I love)

 

[songmic]

Alrighty then....my A-B comparisons are done from this weekend and I've taken some notes. I'm planning on writing a review (for Headphone.guru and Head-fi) for the Hex DAC and I usually find comparing really good DACs on the difficult side, but this comparison wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Detail extraction, sound staging, timbre/tone all go to the Hex hands down. That's not to say that the BDA-2 is a poor DAC, I still think it sounds amazing as several times during the comparison it too left me speechless. But the Metrum Hex does sell for $3700 here in Canada and the BDA-2 can be had for $2200...so it does compete when the price is taken into consideration. 

I used my HD800s, LCD-X, SR-007Mk1, SR-009s headphones and my GS-X Mk2, Liquid Lightning 2, and KGSSHV amps and the results were consistent across the board. As they were with either CDs or USB.

But if you're looking for a natural sounding DAC (that never sounds "digital"), can extract details that many "gloss over" or miss completely and offers sound staging that can leave you breathless, the Metrum Hex should definitely be on your list! 

The BDA-2 is will be packed up and sent to it's new owner shortly and I will miss it (I still prefer it to the NAD M51, W4S DAC-2 and PWD-2), but it was outclassed by the Metrum Hex in almost every way. Wonder how the BDA-3 will compete? 

There is something special about the sound of R-2R resistor ladder DAC's that modern Delta-Sigma DAC's cannot touch. You have to hear it to know it.

 

[Clemmaster]

It's called timbre

 

[MacedonianHero]

  Great impressions.  Would love to demo the Hex against my Octave (which I love)

I've only heard the Mk1 Octave and thought it punched above its weight class. Listening to DSoTM (I've literally listened to that album once every 2 months for the past 25 years) and the Metrum Hex left me with a very big smile of my face!

 

[TokenGesture]

I've got the Mark 1 Octave and I agree - to the point the (small) sensible part of my brain questions whether the Hex could possibly be worth the extra money.  Of course i still want one 

 
Try the Metrum Aurix amp if you get the chance - it is really great, very open and transparent, again I think it punches above its weight.

 

[realmassy]

Has anyone updated the Hex USB module to the new Amanero? Mine was using the old m2tech and I sent it in the Netherlands for being upgraded: got it back yesterday. Not saying anything for now, but I'd be curious to know your experience.

 

[songmic]

Has anyone updated the Hex USB module to the new Amanero? Mine was using the old m2tech and I sent it in the Netherlands for being upgraded: got it back yesterday. Not saying anything for now, but I'd be curious to know your experience.

 
When I bought my Hex it already had the new Amanero USB module. The immediate difference I noticed in comparison to my Octave MKII with old m2tech was that it was OS X compatible (I use a Mac) and that it handles up to 384 kHz.

 

[MacedonianHero]

I haven't heard the Hex with the old m2tech sub, but the Amanero usb is truly jaw dropping...a good improvent over the excellent BDA-2's sub implementation.