[hikaru12]

You can’t make a blanket statement that all NOS DAC’s do that. Case in point, listen to the silent Morpheus which was next up in Cees’s evolution of his DAC’s Very musical and details, without being harsh and fatiguing.

Have you ever compared the two? I've heard of the Morpheus described as more similar to the Yggdrasil than the Pavane as the Pavane sounds warmer. Morpheus would be more desk friendly but I'm not complaining haha.

 

[ken6217]

Have you ever compared the two? I've heard of the Morpheus described as more similar to the Yggdrasil than the Pavane as the Pavane sounds warmer. Morpheus would be more desk friendly but I'm not complaining haha.

to me there’s no comparison. I’ve owned the Pavane Level 3, and sold it after I demoed the Morpheus. A grind bas the Yiggy and to me it’s not even close.

John Grandberg (Project86) has great things to say about the Morpheus and has an upcoming review of it on Darko.

 

[hikaru12]

to me there’s no comparison. I’ve owned the Pavane Level 3, and sold it after I demoed the Morpheus. A grind bas the Yiggy and to me it’s not even close.

John Grandberg (Project86) has great things to say about the Morpheus and has an upcoming review of it on Darko.

What do you like about it compared to the Pavane?

 

[ken6217]

What do you like about it compared to the Pavane?

Still has the same ease but more detail and bigger soundstage.

 

[Chopin75]

You can’t make a blanket statement that all NOS DAC’s do that. Case in point, listen to the silent Morpheus which was next up in Cees’s evolution of his DAC’s Very musical and details, without being harsh and fatiguing.

right, I have an Audio-gd R7 NOS and also can do OS (oversampling). NOS is not over warm at all, when done right. I decided not to. get Metrium due to. some comments of it being on the warm side. I think one can help balance the warmth by using silver cables (which. I use) in speaker as well as Coax. (or. USB if you. can find one) . I use optical USB that gives a very neutral sound. without fattening or veiling it, so this may help with Metrium . I personally. don't think NOS is. too. warm, more that OS or DS are too bright. Getting rid of copper interconnects etc will help a lot. Lifting the DAC with isolation feet (maybe harder ones), will help too.

 

[George Hincapie]

Is the consensus that I2S is the best input over coax? I got a raspberry pi that I want to get a Allo Digione Signature HAT for but if I2S is the best then I may just get a Hermès/Amber.

Do you find that a NOS DAC pairs best with neutral/brighter headphones? With warmer headphones it doesn’t feel right.

I am not a D/S fan at all - had the Qutest and RME and hated them. Sounded too bright and artificial.

No. I2S, AES and SPDIF (Coax) are all on a par on Metrum DACs. I have all three connection types attached to my Metrum Adagio and can cycle through them with a touch of my remote. There is no difference. All excellent.

 

[George Hincapie]

You can’t make a blanket statement that all NOS DAC’s do that. Case in point, listen to the silent Morpheus which was next up in Cees’s evolution of his DAC’s Very musical and details, without being harsh and fatiguing.

NOS DACs aren't harsh or fatiguing; that's exactly the point of the NOS design.

 

[George Hincapie]

Digione is good and is right way to get away from USB but need clean power for HAT. Just stay away from USB

To be fair, I have a Pi4 with Vit OS outputting via USB to my Metrum Musette over USB and it's actually excellent. I have to say that this surprised me, because I usually abhor USB.

 

[George Hincapie]

to me there’s no comparison. I’ve owned the Pavane Level 3, and sold it after I demoed the Morpheus. A grind bas the Yiggy and to me it’s not even close.

John Grandberg (Project86) has great things to say about the Morpheus and has an upcoming review of it on Darko.

Being realistic, I doubt the difference is as great as you suggest. I don't doubt the Morpheus is a good DAC, but the Pavane is a Reference class NOS DAC. There are never performance gulfs at this level; just nuances that you either prefer or not.

 

[hikaru12]

No. I2S, AES and SPDIF (Coax) are all on a par on Metrum DACs. I have all three connection types attached to my Metrum Adagio and can cycle through them with a touch of my remote. There is no difference. All excellent.

Damn wish I had known I ordered a I2S module that I’m still waiting on to ship from Metrum. I still do intend to get the Hermès for connecting it to AES.

To be fair, I have a Pi4 with Vit OS outputting via USB to my Metrum Musette over USB and it's actually excellent. I have to say that this surprised me, because I usually abhor USB.

I'll have to give this a shot - I have a RPI4 sitting around doing nothing, running old ROMS.

 

[George Hincapie]

Damn wish I had known I ordered a I2S module that I’m still waiting on to ship from Metrum. I still do intend to get the Hermès for connecting it to AES.


I'll have to give this a shot - I have a RPI4 sitting around doing nothing, running old ROMS.

The Pi4/Vit OS SQ is a touch better than DigiOne. Both running LPSU.

 

[Chopin75]

No. I2S, AES and SPDIF (Coax) are all on a par on Metrum DACs. I have all three connection types attached to my Metrum Adagio and can cycle through them with a touch of my remote. There is no difference. All excellent.

AES you can use a longer cable, and I2S you can do up to 24/352 (DXD)

 

[George Hincapie]

AES you can use a longer cable, and I2S you can do up to 24/352 (DXD)

That may be true, but I listen to CD quality only.

 

[tamahome77]

Hey guys,

I recently got a steal on a L3 Pavane. I’m new to NOS so please bare with me. I am using single ended and USB so I’m almost certain this is where these impressions are coming from but do any of you feel like the Pavane is a bit too warm? It doesn’t really seem to be a great pairing with already warm headphones (like my Eikons). I didn’t really get this feeling with warmish DACs before like the Bifrost so it could just be getting used to the NOS sound. Even with USB I don’t really think I’m missing out on detail but I do feel like there’s a little bit of a veil going on. Any help would be appreciated.

I think the reason why it's "warm" is because of the characteristics contributed by using the USB module on the metrum L3 pavane. You'll need a better digital transport to see what the L3 pavane is capable of. I would recommend replacing the USB with the i2s module that you've ordered. If you do not want to spend $$$ on the ambre, I would recommend getting the Pi2AES with the add-on RJ45 i2s module - it's compatible with the metrum pavane's RJ45 i2s input. From my experience and a few others, I2s of the pavane is superior to the rest of the inputs. With i2s, the treble and the edges are a little bit more polished compared to the others - not a huge difference but it's noticeable. Once you've switched from using the USB to i2s, you'll notice improved transparency, blacker background, more balanced sound, less laid back and veiled being lifted. The metrum pavane is quite sensitive to the quality of your digital input. Also, the XLR output is slightly superior to the single ended connection.

 

[Deolum]

I've never given anything on "letting the dac warm up" and listened to it cold. Now i have it on straight for almost 20 hours and the difference is much more than i've expected.