[Chianti]

@ken6217 That very well may be true.
I see it two ways: First, it makes perfect sense that Cees would want to make a superior product as an incentive for people to buy his product instead of a previous Metrum flagship. However, he's trying to sell something so of course he's going to boast about what he's selling.

I know that it all comes down to the sound but that Pavane sure is some sexy eye candy. I like the Morpheus' aesthetic but I'm sure that part of the cost of the Pavane had a lot to do with the build.

By the way, I was wrong about how many hours I had on my Morpheus. As I write this, I think I have about 80 hours on it. Yesterday I posted that I thought I had around 100.
But whatever.

Nope. I had debated buying the Adagio during the summer with DAC 3 and I emailed Cees prior to that what I was thinking of doing and he told that the Morpheus is still superior.

The Morpheus wasn’t a cost cutting idea. He found that he would be able, with his new R2R ladders come up with a model that ran on lower power where he didn’t need a big power supply that took up space, and not spend additional money on the glass top and heavy chassis, and still sound better than the Adagio/Pavane.

Believe me, I asked him enough times. However at the end of the day it’s still could come down to what sound do you prefer? You may prefer the Adagio, or you might prefer the Morpheus.

1. Morpheus has 4 R2R ladders per chip, same as with the new Metrum DAC 3 (the older Metrum DAC2 had 2 R2R ladders per chip). DAC 3 was launched by Metrum (Cees) after he finished his work on the Sonnet Morpheus.
2. Adagio has 8 chips vs. 4 in Morpheus.
3. With the old DAC2, cost could be cut because in Morpheus 4 chips x 4 ladders each = 16 ladders consume less power than Adagio with 8 chips x 2 ladders each (DAC 2)
4. Compared to DAC2, DAC3~equivalent in Morpheus delivered the exact same improvements in detail, clarity (esp. in lower frequencies) that are now available in DAC3 for Metrum DACs - more ladders on one chip are better than across multiple chips (assuming non-perfect arbitration/synchronization across chips)
5. As observed with historical evolution of Metrum DACs and many other R2R designs (e.g. L&P LP6 Pro vs. Ti), number of ladders improve sound quality, while driving up cost
6. Adagio with DAC3 has double the number of R2R ladders (with same 4-ladder per chip integration) compared to Morpheus
7. Adagio retains much more powerful analog section (more expensive) vs. Morpheus
8. Many other design aspects are identical: Daughter-board implementation of MQA support, can have either crappy USB or I2S, same (rebadged) streamer, ...

Looking at the very much incremental Metrum/Sonnet development over the years I would not be surprised if "Pasithea" is a 8xDAC3 design very similar to Adagio with DAC3 but based on the Morpheus power architecture (would have to beef up power capacity vs. Sonnet to accomodate the greater number of modules). This is how Cees has historically evolved and differentiated his products, back to the Octave and Hex days.

This would make Pasithea a good DAC. Not sure without ever listening to it where to rank it relative to other state of the art.
I am keeping my Adagio DAC 3 for now as a "listening flavor" for variety's sake (NOS sound). For me, Rockna Wavedream Signature XLR with Wavedream Net has superseded my Metrum stack (Adagio DAC 3 and Hermes I2s) in most cases.

 

[ken6217]

1. Morpheus has 4 R2R ladders per chip, same as with the new Metrum DAC 3 (the older Metrum DAC2 had 2 R2R ladders per chip). DAC 3 was launched by Metrum (Cees) after he finished his work on the Sonnet Morpheus.
2. Adagio has 8 chips vs. 4 in Morpheus.
3. With the old DAC2, cost could be cut because in Morpheus 4 chips x 4 ladders each = 16 ladders consume less power than Adagio with 8 chips x 2 ladders each (DAC 2)
4. Compared to DAC2, DAC3~equivalent in Morpheus delivered the exact same improvements in detail, clarity (esp. in lower frequencies) that are now available in DAC3 for Metrum DACs - more ladders on one chip are better than across multiple chips (assuming non-perfect arbitration/synchronization across chips)
5. As observed with historical evolution of Metrum DACs and many other R2R designs (e.g. L&P LP6 Pro vs. Ti), number of ladders improve sound quality, while driving up cost
6. Adagio with DAC3 has double the number of R2R ladders (with same 4-ladder per chip integration) compared to Morpheus
7. Adagio retains much more powerful analog section (more expensive) vs. Morpheus
8. Many other design aspects are identical: Daughter-board implementation of MQA support, can have either crappy USB or I2S, same (rebadged) streamer, ...

Looking at the very much incremental Metrum/Sonnet development over the years I would not be surprised if "Pasithea" is a 8xDAC3 design very similar to Adagio with DAC3 but based on the Morpheus power architecture (would have to beef up power capacity vs. Sonnet to accomodate the greater number of modules). This is how Cees has historically evolved and differentiated his products, back to the Octave and Hex days.

This would make Pasithea a good DAC. Not sure without ever listening to it where to rank it relative to other state of the art.
I am keeping my Adagio DAC 3 for now as a "listening flavor" for variety's sake (NOS sound). For me, Rockna Wavedream Signature XLR with Wavedream Net has superseded my Metrum stack (Adagio DAC 3 and Hermes I2s) in most cases.

Obviously you have a bias towards the Adagio. If you read Cees comments about not needing hi power and regarding the 8 chips in the Pasithea you will understand. The 8 chips in the Pasithea, are superior to what are in the Metrum offerings as well as the Morpheus.

I guess you can say that everything is conjecture, but I see know reason for Cees to bull about which sounds better.

Also you can’t just say one DAC sounds better based on the number of chips. There is more to it than that.

All in all, the most important is what you hear, and. It what you read. I owned the Pavane L3 and it was my favorite DAC, until I heard the Morpheus. I have ordered the Pasithea and I’m sure that will sound better than both.

 

[ken6217]

Here are from two older email from Cees;
“As we do not have cheaper versions in the Sonnet line I use Metrum as an example . Step from Amethyst to Onyx is quite huge, but a step from Onyx to Pavane is a smaller step. Keep in mind that Morpheus is better than Adagio/Pavane so the next step is a bit smaller again. However focus and space is better , distortion and noise is lower due to improved dac modules running on very high voltages.”

DAC-3 is a derivate coming from the module as used in the Morpheus. However both platforms are not compatible so we did some modifications on DAC-3 to let it work with the Metrum platform. As a result DAC-3 has 95% performance compared with the module as used in the Morpheus. The new upcoming dac will have so called "high voltage dacs" and will perform on a higher level .

 

[vonBaron]

1. Morpheus has 4 R2R ladders per chip, same as with the new Metrum DAC 3 (the older Metrum DAC2 had 2 R2R ladders per chip). DAC 3 was launched by Metrum (Cees) after he finished his work on the Sonnet Morpheus.
2. Adagio has 8 chips vs. 4 in Morpheus.
3. With the old DAC2, cost could be cut because in Morpheus 4 chips x 4 ladders each = 16 ladders consume less power than Adagio with 8 chips x 2 ladders each (DAC 2)
4. Compared to DAC2, DAC3~equivalent in Morpheus delivered the exact same improvements in detail, clarity (esp. in lower frequencies) that are now available in DAC3 for Metrum DACs - more ladders on one chip are better than across multiple chips (assuming non-perfect arbitration/synchronization across chips)
5. As observed with historical evolution of Metrum DACs and many other R2R designs (e.g. L&P LP6 Pro vs. Ti), number of ladders improve sound quality, while driving up cost
6. Adagio with DAC3 has double the number of R2R ladders (with same 4-ladder per chip integration) compared to Morpheus
7. Adagio retains much more powerful analog section (more expensive) vs. Morpheus
8. Many other design aspects are identical: Daughter-board implementation of MQA support, can have either crappy USB or I2S, same (rebadged) streamer, ...

Looking at the very much incremental Metrum/Sonnet development over the years I would not be surprised if "Pasithea" is a 8xDAC3 design very similar to Adagio with DAC3 but based on the Morpheus power architecture (would have to beef up power capacity vs. Sonnet to accomodate the greater number of modules). This is how Cees has historically evolved and differentiated his products, back to the Octave and Hex days.

This would make Pasithea a good DAC. Not sure without ever listening to it where to rank it relative to other state of the art.
I am keeping my Adagio DAC 3 for now as a "listening flavor" for variety's sake (NOS sound). For me, Rockna Wavedream Signature XLR with Wavedream Net has superseded my Metrum stack (Adagio DAC 3 and Hermes I2s) in most cases.

it looks a bit like you don't allow the thought that the cheaper and smaller Morpheus could be better.

 

[hifixman]

Hello everyone. M.b. you can help me. I'm thinking about buying a DAC, I don't know which one to choose. Panave or Morpheus.
I listen to electronic music, rap, rock, hard rock, fast/electronic jazz. I love punch, bass, speed in music. Which of the DACs is better for this music? I have a niimbus us4 amp.

Matrix with Blizzard

 

[BlackMagic]

Plenty of choice and preference out there to kick-off the New Year. Unusually Boxing day fb post (gloves on) comparing measurements with a well-known (expensive) Brand model now c. 4 years old. Measurements don’t mean much to me but for a few it seems the Holy Grail. Their prayers answered at Stereophile for Morpheus.

Criticisms of NOS roll-off shown as - “Output is down 1dB at the top of the audioband (20kHz) with 44.1kHz data”. Given most over age 50 find it hard to hear 12k, 40 years 15k and 18+ years most cannot hear 17.4k … is this a problem ?

The Dac last year that hit the headlines (to me) was the Tamba. Stereophile – “My measurements revealed that the Mola Mola DAC offers state-of-the-digital-art performance”. So let’s compare for the measurement brigade (apples to apples) :

“Repeating the measurement with the maximum output set to 2V, the increase in bit depth dropped the noise floor by 24dB (fig.6), which is still 20 bits' worth of resolution.

Channel separation was 112dB in both directions across the audioband, HR had used the Tambaqui set to 2V maximum output level—and any supply-related spuriae were at –130dB or lower”.

Morph :

“An increase in bit depth from 16 to 24, with dithered data representing a 1kHz tone at –90dBFS, dropped the Sonnet's noisefloor by around 24dB (fig.8). This implies a resolution of 20 bits, which is excellent.

Channel separation was superb, at >125dB in both directions below 1kHz (fig.5), decreasing to a still-superb 113dB at 20kHz. The Morpheus's noisefloor was free from any power supply–related spuriae (fig.6)".

Pasithea should up the ante. Prior to Xmas the 1st production run sold out. If still on track (lock-down) we should get some Pics soon of the finished item.

 

[vonBaron]

I will be selling Morpheus and Ambre, if anyone interested in EU please PM me.

 

[ken6217]

I will be selling Morpheus and Ambre, if anyone interested in EU please PM me.

What are u replacing it with?

 

[vonBaron]

Astell CA1000

 

[ken6217]

Why did you switch to a portable?

 

[vonBaron]

Because i want.

 

[ken6217]

Because i want.

Very intelligent response. I asked you because you were commenting about the Holo May and the Morpheus and now tou went in the other direction. This cement my opinion of all your other comments in the past.

What’s next? Sell the Nimbus for an iPhone?

 

[vonBaron]

I don't have to tell you, i can do whatever i want. Not your business...

 

[ken6217]

Strange boy. It’s a forum. You came on and posted you were selling the Morpheus. It’s only normal for someone to ask that question.

You should abide by the rules and no sales in a discussion forum other than the Classified section.

 

[vonBaron]

So please report me...
I don't like discuss with you, boy.