Sonnet Digital Audio: New kid on the block, well.. not really!

[ken6217]

Holo spring, denafrips Venus a long list of cheaper ones

Theres your answer. Until you hear higher end DAC's you can't make that statement. There level of realism and accuracy in tonality, detail, space, etc is better.

I'm not saying expensive DAC's aren't overpriced, just that when you get to the higher level DAC's, they're ability to reproduce music is superior.

 

[vonBaron]

What do you feed it.. 44kHz wil roll off 3dB, 48k less than 1dB, 88/96kHz should sound normal/no NOS roll-off. If you don't specify what you feed it impacts quite a lot of your experience

90% time I listen 44k, i got fixed volume with 0db.

 

[vonBaron]

Did someone compared Morpheus to Metrum Adagio?

 

[Baten]

90% time I listen 44k, i got fixed volume with 0db.

Ok thanks

 

[ken6217]

Did someone compared Morpheus to Metrum Adagio?

if you look at my earlier posts, I compared it to the pavane level III which I had. I sold the pavane and kept the Morpheus.

there’s no difference in sound between the Morpheus and pavane level three. I had emailed Cees prior to buying to ask him if there is a difference in sound because I wanted to buy whichever one sounds better.

The Morpheus has the same tonality, but much more low level detail and a bigger soundstage.

 

[vonBaron]

It's hard to belive that cheaper DAC is better but it's only good for us

 

[ken6217]

It's hard to belive that cheaper DAC is better but it's only good for us

if you look at some of the reviews he mentions the reason why the cost difference. He was able to save costs in not using the expensive enclosure, no glass top, and that with his new processing he only needed one power supply as opposed to three.

Cees said that the Pavane/Adagio had reached it’s limits of what he could do with it while working at Metrum, and needed a new platform.

 

[ken6217]

This is an email he sent me a few months ago:


Hi Ken

I sold Metrum during summer 2018 and I had an agreement with the new owners to be involved with the company for four years as a designer. However during beginning of 2019 there was no money anymore to pay me for product development so I decided to start a new brand in August last year. It is about four weeks ago now that the company behind the Metrum brand is bankrupt . Assume that people can find us we have taken over the support for Metrum in case of repairs.

About the Morpheus
Morpheus is an entire new approach in case of the used dacs. The goal was to make it cheaper but at the same time it should be better as the Metrum predecessors . If we take Pavane or Adagio for instance you will find a lot of power to drive the dac modules so therefore three transformers are used. In case of the Morpheus the same amount of dacs ( four in each module) are used but consumes just a third of the power compared to Pavane /Adagio. The next advantage of having low power is noise radiation which is also a third. The last thing to make it cheaper is to remove all expensive stuff like aluminum around and glass top plate. But still due to size reduction the Morpheus is very solid.

Sound wise you can hear that the Morpheus is family with the Metrum products as it is still the NOS approach but besides the new dac modules we have improved the FPGA algorithms and made signal flow over the board shorter . As a result it surpass the Adagio , has better low level performance and a better holographic presentation. What I cannot decide for you or the differences mentioned is a reason for replacement. After all the Pavane is a very good design. An advantage can be that swapping from one to another can be realized without adding money as most of the hifi crowd still doesn’t know us


Met vriendelijke groet

Kind regards

Cees Ruijtenberg

Sonnet Digital Audio BV

 

[vonBaron]

Yep, the enclosure in Morpheus fells cheap but im ok with that.

 

[KPzypher]

Theres your answer. Until you hear higher end DAC's you can't make that statement. There level of realism and accuracy in tonality, detail, space, etc is better.

I'm not saying expensive DAC's aren't overpriced, just that when you get to the higher level DAC's, they're ability to reproduce music is superior.

Unsubstantiated claims like this (expensive is better) is exactly what's wrong with this hobby and why companies can get away with mediocre products with astronomical price tag. What do you base your 'realism, accuracy, tonality, detail, space, etc..' on? human ears with terrible auditory memory? your subjective judgement? Can you point to an excerpt to support/validate/corroborate your claim other than biased reviews and manufacturer claim? I respect subjective viewpoints, but only when they stay an opinion.

 

[ken6217]

Unsubstantiated claims like this (expensive is better) is exactly what's wrong with this hobby and why companies can get away with mediocre products with astronomical price tag. What do you base your 'realism, accuracy, tonality, detail, space, etc..' on? human ears with terrible auditory memory? your subjective judgement? Can you point to an excerpt to support/validate/corroborate your claim other than biased reviews and manufacturer claim? I respect subjective viewpoints, but only when they stay an opinion.

Don't get bent out of shape. If you don't hear a difference, or if you think something is a waste of money, that's your opinion and your welcome to it. On the plus side, you're saving a lot of money. Just stick to all of the equipment that only costs a couple of hundred bucks. They're cheap, offer no sonic difference over more expensive equipment, and you won't have any idea if it sounds any better than anything else anyway because you're using you're human ears with subjective judgement. Sounds like a win win for you bro.

 

[KPzypher]

Don't get bent out of shape. If you don't hear a difference, or if you think something is a waste of money, that's your opinion and your welcome to it. On the plus side, you're saving a lot of money. Just stick to all of the equipment that only costs a couple of hundred bucks. They're cheap, offer no sonic difference over more expensive equipment, and you won't have any idea if it sounds any better than anything else anyway because you're using you're human ears with subjective judgement. Sounds like a win win for you bro.

Are you serious? You're the one injecting your unfounded claims into someone else's view when that person said they don't hear any meaningful difference between DACs. And the moment someone else question your childish claim of 'expensive is better,' you get irritated and tell me I'm bent out of shape? If you can't intelligently make your point or back it up with some proof worth debating, don't even bother. If you're dumb enough to mindlessly regurgitate whatever the manufacturer has to say, you have no business telling others how things 'should be.' That sounds like a win win for you BOY.

I'm interested in Sonnet Morpheus but not for reasons you claim.

 

[ken6217]

Are you serious? You're the one injecting your unfounded claims into someone else's view when that person said they don't hear any meaningful difference between DACs. And the moment someone else question your childish claim of 'expensive is better,' you get irritated and tell me I'm bent out of shape? If you can't intelligently make your point or back it up with some proof worth debating, don't even bother. If you're dumb enough to mindlessly regurgitate whatever the manufacturer has to say, you have no business telling others how things 'should be.' That sounds like a win win for you BOY.

I'm interested in Sonnet Morpheus but not for reasons you claim.

I just chose not to debate someone with a closed mind and preconceived ideas. It becomes a never ending arguement. Get what you want and be happy. Don't get the Morpheus though. You can get the same sound out of something much cheaper, How would you know anyway since your ears and subjective memory won't remeber?

 

[KPzypher]

I just chose not to debate someone with a closed mind and preconceived ideas.

Don't get the Morpheus. You can get the same sound out of something much cheaper, SON.

That sounds just like you. Please insert ME, MYSELF, AND I in there. Come back when you have something better to say. Oh before you do, go research the meaning 'debate.'

 

[ken6217]

That sounds just like you. Please insert ME, MYSELF, AND I in there. Come back when you have something better to say. Oh before you do, go research the meaning 'debate.'