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The Audiophello sounded more accurate and closer to what I heard with the Off-Ramp - but from memory the Off-Ramp let more detail through and was more dynamic.
Thank you for all the information, but I am a bit bummed. I use an Olive as a source, which is a server but not in the traditional sense. I only have an SPDF output without upsampling. I also suspect it is a bit jittery. If you get a chance, could you try the Metrum on a conventional transport? Thanks.I am currently using a Dacmagic, but the dac world is changing so fast that I can't seem to pull the trigger on a new dac. I was hoping the Metrum would get me off the fence.
Since you are comparing the Audiophilleo with a $1500 Empirical Audio Off-Ramp, perhaps it would make more sense to compare the more expensive ($949) Audiophilleo1, which has an adjustable VirtualCable function to fine tune virtual S/PDIF cable length affecting signal reflections and jitter.
I use an Olive as a source, which is a server but not in the traditional sense. I only have an SPDF output without upsampling. I also suspect it is a bit jittery. If you get a chance, could you try the Metrum on a conventional transport?
I think that's a reasonable approximation of a conventional transport. I believe the take away is that the Metrum Octave is rather sensitive to quality of transport.
Since you are comparing the Audiophilleo with a $1500 Empirical Audio Off-Ramp, perhaps it would make more sense to compare the more expensive ($949) Audiophilleo1, which has an adjustable VirtualCable function to fine tune virtual S/PDIF cable length affecting signal reflections and jitter. Steve
OK here is my write-up of what happened down at Lenehan Audio when comparing the Metrum with Audiophello2 and the PDX.First so everyone understands the biases etc involved this listening session was done with Mike Lenehan and one of his staff Tony. They make the PDX it will be compared against so may be biased. However I had been telling them about this DAC for a while and they were interested in hearing it. I must also give them my thanks for letting me take time from their busy schedule because they are really busy putting the finishing touches on a new speaker they are working on - I interrupted them while Mike was doing the final tweaks and measurements to the new crossover.Anyway they set up a pair ML1 Reference speakers and connected them up to the Mac 501's they use. The Metrum was direct connected to the amps and the volume control of Itunes with Bit-Perfect was used but only initially upsampled to 96K. First thing that was noticed was how accurate and low distortion it was. It was easily better than any of the other DAC's I had taken down so they could hear - in fact they said it was even better than they thought it would be from my enthusiastic build up. However with Kdoot I had noticed the higher the upsampling the better this DAC sounded so we went to 176. Very noticeably better - greater detail and bass. The detail was very well defined but perhaps the top was slightly hard and maybe slightly etched.Ok - we decided to pop in a level 2 PDX which is a PCM1704K DAC that uses the I2S of a modified M2Tech as input and has an SRPP valve output stage. Immediately it sounded more real and palpable just as it did on my system. The top end was less etched and the detail was perhaps less defined but there was no sense it was not there. I thought this was just a characteristic of the valve output stage but Mike was not so sure - he thought something else was going on. Anyway we popped the Metrum back on and Mike said - got it. He detected a slight bloom in the lower vocals. Now he identified it I listened then heard it. That was it. It was the bloom that was the cause - its absence made the sound more palpable and real sounding. Well I will be fooked.OK to test out the theory we decided to pop on the a base level PDX without exotic stuff like Duelund output capacitors. The conjecture was it will introduce some of the bloom and guess what it did - maybe half to one third what the Metrum had. It was sort of halfway between the Metrum and Level 2 PDX in sound. Mike thought the cause may have been the capacitors in the Metrum. But when I explained the Metrum had no output stage or capacitors we were scratching our heads. Anyway while driving home a thought occurred to me - perhaps it was an artifact of jitter. Previous tests I had been privy to indicated via I2S the modified M2Tech was better than the Audiophello so maybe what we were hearing was added jitter in the Metrum. The better output stage of the Level 2 PDX was able to show up this absence of jitter better than the base model. Anyway before I left we all thought when more time was available it should be done again - but this time with the Off-RampThanksBill
1) I understand source was LA's Mac, the I2S signal, was it fed to the PDX via USB input corresponding to optional USB-to-I2S converter built inside PDX--which, it appears, because of better SQ, makes using an USB-to-SPDIF converter (at the PDX standard SPDIF input) totally unnecessary/redundant--or was it connected directly from Mac (having I2s data line outputs?) into (also) optional I2S inputs in PDX (4 BNC connectors carrying 4 separate I2S data lines)?
2) More than a question, an observation--audition was via MT1's minimonitors that basically stop at 50Hz (your MT3's go into the low 20Hz)...so, this comparison exercise tells very little about bass performance, don't you agree? I imagine, a fuller response spectrum should render a different perception of overall SQ comparison. Incidentaly, the MT3 is not shown at all in LA's web page...it states that MT1 (two versions) is the only production model, any input on this?
How I hate reading of computer gremlins.
Would you prefer not reading about them and spending hours discovering them for yourself?
Any update since you got the offramp back?
ouch! ok anxiously awaiting your update
If I read right you prefer the Audiophilleo( 1 or 2) to Stello 3? and second would you inform us sonic differences with the metrum between Steve's product and the Audiophilleo2
