Another observation after a couple of days with the B2 unplugged:
I am listening at a lower level with less fatigue. I have a dB meter on the wall and I usually listen around 80dB, and this gets tiring after a couple of hours.
I am at around 75dB now and 4 hours going strong. I wonder if the harsher high end was taking away from the mids and lows making me crank it up more?
The sound is more refined to my ear, the highs are sharp but not overwhelming.
14Khz! That’s not bad! I’ve got a set of sine wave tones I downloaded some time back and the best I could hear was 12KHz 
Perhaps, now that I’ve turned 65, I should book in for a formal hearing test. 
It cost me 1/3 of my total system. But the most amazing and puzzle to me even till now is the effect from footers. How footers can affect the sound? But I will not spend too much on footers but feel satisfied on iso puck mini.
Should speakers be as stationary as possible to have good sound? I am contemplating of buying iso gaia iii for speakers. Now my speaker is on stand with spikes. Any suggestions?
One device (isolators or spikes) will be immediately better sounding than the other but you have to test them back to back in your setup to be able to tell. If you already have spikes you can add isolators below the spikes. Just leave the mounting stud out of the isolator and let the spike go into the hole.
Just thought I’d take the opportunity to plug another good power supply option for the Matrix - the Paul Hynes SR4T. Manufactured in the UK, beautifully made in a nice extruded aluminium case with various voltage options. I’ve got the version where you can select 4 voltages between 5v and 12v (I’ve got it set to 9v) and with their silver DC cable option.
I’ve made a few changes recently so difficult to pin point what’s made my system sound the best it ever has done to date - new power cables for my amp, Audience AU24SE dual conduit USB cable, new SR fuses, plus the Paul Hynes. However, I did send the power supply back to get it upgraded to the new “turbo” model (I’d only bought the PS in Jan so they kindly agreed to upgrade to the higher spec for the difference in list price) and the difference with and without the PS is quite apparent. With the PS, there’s more detail, greater sense of space, just find myself more immersed in the music. I haven’t directly compared the PS to other options, although I did briefly have the LPS1.2, so can’t say if it’s the best, but I can say it’s a great upgrade for the matrix.
It’s also worth mentioning that the customer service and responsiveness from the team at Paul Hynes has been exceptional. They did have some bad press a year or so back but that has clearly been put behind them now, I couldn’t have asked for more.
Mike.
This is a long shot, but I’ll see if you guys have any ideas on this…
Swapped out my Topping D50 DAC (which I’m going to use in a different room), and put in a Topping D70. Cool thing about the D70 is that it can utilize the Matrix’s I2S output. (Plus it has balanced XLR outputs.)
Anyway, hooked it up with a Pangea SE HDMI/I2S cable, but not getting any output from the DAC. The DAC sees the signal from the Matrix, though. (The DAC’s screen lets me know this.)
I tested with a different HDMI cable, too. No difference.
I’ve tried moving the dip switches around on the bottom of the Matrix, but nothing. (Totally thought this would be the answer!) Thought it might be a DSD vs PCM thing. FWIW, I’m not converting to DSD.
I tested the other connections from the Matrix to the D70, and they work just fine. AES/EBU, Optical, Coax. No problem. Sounds great, too. But the DAC doesn’t output anything when I2S is used.
I am also using HQPlayer Software, and I tested removing that from the equation. Makes no difference.
AES/EBU is what I’ll use if I can’t get I2S to work, and I’m sure it will sound just as good on my system, but anyone have any ideas? What am I not seeing?
Note: D70 was bought used. Everything is minty though. All original packaging, remote, cables, etc… Looks brand new. I’ll touch base with the seller, but thought I’d check here first since y’all are X-SPIDF savants!
Bypassing the Matrix and going directly into the DAC from my Mac Mini via USB.
Sounds fabulous.
I guess I don’t even know what problem the Matrix is trying to solve in the first place.
Ok, i’m going to move on to replacing the heating elements in our 25-year-old Dualit toaster. I’ll let you know if I have any issues with that.
I have my Matrix connected to my Dualit toaster via HDMI - smoother toast, which much better crust seperation.
The only thought I have is that of course you are aware that I2S is not a standard and there are separate, incompatible versions. Otherwise blank.
I’m thinking about getting these little things called lightdims to block most of the light from that led on the matrix. I find it a bit too bright. I kind of like the different colors so I know what format I have - so I’m going to get the ones that block 80% of the light. Just a stupid thang.
I wonder if the sound will improve by blocking the light rays reflecting off the sound waves ? 
Remove the light altogether, most likely a major contributor to noise. 
haha, oh of course I wasn’t! 
Interestingly, though, the D70 has settings to change the I2S configuration (if that’s the right term). Not sure if this is supposed to allow it to conform to different standards, but I tried all possible settings to no avail.
Again, I’m not bothering to upsample to DSD. I’m using HQPlayer to filter and upsample Roon, but only PCM.
Anyway, again, it sounds great, but I can’t tell that the Matrix in the mix does anything. So, it’s idled for now. Appropriately furloughed.
See this DIYaudio post, which might be a clue as to your ‘no sound’ issue:
thanks, boot. Yeah, here’s the text from the post:
I am using Raspberry Pi 4B + FIFOpi + HDMIpi + Topping D70 I2S input with roon bridge.
PCM is working very well. But DSD doesn’t make any sound.
Topping D70 I2S input supports only native DSD (DoP is NG) and needs PCM/DSD change flag through HDMI 15th(or 14th) pin.
Can I output PCM/DSD change flag through HDMIpi?
So, there must be something to it, or at least a hint as to why the I2S connection is a no-go in the D70. I’ve tried messing with all the settings, but nothing.
I have decided not to sweat it. Even though I think my system sounds great, it’s probably not resolving enough to care whether I go Matrix > D70 via AES/EBU, or Mac > D70 via USB.
Might hook up Matrix for a month, then disconnect, and I’ll see if I experience acute sadness or a vague sense of dread or similar.
Hi,
I bought an X-SPDIF 2 given the nice reviews but I’ve been unable to get it to work with HQ Player and the DS.
I installed the Matrix Audio drivers and I’ve set made these settings to HQP:
Backend: ASIO
Driver: Matrix ASIO Driver
I connected an HDMI cable to the DS, and HQ Player plays but no sound is output. I tried using the AES output into the DS and it’s silent as well.
Might anyone know what I’m missing?
TIA!
same thing happened to me in early days of the Matrix.
make sure “allow control from network” button is ON in the main window…
Back end = Core audio (but I’m running a mac, so yours might be different)
Device = X-SPIDF 2
Auto rate family checkbox checked.
then if using PCM, make sure limit is no higher than 192k. (This was the one that stumped me for a long time)
Try those things and check back!
Hi terzinator,
Thanks for the quick reply. 192k did the trick!
Thank you very much!!
glad to help. HQPlayer is cool, but it can be a monumental pain in the donkey to get configged.
A lot of gear has super bright LEDs, I bought some window tint - the stuff the teenagers use to make their cars look awesome :).
It works great and I apply multiple layers based on the brightness. It’s not pretty but my ears are better than my eyes.
Just wish manufacturers thought of this like PSA did and provide a dim setting, or put the LEDs on the back.
PS: I stopped with my network tweaks with a fiber run and some media converters. Was fun to run the cable given I am stuck in the house. I now have full power isolation for the stereo gear. I don’t hear any audiable difference so maybe the enterprise grade switch was doing its job, but having isolation from a power spike makes me feel better if nothing else.
Matrix beaten by Minimserver…
I started using the DSsr with a nuc computer, jriver, nas and bridge. Reading about the inherent pc noise from the nuc, I tweaked with an optical tp-link, The nuc in a cookie jar (!), matrix, ultracap lps, expensive usb and audirvana. I2S ds in, of course, bridge removed. All steps gave an improvement.
But, I still was not satisfied (who is?!) with some digititis in the treble. Last week I read about an easy procedure to implement minimserver on my synology nas. Never succeeded in doing that before. By doing that, I could disconnect my nuc, but also lost all the tweaks from above. I also disconnected the tp-link, inserted the bridge again with straight ethernet in. I used mconnect hd on ipad.
I was not prepared for the big improvement I got with this! Only a free software package on my nas? Could this beat about 1500 euro of hardware? Yes! I know Teds grumble about pc noise, really getting the pc out of the chain?
What did improve? First of all, I got a lot of bass back, i forgot about. All sibilance is gone. I always use Stings Inside number for this. Soundstage is more equally distributed in space. Etc. I am still discovering my old music. Wonderfull. Only disadvantage: now I am stuck with mconnect which is capable of seeing the minimserver on my nas. Maybe there is an alternative? Audirvana and jriver do not work (yet). Lumin app also works, but i do not have a lumin player, yet!
