This is an interesting temporal moment in this thread (struggled for a bit for how to express that, since threads can cover so much random ground) since Narbooty has weighed in with an enthusiastic opinion about a device I’d not heard of, didn’t know what it does or doesn’t do, then looked up, then was trying to sort out how/where it fits into my Rig, etc.
This is about the third time today I’ve realized I as a poster, or the poster I was reading was talking (quite naturally) about their own use case. Which we don’t necessarily know, even if we read their gear list.
But we go, “Oooh, whassat? What’s it do? How much? Does it work with my gear?”…etc.
Then eventually you sort out that, hey, Very Cool Device…but doesn’t necessarily serve a function in my rig, or whatever.
Many cross-purposes discussions and arguments end up happening due to this sort of thing. Not saying this is one, just made me realize.
For example, there are a lot of DS-DAC related Bridge vs. Non-Bridge-User discussions/arguments, as there are FW-related issues Bridge users seem to have that others don’t (very likely a part of Paul’s motivation for an in-house-built Bridge 3).
Oh, for sure. I was just trying to communicate that I was realizing a lot of effort and back-and-forth here is expended daily on situations where, for example, the poster has a racetrack Porsche-uh, and I’m struggling to apply the mod he’s talking about to my car (or vice versa). And the part is not even made for my car, or the way I use or drive my car.
It is great that others are enjoying the Matrix X-SPDIF 2 with their DIrectStream DACs. I first posted about the Matrix about a year ago here and since then multiple people on this forum have PM’ed me to say they bought a Matrix and that it made a meaningful improvement in their systems. I bought my X-SPDIF 2 from Matrix’s USA distributor, Arthur Power of Matrix Digital Audio USA (see link, below). Not sure if he offers a return policy, but he is very knowledgable and good guy to deal with. I have no connection to Matrix other than being a happy customer.
Except the device being discussed, the Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2, is applicable to anyone using a DirectStream DAC via USB. That would seem to be many of the people here…
Does the matrix (or UltraDigital) need a streamer (Sonore or SOTM) in order to produce a meaningful SQ upgrade on the DS or DSJ? Or is there enough benefit to justify the expense without a streamer?
For those who are confused about what the matrix does, from a functional point of view is takes usb in and passes I2s out. You can then feed I2s into the Dac. This is exactly what the Dac does anyway as internally the Dac connects usb to th I2s bus, so in theory it should be a complete waste of time and money. However, people who have bought it say they hear improvements over how the Dac does it, presumably it’s better at rejecting noise (radio frequency interference) or otherwise. The matrix does also output optical which if used instead of the I2s Output may produce superior results as optical will block all electromechanical noise.
The Ultradigital requires a microRendu(or other similar Sonore products up the line) to be used with to even work as per their website. The matrix works fine hooked up directly USB output from PC etc, and the large SQ improvement I am experiencing is with USB from PC direct to the Matrix.
A few weeks again I asked Jesus at Sonore, the designer of the microrendu, if the UltraDigital could be used on its own. He said yes, with a Mac it does not require a mR…
I finally got around to playing with the optical output for a bit tonight. I still lack the sophisticated vocabulary etc of many on here who have been doing this forever, but I found the sound from optical to be inferior to the I2S. There was a decrease in separation between instruments etc that just wasn’t there as it seems to be with the I2s. It is still certainly a step up from straight USB to the Directstream. A large step up.
This may be secondary to the fact that it is adding an extra step to the process(USB to Optical and then I2s inside the DAC as opposed to simply USB to I2S?). Or perhaps it is related to the inherent jitter of optical? Again, I am not as knowledgeable about these things just yet as I would like to be. Perhaps some of the guru’s can chime in. Of course, I could just be wrong and others would think the optical sounds better
The only way I have to compare optical to usb is by bringing my CD player into the mix. I have cds that I can play optical out and compare with ripped discs playing via usb. I think I’ll ‘futz’ with that. In the past - it always seemed like the optical was a little smeared over - similar to what Narbooty says- but I’m willing to give it another go.
Hey Boot - added the Uptone LPS1.2 PS to the Matrix. Upgrade is stunning . I2S via my Aurender\Matrix\DS is on another level, a bit better than optical via Matrix also - and this is only with the BJC HDMI cable. Definitely worth an audition.
You have my attention, recently I have been thinking of trying optical. Question, isn’t there problems with the quality of the optical cable and connectors?. Please revisit for the sake of my memory and understanding.
The issue with optical for me was not being able to get past 24/96. Even with this limitation a $5 Toslink cable destroyed my Curious usb\uptone regen combo. The Martix\LPS1.2 combo (via I2S) was a component level upgrade in my system.
Had you been using USB power or some cheaper supply previously? Like Boot, I’m also using a 5v iFi iPower. I honestly barely even bothered with straight USB power to compare.
Yes straight USB. I believe Boot mentioned the iPower provided a noticeable improvement - nothing earth shattering though. The LPS addition is well beyond noticeable.
I’ve had some trouble with Snowmass, both versions. Balance is shifted to the left speaker. I can correct this using the balance control on the BHK Pre, but prefer not to do this. I double-checked the balance on the DSD Sr and all was well. I rebooted everything, twice, and the problem remained, particularly when streaming from my NAS (using JRiver on my Mac Mini) or listening to CDs from the DMP. I reverted to Red Cloud and the problem resolved.
Anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Michael
