external PS
I am intrigued by the ultradigital, The bundle sale with the ultrarendu and ultradigital is tempting, but I guess my question is would I notice that much of an upgrade of SQ to justify the cost going with the rendu over Bridge II? As my roon core is a Dell Alpha R2 i7 with a QNAP NAS, would it be a better choice to get a sonictransporter i5 and the ultradigital?!? I’d appreciate any thoughts and advice. Cheers!
Put in an order for the Matrix X-SPDIF 2 on their USA website - they had a 10% off black friday sale… Like the fact that it can be USB powered. Looking forward to finally trying the i2s input. Also like the fact that there’s a high quality toslink option. Maybe it’ll get me past 96k. Thanks for the tip.
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Hi - just received the Matrix unit and same HDMI cable. Just wondering if you experienced a burn in period for this. If so how long until it settled in? thx
Hi, it’s been a while, so I cannot say for sure if it improved over time. What I recall distinctly is the IMMEDIATE major sonic improvement compared to the Bridge II and USB inputs. And that was with no external PSU connected to the Matrix. The sonics took another step up when I added the iFi iPower PSU, but it was relatively minor compared to the initial upgrade from Bridge II/USB to I2S.
How are you enjoying your Matrix so far?
Just hooked it up and giving it a couple hours to settle in as it was outside waiting at my door in 35 degree weather. The thing is solid and seems very well made. I’ll check it out later tonight and get back. I’ll be happy if the I2S connection equals the toslink I’ve been using. - thx
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The Matrix X-SPDIF 2 should hopefully get you 24/192kHz on TOSlink.
But if not, this one does for me:
It also comes with USB cable and TOSlink cable that work at 192k Hz for me.
DoP64 works fine for me too…
To stay somewhat on topic, I’ll offer that I would love to try feeding my DS with I2S from an Ultradigital if Sonore would support a direct USB connection from a Mac Mini. That Sonore doesn’t makes experimentation a non-starter.
Which brings me to the Matrix v2. Noticed it in passing about a year ago but since there wasn’t the usual glut of video/audio/prose about it, I didn’t take it seriously. Your posts in a couple of threads here along with a few mentions in Computer Audiophile and an interesting write up on Head-Fi had me take a recent, second look at trying one. Previous attempts to clean up USB with gear that has had considerably more attention from with our hobby led me to march the following de-crapifiers through my system - an ISO Regen, a Schiit Eitr, and a W4S uLink USB in conjunction with a Curious Cables USB and an Uptone LPS1. But none of those (solo and in various combinations) sounded better to me than a Sonos Connect handling off coax into a W4S Remedy then out to my DS also via coax; Sonos being my compromise because of all-around compatibility. So I temporarily gave up on USB as a digital source and sold most of my gadgetry at the usual, souring marginal loss.
I’m just now in the middle of a 150hr (maybe 200hr, we’ll see) burn in for the Matrix I bought a few weeks ago. Out of the box, fed with an LPS1, a leftover Pangea AU USB and handing off to an el-cheapo generic, silver coated copper HDMI 1.4 cable, the result was surprising. So much so that I’m going to add the Uptone Linear PS kit for Mac over the holidays, and run through a few more HDMI cables because, well, why not? That’s the fun, right? I’m excited to see what happens when I sit back down with it again over the weekend.
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Thanks - does not get me above 96k but that may be the cable. Sound is improving as it burns in so I should know what I have in a few days. I can say at this point that it is very good and better then the Topping D10 I had been using for toslink only. Build quality is also very good.
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Its here. Fresh out of the box. Doesn’t sound as good as the Bridge II since it most likely needs burn in.
I’ll report back in a few days. 
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Hi again - so the Matrix is very good. I’ve had it for over a week now. Better than the Topping D10 I was using. Better everything via both I2s and toslink. While the I2s is very good I do prefer the toslink. It’s a little more open and organic sounding. Interestingly I still can’t get past 96k but it will do DSD64 without issue. Either way I only have to change the input to I2s to go beyond 96k. No external power supply at this point but it does seem like they put a lot of thought into the internal 5v ps. Thanks for the tip…
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What power supply ?
This one.
Do you have 1 supply for each? Also, what USB and what HDMI?
Do you prefer the Bridge II over the ultraRendu direct USB to the DS?
I don’t. The best thing I ever did was pull the Bridge II card from my DS and put the ultraRendu back in play. Well, that and getting HQPlayer Embedded for my sonicTransporter i5 Roon server.
What are your fav HQP settings? Can you share a screenshot of your Roon Signal Path? That shows everything, even HQP settings.
Cheers.
Is that with an ultraDigital between your ultraRendu and DS (I2S)?
Or Rendu direct USB to DS?
UltraRendu direct to USB on the DAC.