jp11801 Posted July 4, 2009 Report Posted July 4, 2009 I've owned this piece now for a few weeks and have been pretty tight lipped on the sonics publicly. After a few weeks of use in my system damn if this isn't the best dac I've owned. Higher resolution than any of the dacs I've had in the house, greater frequency extension, no top end glare, great tone and just reports the new and does not seem to editorialize. In the house now are 4 dacs and the Sonic Studio 302 takes top honors. I've got an esoteric here on loan, my modded TranDac and the Apogee Duet. I was first turned on to the Metric Halo unit by Ironbut right around the time of the VSAC event. I researched the living crap out of pro audio dacs for a while and it kept coming back to this one (at least in my budget of sub $2k). I looked at the apogee rosetta 200, weiss dac 2 , lavry DA11 and the RME Fireface 800. Well after reading I eliminated the apogee as the reviews were pretty evenly split between both the Metric Halo and the Apogee and the Metric Halo has mic pre amps which could come in handy acting as a gain stage for direct to ADC needle drops, once I pick up the RIAA eq plug in for my unit. The RME unit held promise until I tried a fireface 400 and could not get it work with my mac after several attempts. When I brought it back to Guitar Center the guy there told me I was the second person to bring in the RME for not working out of the box that week. I quickly nixed the RME from my list and that left the Weiss and Lavy. I really like the Lavry and several people I know own either the DA10 or DA11 but after doing the math the Metric Halo was still tops with its ADC section. I still lust after the Weiss but can't get over the fact that I need to buy a separate ADC unit to perform needle drops. Well I set off to buy the Metric Halo used and kept missing them used both on Ebay and Craigslist but lucked out and found the Sonic Studio branded UNL-2 locally. I am listening to the unit right now and I swear it has made my digital section come close to my analog section, something I thought would take a few years and much more $$$$ to do. The unit has a built in headphone amp that works very well with the Grado HF-2s and surprisingly the JH13s but I think might suck with Senn 650s, 800s or AKG 702s. Through both my headphones and my speaker rig it has brought the level of transparency up several notches. There is a presence that I have not heard yet from digital that spooky was that the record or was that sound in real life thing happens much more with this dac. The big bonus for me are the inputs as there are mic preamps with 70db of gain as well as passive inputs with trim pots in case the signal is too hot you can take a few db off. This is really killer for me as I love to digitize my records. I may end up using this as a digital phono preamp in the future once I get some plugs to load the cart. Any way if you are in the market for a dac that works great as a computer interface you should really check one of these out. There are also coax and optical inputs if you want to come from a cd transport. I would gladly throw this in the ring with other dacs in it's price class up to 3-4 thousand. Now I recently heard the Amarra model 4 (metric halo unl-8 without mic pre amps) and that was really special and highly recommended if you have $6-8K. The UNL-2 is $1700 new from MH and can go to $2400 with optional DSP.
boomana Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 Nice write-up, John. Thanks for making me want to try it out.
riceboy Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 Nice write-up, John. Thanks for making me want to try it out. X2. Thanks for your impressions and I'm curious on trying it out now too.
jp11801 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Report Posted July 5, 2009 anyone that either buys or tries one and needs help doing the initial set up, lmk if I can help.
Hopstretch Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 How are you doing analog out, JP, TRS to RCA?
jp11801 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Report Posted July 5, 2009 (edited) right now it's ultra getto with rca to 1/4 adapters but I have some 1/4 mono jacks on the way from Nate to re-term my cables. sorry I was wrong in my write up about optical (didn't flip it around to to do the writing. Great firewire dac and maybe an even better adc section for needle dropping and the occasional delusions of guitar recording. Oh and the Amarra 4 (unl- is a serious step up from this but at 3-4 times the price it's something for me to aspire to someday rather than think about owning today. Edited July 5, 2009 by jp11801
Hopstretch Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 sorry I was wrong in my write up about optical (didn't flip it around to to do the writing. Looks like the Metric version has toslink but the Sonic Studio doesn't.
grawk Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 BHphoto has the metric halo version for $1495 right now.
jp11801 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Report Posted July 5, 2009 Ive got to check mine to see about optical. It is just a unl2 with a new faceplate and a sticker on the rear for the new serial number. Once I hooked up the FireWire, analog outs and analog inputs for vinyl transfers I haven't looked at it. It is a stupid good deal at $1700 at $1500 it's criminally good.
screaming oranges Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 I wonder how this would stack up against the Ayre. Oh well, out of funds for either anyway.
jp11801 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Report Posted July 5, 2009 I am really curious about a comp with the ayre qb9, my local shop has the ayre and a MacBook pro so maybe I should stop over and put them head to head.
screaming oranges Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 I am really curious about a comp with the ayre qb9, my local shop has the ayre and a MacBook pro so maybe I should stop over and put them head to head. You are a god amongst men.
Hopstretch Posted July 5, 2009 Report Posted July 5, 2009 I am really curious about a comp with the ayre qb9, my local shop has the ayre and a MacBook pro so maybe I should stop over and put them head to head. Dew eet.
atothex Posted July 7, 2009 Report Posted July 7, 2009 Damn, all these different names are making my head spin. Which of these Sonic Studio or Metric Halo things would I want if I only want a DAC? Edit: wait, this isn't Mac only, is it?
penger Posted July 7, 2009 Report Posted July 7, 2009 Looks like it can be Mac or PC. The unique part is that it can take Firewire input?
Dreadhead Posted July 7, 2009 Report Posted July 7, 2009 Nice writeup JP#s I'm glad to see that more people are looking towards commercial DACs. In my opinion they absolutely destroy Audiophile DACs for value and performance (and usually add ADC as well).
jp11801 Posted July 7, 2009 Author Report Posted July 7, 2009 oddly enough the stumbling block for many audiophiles with pro audio is the set up. For example the Metric Halo units need 1/4 inch jacks to rca converters or a reterm of your existing cables and then you need to learn a pro interface that was designed for multi channel recording not 2 channel playback. These are not huge obstacles but create frustration in the critical few days just after purchase that I would venture cause audio folks to throw in the towel. It is totally worth the minor learning curve for the price to sound ratio.
Smeggy Posted July 10, 2009 Report Posted July 10, 2009 it's amazing how many great toys are out there still undiscovered Nice writeup jp
Sherwood Posted July 12, 2009 Report Posted July 12, 2009 Wow, what a find nums! I've spent good time looking at high quality firewire DACs, and this never crossed my path. You are a hero.
jp11801 Posted July 12, 2009 Author Report Posted July 12, 2009 mine has optical as do all the new units when MH upgraded to the + version that included an additional board.
andrew.levine Posted July 13, 2009 Report Posted July 13, 2009 You might like this link from my blog: blumlein records: Metric Halo (MH Labs) audio interfaces for high end consumer audio Regards, Andrew
jp11801 Posted July 13, 2009 Author Report Posted July 13, 2009 Andrew thanks for the link, the UNL-8 is really something special and as much as I love the UNL-2 the 8 better. The primary issue for consumer audiophiles with these boxes are 1) the physical interface, the 2 requires either re-terminating your rca to TRS on one side or using rca to TRS adapters. I re-terminated my cables last night and ditched the adapters. The UNL-8 requires custom breakout cables to stereo use as there are a myriad of cable options from the breakout. 2) the computer interface either the metric console or sonic console ( just about the same thing) is daunting for a non-studio person to overcome at first. I wound up creating a template for myself for playback of computer files and recoding of LPs but it took some experimenting. Those two somewhat minor issues aside I think they offer unparalleled performance at a more than fair price the UNL-2 is a screaming steal at $1695 new and $1100 or so used. It is my hope that these become more available and with support from audio retailers who can help set you up.BTW both the Metric Halo and Sonic Studio folks are awesome to work with and offer great support.
atothex Posted July 15, 2009 Report Posted July 15, 2009 Did a little research on this one. No Windows support at the moment, and the timeline for Windows drivers is unknown. \ They use the AKM 4393, which I'm not familiar with. Same as Behringer and Little Dot supposedly. Thoughts?
jp11801 Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Posted July 15, 2009 Funny that you mention the DAC chip as thus is a constant source of befuddlement to me. The DAC chip is just one ingrediant in the soup and potentially not the most critical. Design and implementation are far more critical, I would wager that the UNL-2 shares very little sonically with either of the above mentioned units. Yeah it's important but it's just one of many factors that can influence the sound.
screaming oranges Posted July 15, 2009 Report Posted July 15, 2009 No Windows support? Dah! This killed it for me.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now