Metrum Acoustics Octave: A NOS digital filter-less DAC

[Currawong]

I broke out the Oscium. As predicted at 20 kHz, a typical NOS DAC.

[blessingx]

Any lived with a bit SQ comments? Glassiness retreated?

Edited February 29, 2012 by blessingx

[K3cT]

There is a brief comparison with vanilla PerfectWave and Reference 7.1 here in the 6moons review. It's written by John Darko, an Aussie who maintains a DAC review site whom I have been following for a while as it's one of the few sites left that has detailed DAC comparisons handy. His prose may be a bit too long-winded and flowery sometimes but at least you can get a rough gist on how the DAC is supposed to sound like.

Let's bring some currency to 2011 DAC sparring. PWD vs Metrum Octave. The shouty B52’s vibe of Future Of The Left's "Manchasm" piles on the layers in the final vamp. Falkous' ever-raucous vocals ("Colin is a pussy / A very pretty pussy") tumble over guitars that tumble over guitar shards. A rhythm section of understated drive keeps the song from collapsing in on itself. PS Audio adds a spoonful of honey over and above Metrum's mineral water.

The PWD's layer unraveling is sweeter, smoother and more fleshed out than the Octave. Supplementary meat on bone and connective tissue pays heft and physicality forward. This latter characteristic keeps FoTL’s proto-punk snarl from straying into edginess as occasionally exhibited by the thinner-blooded but speedier Metrum. Both know how to rock but the Metrum is nervier and glassier. It plays Fred Schneider to PS Audio's Kate Pierson.

Edited February 29, 2012 by K3cT

[pigmode]

It plays Fred Schneider to PS Audio's Kate Pierson.

I'm sure I'll never figure out what this means.

[deepak]

Thought I was reading a Pitchfork music review when I read those paragraphs

[guzziguy]

It would help if Mr. Darko wrote in English.

[pigmode]

It would help if Mr. Darko wrote in English.

Its that sub-category of English called jive, lol.

[Salt Peanuts]

[complin]

I thought you had to be very selective which type of RCA plug you use as there are as far as I know only a couple on the market that guarantee 75ohms?

I think you are right also about having a secure tight connection with SPDIF and BNC would be preferable. However most kit these days dont have BNC only RCA.

Have you tried a good quality RCA to BNC adapter, I think Black Cat cables can supply something like that?

Replaced the RCA jack with a 75 ohm BNC. Just to get it working I initially used a verified 75 ohm cable (RG302 terminated in 75 ohm BNC's) via a BNC to RCA adaptor. But during my swapping the Octave to insulated 75 ohm BNC I tested the cable-adaptor-RCA with 75 ohm termination on my Tektronix 1502 TDR - and it was truly horrendous. It was so bad that it was impossible to see anything approaching the 75 ohms termination resistor. The only way to go is to rigidly stick to everthing matching the characteristic impedance of the cable.

Edited October 6, 2012 by complin

[complin]

It is English but so florid its difficult to understand, and not really suitable for writing reviews. Some of the reviewers on 6moons suffer the same problem! Its a bit shocking really as they are writing professionally.

I suppose they think they are impressing the punters by showing the breadth of their vocabulary

Its that sub-category of English called jive, lol.

Edited October 6, 2012 by complin

[Gopher]

I'd agree entirely with that sound on initial switch on. 75-ohm mods give a very worthwhile improvement - but the one that really nailed it was removing the Murata pulse transformer and replacing it with the Lundahl LL1572. A good friend, long-time audiophile and one-time dealer, was across at the weekend. He compared the sound to a Koetsu Red, which is just fine by me!

Some Scientific Conversion transformers arrived yesterday. So I'll have a play with those.

How did that Scientefic Conversion Transformer do? Is the Lundahl still preferred? I love that your friend likened the presentation to his Kotesu (I owned a Rosewood Sig) and would love to make this modification in my Metrum.

[Pars]

I thought you had to be very selective which type of RCA plug you use as there are as far as I know only a couple on the market that guarantee 75ohms?

I think you are right also about having a secure tight connection with SPDIF and BNC would be preferable. However most kit these days dont have BNC only RCA.

Have you tried a good quality RCA to BNC adapter, I think Black Cat cables can supply something like that?

Sorry for late response (and I haven't seen Craig around here for awhile). There are no true 75 ohm RCAs. The WBT supposedly get close but only if you use the matching socket. As far as adapters go, you will have an impedance mismatch when it goes from BNC to RCA as Craig mentioned when testing on his TDR (time domain reflectometer).

[Voltron]

There is a brief comparison with vanilla PerfectWave and Reference 7.1 here in the 6moons review. It's written by John Darko, an Aussie who maintains a DAC review site whom I have been following for a while as it's one of the few sites left that has detailed DAC comparisons handy. His prose may be a bit too long-winded and flowery sometimes but at least you can get a rough gist on how the DAC is supposed to sound like.

You're fucking shitting me that you can read that Darko drivel and either understand anything of value, or respect anything that you can possibly understand.

[Gopher]

Does anyone possible have pictures of what Craig did? I'm not much fo a DIYer, but I have a friend willing to help out if I can get a picture of the modification. I know he mentioned the pulse transformer swap is "is a bir more of a fiddly mod, because the size and pin-out is different."

[doom2112]

Hi my ame is P. Karlsson from sweden i intend to buy an octave dac but i would like to know how to change the Murata trnaformer to LL1572,from what i can see the Murata has 6 legs and the lundahl only 4.How is it possible to swap them?

[blessingx]

They now have another DAC. Introducing the Hex: http://www.nosminidac.nl/Hex_English.html

[Cee Tee]

^That has got to be a record for the number of quads per channel!

 

 

(I would like to hear one of these sometime...)