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Review and Measurements of Matrix Audio Element X DAC/Streamer/Amp

Krunok

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An excellent analogy, it even has the exact same flaw as the original argument.

The answer to your analogy: YES I‘ll buy the 250 years shoes for $1000, IF they are more comfy and/or better looking.

Finding the corresponding flaw in the original argument is left as an exercise to the reader:)

You missed the point - question was would you buy 250 years shoes for $1000 if they are equally comfy and good looking to your perception as the ones made to last 150 years. In other words, would you pay for the feature you cannot possibly have any use of..
 

JohnYang1997

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A piece of X-SABRE Pro MQA has been sent to Amir. Measurements coming soon...
Is there any design difference, like components or component values between mqa and non-mqa version? Because the original xsp is one of the first dacs that implemented with 9038.
 

gvl

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@amirm, is there a reason you don't run external jitter sensitivity checks for DACs? I don't think your typical jitter test covers it, or does it?
 
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amirm

amirm

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@amirm, is there a reason you don't run external jitter sensitivity checks for DACs? I don't think your typical jitter test covers it, or does it?
The test I run is for total jitter, no matter what its cause. Is this what you are asking?
 

gvl

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The test I run is for total jitter, no matter what its cause. Is this what you are asking?

Does your test tell us how well the DAC recovers the clock when used with a jittery source?
 

MZKM

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gvl

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I know there have been some tests, my question is why this is not a part of every DAC review. Doesn't have to be comprehensive, just throw some reasonable amount of jitter on the input and see if it shows up on the outputs. There are jittery sources out there, Chromecast Audio is one.
 

MZKM

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I know there have been some tests, my question is why this is not a part of every DAC review. Doesn't have to be comprehensive, just throw some reasonable amount of jitter on the input and see if it shows up on the outputs. There are jittery sources out there, Chromecast Audio is one.
We can wait for Amir to respond, but I would assume for the same reason he rarely measures frequency response for DACs, they are almost always neutral, so it’s kinda meaningless, only the reconstruction filtering sometimes is of note. Since most DACs likely handle enough jitter in common real-world scenarios to not impact performance, it is a mostly useless test and just lengthens the time it takes to do these measurements.
 
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amirm

amirm

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I know there have been some tests, my question is why this is not a part of every DAC review. Doesn't have to be comprehensive, just throw some reasonable amount of jitter on the input and see if it shows up on the outputs. There are jittery sources out there, Chromecast Audio is one.
For USB, there is no control over external jitter. USB clock is not used directly anyway in these DACs so it is not material even if we could, other than tell where the signal stops being recovered.

With S/PDIF, I can force jitter using the analyzer but it is not something I test unless what is being tested is one that deals with digital signals that way.
 

gvl

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I meant SPDIF, IMO it's a useful test for a DAC, as despite USB being more widely used these days there are still valid use cases for SPDIF.
 

yummy

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could you run a test with this gear ASRC turn off? thanks

it relates to three options in the menu
dither
jitter eliminator
dpll bandwidth
 

yummy

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i know why the 50mv doesn't look good

the pot is digital, no analog pot to control the cans vol, well, it's a shame, could be better
 
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amirm

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Hi Amir, did you connected element X to your wifi network successfully?
Not yet. I had gotten into another test that I have to finish to free up the bench for it.
 

Hemi-Demon

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Not yet. I had gotten into another test that I have to finish to free up the bench for it.


If you do happen to perform more testing on this device. Would you mind testing if the device "clicks" audibly, when changing bitrates, say from 16/44 to 24/88.2 to 24/192, etc. Thanks
 
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amirm

amirm

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I got wifi working and updated the review:

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EDIT: I was given a youtube video that shows the wifi configuration which got me going:

Note: make sure you let the Matrix Audio APP (MA) send you to wifi settings. Otherwise its wizard will sit there waiting for you to push that button. Also, initiating the wizard is done by hitting the "+" button on top right of the MA app. As I am typing this, music is reliably streaming over Wifi from Roon player.
 
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amirm

amirm

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If you do happen to perform more testing on this device. Would you mind testing if the device "clicks" audibly, when changing bitrates, say from 16/44 to 24/88.2 to 24/192, etc. Thanks
I tested this for both mechanical noise and audible ones. There is none.
 
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