Info. on new Matrix Audio mini-i

[Aldo]

and for Audirvana?
Have you tried a connection?

 

[GDK]

My take on the two mini-i's is that they were firmly-positioned as dedicated Roon streamers. They have very little functionality outside of that, which is presumably why they are cheaper than their equivalents in the Element series. Unfortunately, they released them before having sorted out their Roon compatibility, which makes for a frustrating wait for people who have already purchased them.

 

[Veri]

I did get a very quick response from Matrix Audio on this and they say roon cert coming soon. For some reason I thought I'd be able to broadcast BT from the DAC too, but that was another illusion shattered.

Except for some DAPs, there's almost no DACs that can broadcast BT. DAC = digital to analog, BT is just another digital transmission format, the DAC is not active then

 

[mdl]

I did get a very quick response from Matrix Audio on this and they say roon cert coming soon. For some reason I thought I'd be able to broadcast BT from the DAC too, but that was another illusion shattered.

I thought I'd try to trick roon by going out to my android tv's chrome cast, then taking the digital signal from there via optical and feeding the DAC with that signal. Though roon reports it as lossless, the DAC only shows 48kHz, which I *think* is the limit for optical????? Anyway, not what I wanted.

I will say that the device has some heft to it and feels really solid, metal remote as well which is nice.

agree. feels quite solid and very quiet. Funny enough I have connected my smart tv via optical and was getting 48 khz output while watching netflix.
I've found this which suggests that 192KHz is possible? I'm no expert though
https://ayrn.io/toslink-optical-connections-support-24-192khz-audio/

Once you've tried with your experiment can you let us know please asI have a chromecast not audio? Matrix hasn't responded though on the Tidal Connect question as yet as I'm not yet bought into investing in roon (plus I don't have a core!).

 

[mdl]

I did get a very quick response from Matrix Audio on this and they say roon cert coming soon. For some reason I thought I'd be able to broadcast BT from the DAC too, but that was another illusion shattered.

I thought I'd try to trick roon by going out to my android tv's chrome cast, then taking the digital signal from there via optical and feeding the DAC with that signal. Though roon reports it as lossless, the DAC only shows 48kHz, which I *think* is the limit for optical????? Anyway, not what I wanted.

I will say that the device has some heft to it and feels really solid, metal remote as well which is nice.

I've done the same without roon same result

 

[CrystalGipsy]

Chromecast Video devices or on TVs is limited to 48khz/24 bit, only the Chromecast Audio puck can output higher and is itself limited to 96/24. Nothing to do with the Matrix here.

 

[mdl]

Chromecast Video devices or on TVs is limited to 48khz/24 bit, only the Chromecast Audio puck can output higher and is itself limited to 96/24. Nothing to do with the Matrix here.

Thank you! I'm chasing now a Chromecast audio...feels like a let down!

Has anyone tried to push a tidal mqa on Chromecast audio with tidal connect?

 

[MatrixAudio]

That would be nice, but what's with the airplay? the whole point of this device (for me anyway) is an all in one, working as advertised out of the box. I'm not an "early adopter", so why are they advertising this as roon ready when it's not? @MatrixAudio again, are you guys listening?!?!?!?! why are you putting stickers on your devices that are not true? There's a huge "roon ready" sticker right on top, but roon won't do it's roon thing with the box. I'm basically stuck (for now) with a $1k raspberry pi!!!!

Sure we take care of every customers words, we are following up Roon Labs about Roon tests everyday, but they do not respond to us everyday.
We are doing the 3rd round of firmware modification where address to last few of small bugs. But we have no exact time frame of finishing the certification. Sorry for the inconvenience, We tried our best to speed up on it.

 

[mdl]

Morning fellas...bad news.
Matrix replied this morning and apparently they will not implement Tidal connect on mini I 3. Only Spotify at some point in the near future.

Bottom line: unless you have Roon (and a core and only when the certification ends), you will not be able to stream tidal mqa and you will be limited to airplay at best through WiFi.

Half baked product. I'm not anymore convinced that my mini will stay. I am not a happy chap.


@MatrixAudio : please do not limit the mini and please please please implement tidal connect !

 

[MatrixAudio]

Morning fellas...bad news.
Matrix replied this morning and apparently they will not implement Tidal connect on mini I 3. Only Spotify at some point in the near future.

Bottom line: unless you have Roon (and a core and only when the certification ends), you will not be able to stream tidal mqa and you will be limited to airplay at best through WiFi.

Half baked product. I'm not anymore convinced that my mini will stay. I am not a happy chap.


@MatrixAudio : please do not limit the mini and please please please implement tidal connect !

You might misunderstood us, we are still evaluating the possiblities of implementing Tidal Connect to mini-i series products, not started the implement yet.

 

[mdl]

You might misunderstood us, we are still evaluating the possiblities of implementing Tidal Connect to mini-i series products, not started the implement yet.

@MatrixAudio Oh I am so sorry! Please accept my apologies for misunderstanding. Any chance to keep us updated on the progress? When will you know if Tidal Connect will be implemented?thanks

 

[MatrixAudio]

@MatrixAudio Oh I am so sorry! Please accept my apologies for misunderstanding. Any chance to keep us updated on the progress? When will you know if Tidal Connect will be implemented?thanks

Now we are applying to being a Tidal Connect partner, (the partnership is different from Tidal API partners) once Tidal approved our application, we could evaluate the possibilities with mini-i Pro 3. So it's too early to discuss the progress of implementation. If I have more information, I will keep you guys updated.

 

[Zog]

@MatrixAudio Oh I am so sorry! Please accept my apologies for misunderstanding. Any chance to keep us updated on the progress? When will you know if Tidal Connect will be implemented?thanks

I am a happy MA customer. No need for Tidal or any 'implementation'. Just buy the product and play your music.

 

[vid4inyay]

I am a happy MA customer. No need for Tidal or any 'implementation'. Just buy the product and play your music.

I believe that people all over the world are waiting when MA will finish Roon certification and implement Tidal connect to buy that product, at least I know 3 of them in my country (including me). So I would say it's a must for mini-i 3 series, as it has limited MA player lite and only Roon and Tidal are only options to stream high quality content.
Hence, dear @MatrixAudio please finalize Roon certification and adopt to Tidal connect as soon as possible and you will see increased interest for you product.
Thanks

 

[MatrixAudio]

I believe that people all over the world are waiting when MA will finish Roon certification and implement Tidal connect to buy that product, at least I know 3 of them in my country (including me). So I would say it's a must for mini-i 3 series, as it has limited MA player lite and only Roon and Tidal are only options to stream high quality content.
Hence, dear @MatrixAudio please finalize Roon certification and adopt to Tidal connect as soon as possible and you will see increased interest for you product.
Thanks

We will get Roon certification for sure, please don't worry.

Till now we haven't get any technical details about Tidal Connect, so it's not sure if it could be integrated to any of our products by firmware update. Please be patient.
Thanks for taking care of Matrix.

 

[donmiller714]

I THINK I HAVE IT FIGURED OUT!!!

I had an old macbook 13" from god knows when (very old), but I was able to load Roon Bridge on it. After that, I took the USB out to the Mini-i Pro 3. In Roon, it showed both the mackbook AND the Mini-i!!!! Looks like fully configurable as well! I am now streaming Tidal from Roon over the network to the Mac/Mini-i Pro 3!!!! With Full MQA decoding and lovely numbers for the frequency!!!

So there's your work around until MA get certified!

...now if only the squidgy graphics issues in Roon, like blank screen on resize and funky UI artifacts get fixed, we're good to go!!!

 

[donmiller714]

Sure we take care of every customers words, we are following up Roon Labs about Roon tests everyday, but they do not respond to us everyday.
We are doing the 3rd round of firmware modification where address to last few of small bugs. But we have no exact time frame of finishing the certification. Sorry for the inconvenience, We tried our best to speed up on it.

Thanks! I understand and appreciate the effort you're going through, and putting up with S-heads like me who don't know enough about the domain yet! I was able to add an old macbook as a roon bridge and use the USB out to the mini-i and it seems to be working! This will get me through the wait for roon ready certs. Thanks! So far it's a great product (and no longer want to return it!!! :-D)

 

[donmiller714]

Does anyone know what the magenta MQA light indicates? I get the blue dot playing through a roon bridge and tidal, but the manual doesn't clearly indicate what magenta is for. Oddly enough, all the other stages in the signal path use magenta, until we get to MQA Full Decoder stage, where it's blue; I think blue indicates an authenticated MQA stream as also indicated by the "MQA Studio..." designation. HOW DO I GET MAGENTA AND DO I WANT IT?

 

[Wolvebain]

@donmiller714 I can't comment on the blue-dot yet (only getting Mini-i Pro 3 next week)... maybe try a 192kHz/24bit Master

 

[mdl]

We will get Roon certification for sure, please don't worry.

Till now we haven't get any technical details about Tidal Connect, so it's not sure if it could be integrated to any of our products by firmware update. Please be patient.
Thanks for taking care of Matrix.

Thank you matrix audio!! We appreciate your efforts ...I might write an email to tidal and ask to speed up their support ) works both ways