Matrix Audio Element X - issue

[Bamyasi]

Hi manisandher, we fixed the issue. The new firmware is available for download now.
The mesurement digram is shown below.
Thanks for reporting this issue to us.

View attachment 54098

Does this bug affect X-SABRE Pro (MQA) DAC?

 

[MatrixAudio]

Does this bug affect X-SABRE Pro (MQA) DAC?

Unfortunately, yes.
Firmware update has been released.
https://www.matrix-digi.com/en/news/20200323484.html

 

[beefkabob]

Good service! You guys and minidsp should team up.

 

[manisandher]

I'm glad that MA managed to get the filter issue resolved. Unfortunately, it was too late for me as I had already returned my Element X to the dealer by the time the firmware update was released.

I don't feel that I really got to hear the Element X at its best playing back non-MQA files (as it seemed to be 'stuck' on its MQA filter). Certainly, I much preferred the sound of my regular DAC playing back such files. Was this down to the X using an MQA filter with non-MQA material? Perhaps.

One thing that I will say (that might ruffle a few feathers here) is that I much preferred the sound of the X via its USB input over its ethernet input. And yes, I'm fully aware that playing test tones, the X's output measures pretty much identically in both cases.) But there's no bias on my part, as I'm totally indifferent to one input sounding better than another. However, the USB sounded clearly superior to me.

Mani.

 

[Archsam]

I just took delivery of a Element X and I am having problems playing normal 2.8MHz DSF files via wifi / dlna. The sound is stuttering every half second which makes the music unlistenable.

I have run a firmware update via the MA Remote (version B31301) and I am pushing music files via BubbleUPnP.

Anyone who has insight into this will be much appreciated.

Sam

 

[Bamyasi]

I just took delivery of a Element X and I am having problems playing normal 2.8MHz DSF files via wifi / dlna. The sound is stuttering every half second which makes the music unlistenable

Have you tried using wired Ethernet connection instead?

 

[Archsam]

Ethernet connection works fine, no issues. So the problem is somewhere in the wireless signal path - anywhere between my NAS and the unit.

I can't use a wired connection in the long term because there is a doorway separating my router and my hifi setup. The Element X's wireless connection is one of the major reason I picked it in the first place.

I will get in touch with Matrix Audio and see if they can help.

BTW the sound quality is amazing coming from my speakers, compared to my old Benchmark DAC1..

 

[amirm]

If you have an Android phone or tablet, you can use a Wifi analysis tool to see what the signal strength is near the streamer. I use Wifi analyzer. If you are using a consumer Access Point, I suggest getting something better (e.g. Unifi although they are hard to use). Pretty sure your problem is signal quality/strange and nothing wrong with the streamer.

Also make sure the polarization is the same for both the streamer antenna and AP.

 

[Archsam]

If you have an Android phone or tablet, you can use a Wifi analysis tool to see what the signal strength is near the streamer. I use Wifi analyzer. If you are using a consumer Access Point, I suggest getting something better (e.g. Unifi although they are hard to use). Pretty sure your problem is signal quality/strange and nothing wrong with the streamer.

Also make sure the polarization is the same for both the streamer antenna and AP.

Thanks Amirm for the tip on Wifi analyser - just downloaded it and I ran a check where the wifi antenna is - the signal strength is nearly as strong as directly around the router. The streamer is placed less than 1.5m from the router so it's not a surprise there.

My hunch at the moment is on network setup, and potentially the firewall in the NAS and possibly the dlna configuration in the Element X. Will keep looking and also see what suggestions Matrix's staff can offer.

 

[Archsam]

A happy update - I managed to work around the dlna issue by successfully connecting my NAS drive directly to the MA player app and access my music files directly from there. I can now play my DSF files smoothly, with only the occasional hiccup happening only once or twice per song. By that definition I would say it is a 90% improvement?

So here are a few things I learned:

• The stutter / lag is not caused by a slow wifi connection, which I through was the case from the start. Hi-res PCM / DSF playback uses just below 3Mbps bandwidth according to the media player's readout, this is roughly the same / slightly less than the bandwidth required to stream a full HD video. I never had issues with streaming full HD Netflex from the internet, or streaming local HD movie files from my NAS to my Cambridge CXU before, so I know my wifi network speed can support the stream.
• When I reviewed the dlna renderer profile of the Element X on BubbleUPnP it lacks the options other renderers have (e.g. Chromecast). I am not sure why that is, perhaps it is due to the dlna software implementation of the player? My CXU for example has options to control how to deal with file types that is not native to the player when pushed towards it, whether transcoding is done or not, etc. I'm guessing there is a time delay along the network signal path between the dlna client (NAS) and the renderer (Element X), whether it is a firewall setting in the router or any time delay caused by the client / rendered. Without further investigation I cannot tell where this is occuring.
• I am not an IT expert, but in my research I have seen plenty of similar discussions about signal lag experienced by AV and gamers, Without further documentation I cannot try port forwarding the Element X, for example, which is a trick some people suggested.

I am happily listening to my 'new' system now and it is a noticeable improvement over my Benchmark DAC1. Even as I listen casually the clarity and improvement to the base (tighter yet also fuller) are the biggest headlines.

 

[Archsam]

Since my last entry over a week ago I was still experiencing audio dropouts when I play music via wifi. I have been in touch with Matrix's tech support, as well as doing my own tinkering / research on network streaming.

I have finally resolved the issue last night, so I thought I will share my experience with you all. Hopefully it might help others who experienced network related streaming issues - from what I read online this is a very common problem with hifi / AV network streaming, and it's very difficult to find any useful information online other than people suggesting weak wifi signal / network speed.

Network Speed
As I stated earlier my network speed is good - see attached speedtest result I carried out this morning:

I have also done a wifi strength check with an android app on my phone (wifi analyzer) by placing the phone on top of the Element X. The signal strength is nearly as good as when I measured directly in front of my router. I have placed my router on top of a bookshelf to help maximising the signal. The straight line distance between the router and the Element X is only a little over 2m with only an ikea shelf panel between the router and the player. So I concluded that wifi strength is not the issue.

Route Setting
My ISP is BT and my router is supplied by them (model: BT Smart Hub 2). It is quite a new model but the features are a little basic compared to other models. For example it does not allow me to assign a different name to the 2.4Ghz network vs. 5.0Ghz, so I cannot have control over which device is connected to which network. I noted the Element X has a dual band wifi antenna, but I cannot control (or restrict) which network it is connected to. I will suggest in their future firmware / products it will be good to have user control on the network / frequency selection, to manually select 2.4 vs 5.0 vs. automatic switching?

Another thing that may or may not helped is the wifi channel both networks are connected to. I downloaded the 'Wifi Analyzer' app on my laptop, and it can tell me the relative strength of each channel available. The BT Smart Hub 2 by default has a 'smart' setting, which scans the available frequency channels and will automatically switch to the strongest channel available. So instead of letting the router jump around (and potentially causes dropout in the signal the moment it switches channel) I worked out the more stable channels through observation (in my case it was channel 6 for the 2.4GHz network, and channel 44 for the 5GHz network) and set the router to that specific channel only.

Network Setting
All the network settings appeared ok. UPnP is switched on. The Element X is assigned to DHCP, and is recognised on the network with a fixed IP address. I turned off some 'smart' router features that might caused unnecessary delays to the data transfer - I cannot tell you if this actually helped, but it will not hurt! There is no port forwarding assigned to the Element X but I supposed this is done automatically by DHCP anyway? So after checking everything I described above I left the router alone.

Element X Setting
Going through the player's configurations I came across the DPLL bandwidth setting. Having learned what DPLL does I tried all 3 settings (low, normal, high), and none of them made a difference in the dropout I experienced (the high setting does not introduce less dropouts, nor the low setting introduce more). After that I left the setting at 'normal'.

Next I tried disconnecting the NAS from the MA remote app and re-connect. That did not improve the dropouts in playback.

Hard Reset
Having done all the above, and with no obvious clues in terms of problems with the router / player settings, I decided to do a hard reset on both the router and the player. I unplugged both devices and left them off for 5 minutes. First I powered up the router, and once it rebooted and established connection, I then plug in the Element X. It turned on and took less than a minute to reconnect to the wifi network. Then the MA player stated it is not connected to the NAS so I let it re-scan and rebuild the library. When that was all done I played music via wifi and the audio dropouts stopped. Excellent!

My guess as to what happened? When I first received the player less than 2 weeks ago it took a few attempts to connect the Element X with my wifi network (I followed the instruction to use the MA remote, etc). I recalled having to do it 3 times before the player established a connection. I now wondered if the initial aborted attempts may have caused a connection issue with the router? The hard reset may have wiped the cache clean and the router / player can then make a 'clean' connection? I also suspected it really helped to set the router fixed to the strongest network frequency channel in your home. There are lots of information out there that explains how to choose between 2.4 vs 5GHz networks so I won't get into it here.

I don't know why but prior to my 'fix' I also experienced dropouts when I played files from a USB memory stick as well. This should not happen since direct playback from the Element X's USB port should have no relevance with network related issues. I haven't tried USB memory playback yet today but if there are still issues I will report back.

 

[MatrixAudio]

Dear @Archsam ,
Thanks for sharing your detailed experiences and tests.
If you need to connect element X to your WiFi router over 5GHz signal, you should check the router settings if it broadcasts SSID with 2.4GHz and 5GHz separately. As I know some of the router broadcasts it's SSID 2 different frequency signal at 1 single SSID, and it will detect the signal strength to decide which frequency will be applied. So you cannot recognize the frequency by the SSID.
I don't know if your router is allowed to set the different SSID to indicate different frequencies. If so, you will find 2 SSID in MA Remote app when configuring Wi-Fi connection.

Regarding DPLL bandwidth settings, it only valid for USB, IIS, toslink and coaxial inputs.

 

[Borghesi]

Hi Borghesi, thank you very much. We are good now, both the matrix team and the relatives. we started full time work since last week. Now element series and X-SABRE Pro MQA are all in stock now.

Hi Matrix Audio Team,
now I have recived my new Matrix X. It looks good and sounds as good as I expected since I already have an OPPO 205 which sounds very similar.
I bought the matrix X because I was looking for some details the OPPO not have e.g. the manual nob to control the volume.....
But unfortunatly I experianced some behavier (from the MA Remote) what is not realy satisfying for me (maybe I have overseen something to setup !?) :
1.) If I play a song from my NAS (conectec via Ethernet) the next song not starts automaticlly (All songs are in subdirectories/Albums). So it is not possible to hear continusly music.
2.) The second is: if I enter a subdirectory /Album (I have about 140 wave-Albums on the NAS) and go back to the main-folder (e.g. all WAVE Albums) the indication jumps back to the first subdirectory / Album in the list (Album with the letter A), this behavier is not really convinient specially if you are in a Album with the letter at the end of the alphabet. It means if I looking for songs enter and left e.g. Album R then I dont want to start again with Album A. It is logical to continue at the same location where entered Album R so that the next Album would be e.g. Album S.
3.) The third issue would be to have the possibility to stream music from the internet but without to be dependent on a streaming service like tidal. It
would be nice to have the possibility to connect to some nice radio stations like www.solopianoradio.com (with embaded passwort if member).
The third point is not so important because I have a logitech internet radio what I can conect to the element X. But very important would be issue 1.) and 2.).
In the moment I have the firmaware version B21201

 

[MatrixAudio]

Hi Matrix Audio Team,
now I have recived my new Matrix X. It looks good and sounds as good as I expected since I already have an OPPO 205 which sounds very similar.
I bought the matrix X because I was looking for some details the OPPO not have e.g. the manual nob to control the volume.....
But unfortunatly I experianced some behavier (from the MA Remote) what is not realy satisfying for me (maybe I have overseen something to setup !?) :
1.) If I play a song from my NAS (conectec via Ethernet) the next song not starts automaticlly (All songs are in subdirectories/Albums). So it is not possible to hear continusly music.
2.) The second is: if I enter a subdirectory /Album (I have about 140 wave-Albums on the NAS) and go back to the main-folder (e.g. all WAVE Albums) the indication jumps back to the first subdirectory / Album in the list (Album with the letter A), this behavier is not really convinient specially if you are in a Album with the letter at the end of the alphabet. It means if I looking for songs enter and left e.g. Album R then I dont want to start again with Album A. It is logical to continue at the same location where entered Album R so that the next Album would be e.g. Album S.
3.) The third issue would be to have the possibility to stream music from the internet but without to be dependent on a streaming service like tidal. It
would be nice to have the possibility to connect to some nice radio stations like www.solopianoradio.com (with embaded passwort if member).
The third point is not so important because I have a logitech internet radio what I can conect to the element X. But very important would be issue 1.) and 2.).
In the moment I have the firmaware version B21201

Dear Borghesi
Thanks for puechasing Matrix products.
1) If these music files have complete metadata in it, they would be sorted as every albums separately in music library, please browse these albums in Library, and tap Play All button. If you want to find music files in File tab, you can operate the folder, in the submenu of the folder browser, there is a "Play all" option, thus you can play all the tracks in this folder.

2) we will study it and try to fix it.
3) we are trying to integrate some internet radio in our product, but have not reach out a mainstream internet radio provider yet.

By the way, the latest firmware version should be B51501. you can manage to update it.

 

[Borghesi]

Hi Matrix Audio Team,
thanks a lot for the really fast answer and the attached picture (one picture says more than thousend words...).
1). Yes I have I seen and used the "Play all" option above, it is good to play an complete subfolder like a CD. I have several subfolder with hundreds of songs (mostly without metadata). Sometimes I like to start maybe with song nr 128 but than only song nr 128 will be played. It would be good if the playing would continue with 129, 130, 131 ..... without to stop directly after song nr 128. Maybe this function would not work good togehter with idea of the options "play next" and "Add to the end of queue" !?. Anyway, for me a similar function or an alternative is the playlist - with the disadvantage that it needs more time to select maybe 30 Songs and send them step by step to the playlist. For the playlist it would be a great improvement if it would be possible to select a number of songs and send them togehter to the playlist. Maybe the clef sign on the left side of the songtitle could be used to mark songtitles. Then all marked songtitles cold be send togehter to a playlist or could be played directly with "Play next".
One more word to the playlist (a very useful function). Maybe you can allow blanks or other special signs for separate the name of a Playlist. This would help to read the name of the Playlist a little bit better.
Thankyou also for the advice about the update, yesterday night after I wrot my message to you, I have seen that there is a update. Now I allready have installed it (I apreciate that you realy work hard to improve your units - and not leave the costomers alone with problems !).

 

[MatrixAudio]

Hi Matrix Audio Team,
thanks a lot for the really fast answer and the attached picture (one picture says more than thousend words...).
1). Yes I have I seen and used the "Play all" option above, it is good to play an complete subfolder like a CD. I have several subfolder with hundreds of songs (mostly without metadata). Sometimes I like to start maybe with song nr 128 but than only song nr 128 will be played. It would be good if the playing would continue with 129, 130, 131 ..... without to stop directly after song nr 128. Maybe this function would not work good togehter with idea of the options "play next" and "Add to the end of queue" !?. Anyway, for me a similar function or an alternative is the playlist - with the disadvantage that it needs more time to select maybe 30 Songs and send them step by step to the playlist. For the playlist it would be a great improvement if it would be possible to select a number of songs and send them togehter to the playlist. Maybe the clef sign on the left side of the songtitle could be used to mark songtitles. Then all marked songtitles cold be send togehter to a playlist or could be played directly with "Play next".
One more word to the playlist (a very useful function). Maybe you can allow blanks or other special signs for separate the name of a Playlist. This would help to read the name of the Playlist a little bit better.
Thankyou also for the advice about the update, yesterday night after I wrot my message to you, I have seen that there is a update. Now I allready have installed it (I apreciate that you realy work hard to improve your units - and not leave the costomers alone with problems !).

Got it, I will report your advices to the developers. Thank you.

 

[chi2]

Dear Matrix Audio team,
Since today I've got an Element X too and I miss the same feature as @Borghesi . When choosing play all in a Tidal playlist or even in an album the player software always starts with the very first song. When starting from a specific song the player without exception stops when the song is finished. I would certainly expect it to continue with the next song in line.
Moreover, when trying to jump to the next song in the 'single song view', again in a Tidal playlist or album, the software stops the playback completely and displays the message "not playing" which is spot on .
This way streaming from Tidal is near useless to me and I have to go back to using the Tidal app with USB input. As I have purchased the Element X specifically to have a wireless streaming possibility this is quite a disappointment. So I would much appreciate if you could change these two behaviors in one of the next firmware versions.
Thanks a bunch in advance. Cheers, Urs

 

[Archsam]

I also have the same experiences as above.

I can add one more odd behaviour with the player - when I play a high rez album (say 24/96) sometimes when a track ends it gets stuck and won't start playing the next song - looking at the player app the song being played is stuck oscillating between 0:00 and 0:01. If I touch the progress bar the music will resume

This apparently happens to high rez PCM files only, and not DSD files

 

[MatrixAudio]

This way streaming from Tidal is near useless to me and I have to go back to using the Tidal app with USB input. As I have purchased the Element X specifically to have a wireless streaming possibility this is quite a disappointment. So I would much appreciate if you could change these two behaviors in one of the next firmware versions.
Thanks a bunch in advance. Cheers, Urs

I also have the same experiences as above.
This apparently happens to high rez PCM files only, and not DSD files

Hello guys,
Sorry for the inconvenience. I will submit your feedback to our debug system, hope the technical guys can give some advice.
Thank you.

 

[chi2]

Hello Cao Wei,
Thanks for taking care. Much appreciated.