This is a review and detailed measurements of the Matrix Audio Mini-i Pro 3 balanced DAC, streamer and headphone amplifier. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me for testing and costs US $1,025.
The Pro 3 comes in the usual high quality casing from Matrix, weighing a lot relative to its size:
As you see the display is high resolution and shows a lot of information including album art and such. Pushing the rotary control lets you select input but for other settings, you need to press a rear button:
Notice use of USB-C for USB audio which we have rare (if ever?) seen in a desktop DAC. Balanced line level XLR is provided as well as headphone output. A slick remote control is supplied but with no battery so I did not use it.
Usability was fine but I did not care for the very slow changing volume control. It goes in half dB increments which is good but then it takes a ton of turning of the volume knob to adjust. There needs to be acceleration support when you turn the dial fast.
Roon endpoint is certified which is nice and how I tested streaming performance.
NOTE: out of the box the unit would keep cycling power on and off. Looking on the side, I realized the power setting was for 230 volts, not 120. Switching that to the right voltage for us solved the problem.
Matrix Mini-i Pro 3 Measurements (DAC)
As usual with combo devices, we start testing the DAC performance using XLR output and USB input. I adjusted the volume down 0.5 dB to get 4 volts out:
I expect competent performance from Matrix and that is what we get. Distortion is less -120 dB which is well below threshold of audibility. Noise level is a bit high (for class) though and that knocks the SINAD down to 112.5 dB:
Dynamic range is a bit lower than Matrix element i I tested last:
Testing for level dependency, we see that -0.5 dB is the best:
IMD test again shows excellent distortion but a bit "less good" noise floor:
A number of filters are provided:
Jitter performance is excellent:
As is linearity:
Multitone shows the natural rise with frequency but again, a hair worse than element i:
Matrix mini-i Pro 3 Measurements (streaming):
Dashboard test shows that the Pro 3 is inline with its USB input:
So I did not see the need to run more test. Note however that I had the network cable plugged in the whole time I ran the other tests above. So if it was going to cause interference, it would be reflected there.
Matrix mini-i Pro 3 Measurements (Headphone Amplifier)
Most important test here is power vs distortion and noise so let's start with 300 ohm, unbalanced 1/4 HP out:
Anything higher than 100 milliwatts is good. Pro 3 races past that to 267 milliwatts which should be plenty to drive high impedance headphones. If you need even more power, we can test for balanced headphone out:
So you really should not be concerned about driving high impedance headphones as far as power.
Noise floor is a bit high because there is only fixed gain of 18 dB. A low gain setting, had it existed, would have lowered this.
Switching to 32 ohm we get:
Matrix mini-i Pro 3 Listening Tests
As usual, I start listening tests with my Drop Ether CX headphone. There was no shortage of power and clear, high fidelity sound. I could not bear going to max volume (partially hindered by the slow volume control).
Results were the same with my Sennheiser HD-650 driven using unbalanced 1/4 HP out. There was a lot of power, dynamics, detail, etc.
Conclusions
As is typical of Matrix, proper engineering is used to design the system and verify the performance of mini-i Pro 3. Strong objective and subjective results are reflected here as a result. The only tiny negative I see is that the noise floor has regressed a bit relative to last generation product. I could not detect it in listening tests and dynamic range is still well above 16 bit however.
I am going to recommend the Matrix mini-i Pro 3. Yes, $1000 is a lot of money but you are getting a fully integrated high performance DAC and streamer. Hard to find a configuration like this cheaper.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The Pro 3 comes in the usual high quality casing from Matrix, weighing a lot relative to its size:
As you see the display is high resolution and shows a lot of information including album art and such. Pushing the rotary control lets you select input but for other settings, you need to press a rear button:
Notice use of USB-C for USB audio which we have rare (if ever?) seen in a desktop DAC. Balanced line level XLR is provided as well as headphone output. A slick remote control is supplied but with no battery so I did not use it.
Usability was fine but I did not care for the very slow changing volume control. It goes in half dB increments which is good but then it takes a ton of turning of the volume knob to adjust. There needs to be acceleration support when you turn the dial fast.
Roon endpoint is certified which is nice and how I tested streaming performance.
NOTE: out of the box the unit would keep cycling power on and off. Looking on the side, I realized the power setting was for 230 volts, not 120. Switching that to the right voltage for us solved the problem.
Matrix Mini-i Pro 3 Measurements (DAC)
As usual with combo devices, we start testing the DAC performance using XLR output and USB input. I adjusted the volume down 0.5 dB to get 4 volts out:
I expect competent performance from Matrix and that is what we get. Distortion is less -120 dB which is well below threshold of audibility. Noise level is a bit high (for class) though and that knocks the SINAD down to 112.5 dB:
Dynamic range is a bit lower than Matrix element i I tested last:
Testing for level dependency, we see that -0.5 dB is the best:
IMD test again shows excellent distortion but a bit "less good" noise floor:
A number of filters are provided:
Jitter performance is excellent:
As is linearity:
Multitone shows the natural rise with frequency but again, a hair worse than element i:
Matrix mini-i Pro 3 Measurements (streaming):
Dashboard test shows that the Pro 3 is inline with its USB input:
So I did not see the need to run more test. Note however that I had the network cable plugged in the whole time I ran the other tests above. So if it was going to cause interference, it would be reflected there.
Matrix mini-i Pro 3 Measurements (Headphone Amplifier)
Most important test here is power vs distortion and noise so let's start with 300 ohm, unbalanced 1/4 HP out:
Anything higher than 100 milliwatts is good. Pro 3 races past that to 267 milliwatts which should be plenty to drive high impedance headphones. If you need even more power, we can test for balanced headphone out:
So you really should not be concerned about driving high impedance headphones as far as power.
Noise floor is a bit high because there is only fixed gain of 18 dB. A low gain setting, had it existed, would have lowered this.
Switching to 32 ohm we get:
Matrix mini-i Pro 3 Listening Tests
As usual, I start listening tests with my Drop Ether CX headphone. There was no shortage of power and clear, high fidelity sound. I could not bear going to max volume (partially hindered by the slow volume control).
Results were the same with my Sennheiser HD-650 driven using unbalanced 1/4 HP out. There was a lot of power, dynamics, detail, etc.
Conclusions
As is typical of Matrix, proper engineering is used to design the system and verify the performance of mini-i Pro 3. Strong objective and subjective results are reflected here as a result. The only tiny negative I see is that the noise floor has regressed a bit relative to last generation product. I could not detect it in listening tests and dynamic range is still well above 16 bit however.
I am going to recommend the Matrix mini-i Pro 3. Yes, $1000 is a lot of money but you are getting a fully integrated high performance DAC and streamer. Hard to find a configuration like this cheaper.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/