Matrix Element X2 Streamer Review

[Joachim Herbert]

I expected state of the art at this price point. Not half way there. Companies just get lost once they enter that "luxury" segment. Disappointing. Nice feature set, though.

 

[BR52]

The digital input count is great. HDMI arc, seems they listen to the customers. Price.......

 

[BR52]

I have a new test where I show the distortion level at various levels by adjusting the volume control (instead of input digital levels in the past):



Is it possible to enter few levels manually? Because time tells nothing only the turnig speed Edit: And hopefully is constant.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Thanks, @amirm !

One could have better separates (streamer + DAC + preamplifier) for the half price.

Except these are... separates. The all point of these kind of Streamer/DAC/Headamp combo is to be all-in-one.

If this was sub 1k USD it would be acceptable

Absolutely no way that such a packed unit at this level of build quality would retail for <1k$.

But I agree for the rest: while I'm perfectly fine with the 118dB SINAD, @MatrixAudio should have pay more attention to details... ESS Hump with one of both channels, in particular, is clearly a miss.

About Jitter, it's not great either, but maybe some DPLL settings could fix that, as I found in my measurements of the Matrix X-SABRE 3.

 

[restorer-john]

I applaud Matrix’s audacity for pricing this thing the way they have, but anyone who actually pays this price, needs their head read.

 

[muslhead]

Excellent performance but from a Matrix fan (and multi unit owner) I am disappointed to see the new model performance decline from past versions.
No need to mention pricing as it has been covered by virtually every comment written before me.

 

[Sokel]

New volume test is super nice!
The device itself not so much in some aspects.

Thanks Amir!

 

[Count Arthur]

Regarding HDMI ARC, if, like me, you have to google to find out what it is, you probably don't need it.

 

[ferongr]

Not resample everything to 48 kHz?

What are the audible benefits of that?

 

[voodooless]

What are the audible benefits of that?

Probably very little, but if people ask, I answer

 

[Snoopy]

Hdmi ARC Is nice. But not even for 2k would I consider spending this much money.

 

[Veri]

@amirm about the filters you mean you're surprised about the "low" level of attenuation right? I believe you wrote high attenuation by mistake.

Thanks for the review!

 

[tktran303]

Not resample everything to 48 kHz?

You dead serious? Come now there must be more to it.

Virtually everything you watch (or hear) has been resampled at (m)any point.

 

[delta76]

Not bad but slightly disappointing measurements of the preamplifier section, especially for the price of $4399. One could have better separates (streamer + DAC + preamplifier) for the half price.

Integrated is one selling point of this, not many people, especially at luxury segment want a complexity of 3 individual devices.

 

[beagleman]

IF this is what it costs to do this "Stuff" quite good, than an AVR should be what....uh.....$15,000 or so?

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

There are many good things in there like low distortion, good volume control, lots of clean power for the headphone amp, streaming, and ARC.

But a shame some bad things passed under their radar like preamp performance, jitter bands, filter ripples and output impedance of the headphone amp.

If this was sub 1k USD it would be acceptable, but for over 4k....

You're right it is not flawless, however for the "all-in-one" class product like this one, it might be one of the best if not the best this website has measured, in all price brackets.

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

Excellent performance but from a Matrix fan (and multi unit owner) I am disappointed to see the new model performance decline from past versions.
No need to mention pricing as it has been covered by virtually every comment written before me.

To me it looks like Matrix is trying to swing both ways with their customer targets
They made cheaper, audibly transparent products to satisfy objective-based customers
Then they make way more expensive, hi-end looking pieces to serve rich audiophile's TOTL craves
At the very least this one is still a respectable product, I've seen worse from bigger brands (Hegel is an example)

 

[AndreaT]

As I read the 2019 Matrix Element X review, I am left puzzled by the slight worsening of many parameters of the X2: filters, jitter, and overall glitch-free performance were better 4 years ago. Is this the new Denon’s School of thought: higher price and lower performance? Interestingly, in 2019 there were also two USB inputs instead of one.
Thank you Amir for the excellent review!

 

[Gio]

I'm convinced that Topping or someone else can do something similar at 1/10 the price.

 

[bt3]

Priced for bragging rights peeps on Audiogon and like, but for rational reasoning hobbyists like many of us - nyet.