Micromega M100 Streamer/DAC Amplifier Review

[gatesgt]

This is a review and measurements of the Micromega M100 integrated amplifier with included DAC, EQ/Room Correction, streamer and phono input. It is on kind loan from a member. It is discontinued but while it was a going concern, it cost US $5,800.
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The M100 is nice looking and comes in a very dense, solid and wide/deep enclosure. The picture doesn't do it justice in this regard.

There are two graphic displays, one in the front and another above which I appreciated. User interface is a bit odd but you get used to it. Part of the complication comes from insane amount of connectivity:
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I wish the two HDMI connectors were NOT for I2S but for real HDMI. Other than that, you are covered with every sort of input and output and in balanced.

That niceness was forgotten while I struggled to connect all the cables as the top extends an inch or two, fully covering the sockets. This makes for a neat appearance but makes it impossible to plug anything while leaning on top of the unit. And don't make the mistake of using XLR plugs with locking level as you can plug them in, but your finger can't get in there to press the lever to unplug them! I had to use a screw driver to push the pins in to pull them out. For the rest of the cables, I had to put the unit on its top, connect the cables and then rotate it which made a bit of a mess of the cables.

After testing, I went to turn the unit off and noticed humming sound. There appears to be a fan in there with vents on left and right of the unit. Given the massive chuck of metal that the case is, and could act as a heat sink, i was surprised by this. But then again, even with that fan, the case was rather warm.

Micromega M100 Amplifier Measurements
Since there are XLR balanced pre-amp outputs, I decided to run a few tests of the internal DAC:
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For an integrated amplifier DAC, this is not bad:
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The unit has lots of output capability:
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And unlike AVRs, doesn't use any gain staging so higher volume maintains the same performance.

Dynamic range is naturally another "not bad:"
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Same story for wideband noise+distortion:
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Moving on to the amplifier, let's start with analog input:
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Strange bump in low frequencies which stayed there even with no input signal. Fortunately, it goes away with digital input:
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This is solid performance and a bit above average for all amps tested:
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Since digital performance is superior, for the rest of the tests I stayed with it.

I wish 5 watt performance was better:
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Frequency response test shows no load dependency which indicates some kind of class AB design:
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But the input is resampled down to 96 kHz which is fairly typical.

Fair bit of power is available on tap:
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Edit: forgot to include power vs frequency:
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Conclusions
The M100 brings style, solid build quality and excellent connectivity. Measured performance shows competence but nowhere close to state of the art. Fair amount of power is available as is much needed equalization. Price is up there but I suspect it is consistent with their marketing and distribution for an EU produced product.

No sense in recommending the M100 since it is discontinued. But if it weren't, it would be on my list for folks with more than a fast food budget for dinners.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Thanks for reviewing this amplifier! I own one and am very happy with it beyond the streaming issues. I did find that resetting firmware (10sec power button hold) fixed it temporarily, but even that was not reliable. After recently replacing my home router and going direct Ethernet to the amplifier, this worked for weeks but has now become unreliable. I believe the Olimex board that has the "brains" of the unit probably has a poorly developed or implemented network stack and this is causing most of the streaming issues owners have all seen.

 

[xaxxon]

That brand was always highly regarded in France, I'm very happy to see one of their products tested.
The design is neat, except for the apparently undispensable fan, which is a no no for me in any amp. The price is of course the real issue here, even though it was 3900€ in France.
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The white version looks even better imo

It looks like a bathroom scale :-\

 

[Karmacoma]

It looks like a bathroom scale :-\

Indeed lol, still sleek imo

 

[al2002]

The labels are actually underneath the box! I really don't know what they were thinking.

Amir, can you test the phono stage too ?

Thanks.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Decent performance, especially given the extensive feature set, but value for money is relatively low given the high price. I guess that fans of the brand might get their money’s worth. Given that, voted “fine.”