Review and Measurements of Matrix Audio Element X DAC/Streamer/Amp

[Archsam]

I bought this from eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Dual...oth-BT4-0-NGFF-867Mbps-Wifi-Card/254390069646
No need to solder anything at all - you'll need just few type of screwdrivers only



I just fixed a manufacturer's mistake. (at my cost!)
By the way I contacted with MA support and asked a permission before the procedure. So in my case I guess the warranty is still alive.

I just bought the same wifi card from ebay, shipping from China and will take a few weeks to arrive here in UK.

I also have been experiencing drop out problems with streaming DSF files from my NAS via hifi. In the past I was able to reboot the router and the Element X together and the drop out issue goes away. But after a recent power disruption the drop out returned, and this time I have yet to resolve the drop out issue.

When the wifi card arrive I will get in touch with Matrix Audio and get their permission for me to swap out the card and see if it helps.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[neukrisz]

...When the wifi card arrive I will get in touch with Matrix Audio and get their permission for me to swap out the card and see if it helps.
...!

Sadly it didn't help me, but I'm "happy" to know that someone else also experienced my problem.
I'm waiting for a fix of this WiFi dropout problem by firmware update from MA!

 

[Archsam]

Sadly it didn't help me, but I'm "happy" to know that someone else also experienced my problem.
I'm waiting for the fix of this WiFi dropout problems by firmware update from MA!

The Wi-Fi card only costed £12, so I don't mind giving it a try.

There is another thread where I documented my effect in eliminating the issue (see here). It's just unfortunate that the bug has returned after an power outage last week and I can't seem to get it fixed this time.

 

[Kesi]

MA Remote (iPad) Playback problem :
Video : Jumping issue
The phenomenon is absolutely same from my iPhone too. Doesn't matter if the source is Tidal or SMB share and over LAN or WiFi. The version of MA Remote app is the latest available.
Could someone else confirm same thing on his system?

I have the same issue on my unit and MA Remote (latest version). I use my apple pencil to drag the slider. Very annoying. Hopefully they will fix this.

 

[Kesi]

This is one of my problems:
I had same issue before with the original WiFi card too: Video
I thought the faster card will solve this problem I was wrong...

I have now very strong 867Mbps connection between the Asus AC86U Router and the Element X, but there are interruptions (drop off) during playback.
(the distance is no more than 4 meters without any physical barriers)
Other devices with same environment can streams 4K HDR videos easily over WiFi without any problems. (the continuous and stable speed of copy between the NAS and my laptop is around 75MB/s over WiFi (which is 600Mbps))
I think something is wrong with the Wireless part of this unit... Maybe the buffering size of WiFi is wrongly set.
Same playback over the Ethernet is OK!

I have the same issue before, constant drop off and lag using the old firmware. The latest firmware and MA Remote fixed the issue for me.

 

[Archsam]

I'm still on FW B51501, kept clicking on 'Check for update' but the app keeps saying I am up to date. Any way to force the FW update?

 

[Kesi]

I'm still on FW B51501, kept clicking on 'Check for update' but the app keeps saying I am up to date. Any way to force the FW update?

Uninstall the existing MA remote App first, then install it again thru Playstore or App Store. Once the app is re-installed, update the unit’s firmware thru the MA Remote app. Works for me.

 

[raykkho]

I'm still on FW B51501, kept clicking on 'Check for update' but the app keeps saying I am up to date. Any way to force the FW update?

Same here

 

[raykkho]

Uninstall the existing MA remote App first, then install it again thru Playstore or App Store. Once the app is re-installed, update the unit’s firmware thru the MA Remote app. Works for me.

Tried that a few times, no difference.

I am running Android, my MA app version downloaded from Play Store is 2.1.5, which version are you guys using?

 

[Archsam]

Tried that a few times, no difference.

I am running Android, my MA app version downloaded from Play Store is 2.1.5, which version are you guys using?

Yep I'm running 2.1.5 as well

 

[somy]

I have iOS version 1.4.1 and firmware version B61601

 

[raykkho]

As a test I found an old iPhone 6, running iOS 12, installed the app. Found the X and identified the FW upgrade needed, but promptly dropped connection after. Everytime is the same, nothing can be done.

 

[Archsam]

I got this message this morning from Matrix Audio, regarding my query on the possible DIY replacement of the wifi card:

According to problem, this situation you encountered is a typical phenomenon caused by poor network speed, we do not suggest you to install a AC WiFi card .
Here, we have some suggestions:

1. Try to restart router and restart element, to restart element must unplug the power cord.
2. If you currently use 2.4G band, please switch to 5G band; if you currently use 5G band, please switch to use 2.4G band WIFI to try.
3. Please check whether there is a setting to limit the network speed in the router.
4. Please try to use other wireless routers(maybe a higer level), to see whether there is any improvement.
5. Please connect through LAN cable to have a try, don't remember to switch WiFi to LAN in setting menu.

So basically they don't want me to tinker with the card myself.

Edit: I posted in another thread (link here) where I have tested my network setup and the range of the router from the Element X, and all seemed fine.
It worked until it didn't.

 

[somy]

I got this message this morning from Matrix Audio, regarding my query on the possible DIY replacement of the wifi card:

According to problem, this situation you encountered is a typical phenomenon caused by poor network speed, we do not suggest you to install a AC WiFi card .
Here, we have some suggestions:

1. Try to restart router and restart element, to restart element must unplug the power cord.
2. If you currently use 2.4G band, please switch to 5G band; if you currently use 5G band, please switch to use 2.4G band WIFI to try.
3. Please check whether there is a setting to limit the network speed in the router.
4. Please try to use other wireless routers(maybe a higer level), to see whether there is any improvement.
5. Please connect through LAN cable to have a try, don't remember to switch WiFi to LAN in setting menu.

So basically they don't want me to tinker with the card myself.

Edit: I posted in another thread (link here) where I have tested my network setup and the range of the router from the Element X, and all seemed fine.
It worked until it didn't.

Sorry to hear that - we need to see what MA suggest to do. Maybe they want to recall the products and make the changes in factory? Anyways as others have pointed out that it is simply not Ok just to change the spec on their website if they care about their reputation.

 

[neukrisz]

I got this message this morning from Matrix Audio, regarding my query on the possible DIY replacement of the wifi card:

According to problem, this situation you encountered is a typical phenomenon caused by poor network speed, we do not suggest you to install a AC WiFi card .
Here, we have some suggestions:

1. Try to restart router and restart element, to restart element must unplug the power cord.
2. If you currently use 2.4G band, please switch to 5G band; if you currently use 5G band, please switch to use 2.4G band WIFI to try.
3. Please check whether there is a setting to limit the network speed in the router.
4. Please try to use other wireless routers(maybe a higer level), to see whether there is any improvement.
5. Please connect through LAN cable to have a try, don't remember to switch WiFi to LAN in setting menu.

So basically they don't want me to tinker with the card myself.

Edit: I posted in another thread (link here) where I have tested my network setup and the range of the router from the Element X, and all seemed fine.
It worked until it didn't.

This is a very annoying situation!
- [10] I bought a device with clearly stated AC WiFi support, but in reality it originally has N card only.
- In my really high performance WiFi environment this device cannot performing well however I measured really stable WiFi N connection (5GHz, 300Mbps Tx/Rx)
- I was the first who found the difference between the N vs. AC inside a device and reported this and asked again the compatibility with AC WiFi from the manufacturer who confirmed that - So I bought an appropriate type of card and replaced. (Meantime the MA has been modified the their specs from AC to N only)
- Now I have much faster and also stable WiFi AC connection (5GHz, 867Mbps Tx/Rx) but the phenomenon of the issue is the same as before
- Now the manufacturer suggested to use 2.4GHz N WiFi radio (150Mbps) instead of the 5Ghz which is NONSENSE since I don't use 2.4GHz radios at all few years ago!!! (Do you remember??? I bought a device with specified AC WiFi... [goto 10])


IMHO the real problem is still in the MA side - somewhere in the WiFi handling software inside of the device... (I just really hope that isn't in their hardware - so could it be fixed with a firmware update...)
I'm an IT expert so I'm pretty sure that my WiFi system has no any "poor network speed" issue at all! All of my other devices with (much) higher bitrate playback working well - except this Element X...

 

[chi2]

Have the same situation and got the same recommendation by the MA support. As with you, it can't be the wifi extender as it has high and stable troughput. (I purchased a sota new one because of the issues, same problem as with the older one). No other of my devices (Laptop, iPhone, iPad, Android phone and pad) has any troubles with wireless data transfer. Streaming Tidal MQA content works smoothly on all. Therefore, if it is not the (n instead of ac) wifi card that causes the bottleneck there must be a software related problem in the element x. Matrix Audio, please address it!

 

[Archsam]

Last night I tried my old tricks and rebooted my router and then the Element X. 2 hours and 3 attempts later the skipping persisted (it took a long time to re-index the database from my NAS after every reboot).

So after my third unsuccessful reboot I reset the wifi connection by pressing down the large knob for 5 seconds and the Element X goes into WLAN setup mode. After a 4th reboot (both router and Element X) the playback have finally stablized this morning (so far.....).

I 100% agreed this is software related, because I have enjoyed long stretches of glitch free playback, but when the wireless connect start acting up it is tricky to bring it back to a happy place.

Playing DSF 64 files uses under 3mb/s of data, this is less than the amount required to stream 1080p movies from my NAS, and I never have problem doing that on other devices.

 

[raykkho]

This is a very annoying situation!
- [10] I bought a device with clearly stated AC WiFi support, but in reality it originally has N card only.
- In my really high performance WiFi environment this device cannot performing well however I measured really stable WiFi N connection (5GHz, 300Mbps Tx/Rx)
- I was the first who found the difference between the N vs. AC inside a device and reported this and asked again the compatibility with AC WiFi from the manufacturer who confirmed that - So I bought an appropriate type of card and replaced. (Meantime the MA has been modified the their specs from AC to N only)
- Now I have much faster and also stable WiFi AC connection (5GHz, 867Mbps Tx/Rx) but the phenomenon of the issue is the same as before
- Now the manufacturer suggested to use 2.4GHz N WiFi radio (150Mbps) instead of the 5Ghz which is NONSENSE since I don't use 2.4GHz radios at all few years ago!!! (Do you remember??? I bought a device with specified AC WiFi... [Go to 10])


IMHO the real problem is still in the MA side - somewhere in the WiFi handling software inside of the device... (I just really hope that isn't in their hardware - so could it be fixed with a firmware update...)
I'm an IT expert so I'm pretty sure that my WiFi system has no any "poor network speed" issue at all! All of my other devices with (much) higher bitrate playback working well - except this Element X...

@MatrixAudio is on this forum, they should take this opportunity to update their users on how they intend to address this issue, communication is the first step.

 

[neukrisz]

@MatrixAudio is on this forum, they should take this opportunity to update their users on how they intend to address this issue, communication is the first step.

It's OK.
I still trust in the MA Support...

 

[raykkho]

It's OK.
I still trust in the MA Support...

Yes they're good people with good product.