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

Tarzan

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I wonder if they will make more affordable unit. Less inputs and outputs but the same performance. For example only usb and opt input and only 1 balanced headphone output. I wonder how much that could bring the cost down?
 

SimpleTheater

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Is there a good reason they didn’t include a 1/4 headphone jack?
 

Crane

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The two balanced plugs to the left are combo plugs, for balanced and 2x single end, I guess.

Yes they should be
Screenshot_20190612-020149~01.jpg
 

Zog

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Thanks for report Amir. I am not surprised at a good set of measurements as I have recently purchased their standalone DAC the the Matrix Audio X-Sabre, and it is an excellent bit of kit.
 
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amirm

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You need a new color bracket for this one. Since they seem to be organized in 10db sections, this is the first to step beyond the blue zone. I'm thinking violet or magenta for the 120db to 129db zone.
Yeh, it overflowed the previous graph and took me half hour to figure how to get Excel to show its value!

I don't know that we will have many more though.
 
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amirm

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amirm

amirm

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I see, would be nice to confirm it though as certain DACs can measure worse like the schiit/Benchmark one in linearity.
I don't want to run the full suite as it will take a lot of time (that I could use to review an entirely different product). So having the Dashboard and Linearity is good enough?
 
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amirm

amirm

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The two balanced plugs to the left are combo plugs, for balanced and 2x single end, I guess.
That's correct. The two in single-ended mode seems to have different drive as one had a tad better performance. Makes sense that they would use each half of the balanced drive that way.
 

SoundsGood2Me

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Thank You Amirm! I've been reading Stereophile since I was 12, and it took me 10+ years to figure out what all the graphs meant. Now they're the best part of the mag, to me. I work with RF, including "5G" (mostly just new bands, and some really clever add ons), and we measure Passive Intermodulation Distortion with gear that goes down to -174 dBm. I'm told that if -174 is the Moon, -1 dB is one meter! AT&T requires their antenna measurements to be at -150 dBm to pass specs, and I can attest to the nuisances we find (typically cell co-location interference). For these guys to get so much right in one box is amazing. Please keep up the Good Work, I'll try to chip in to help.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Thank You Amirm! I've been reading Stereophile since I was 12, and it took me 10+ years to figure out what all the graphs meant. Now they're the best part of the mag, to me. I work with RF, including "5G" (mostly just new bands, and some really clever add ons), and we measure Passive Intermodulation Distortion with gear that goes down to -174 dBm. I'm told that if -174 is the Moon, -1 dB is one meter! AT&T requires their antenna measurements to be at -150 dBm to pass specs, and I can attest to the nuisances we find (typically cell co-location interference). For these guys to get so much right in one box is amazing. Please keep up the Good Work, I'll try to chip in to help.
My pleasure. I did some RF work when growing up with electronics and repaired RF gear while going to college.

I am always stunned when I see the dbm numbers on cell phones and data rates we are able to push through them. "Small" signal does not do justice to it!
 

gvl

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With this kind of results, are we at theoretical limits of the current DAC tech already?
 

August

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Amazing! Unexpectedly, other products that can be compared with it, DAC8 8Ch can only be close to his level. This unit killed the game and was solid! Maybe vegaG2 might be close to it, but the price is twice his price.
 

Yviena

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I don't want to run the full suite as it will take a lot of time (that I could use to review an entirely different product). So having the Dashboard and Linearity is good enough?
Yeah it's fine, on another note I wonder how good the inbuilt sabre filters are, and if there are any shortcomings, I know that I'm sensitive to time domain performance, but I'm also relatively young only being 23 so YMMV.
 

MatrixAudio

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I wonder if they will make more affordable unit. Less inputs and outputs but the same performance. For example only usb and opt input and only 1 balanced headphone output. I wonder how much that could bring the cost down?
Hey guy, look at our official site, element M is a bit lower model, the same streamer section, but 9028 dac chip, unbalanced headphone amp, and digital volume control, etc.
We will also announce much lower streamer combo model and even stand-alone streamer model (with only digital output) in the future.
 
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