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

MarkD

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I would love to see this unit in a black color. All my gears are black and the color is the only stopper for me now. I hope Matrix will consider black color for such nice piece of audio gear.
 

hanabi

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I have owned this machine for half a year. The Roon support is excellent.
I would like to know if I add a THX 789 through XLR, will the SQ improve? since the THX 789 seems have a lower noise?
Thanks.
 

Noob

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I have owned this machine for half a year. The Roon support is excellent.
I would like to know if I add a THX 789 through XLR, will the SQ improve? since the THX 789 seems have a lower noise?
Thanks.
Unless you are powering HE6, Hifiman Susvara, Abyss AB1266, or another headphone similarly revealing and extremely difficult to drive, then I would say there is no way you would be able to tell a difference. The kind of headphones as power hungry as would be necessary to take advantage of the massive power in balanced mode on the 789 are extremely few. So unless you have one of those very few headphones that are extremely insensitive and require serious amounts of power like a Susvara, don’t waste your money.
 

lszomb

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I just registered and this is my first post. I has been reading this website for about a month. The reviews here were done in a very impressive way. With certain engineer and research background, I always try to find a "proper" way to measure the performance of HiFi equipments. I used to trust others' experience, read a lot of articles and magazines, or try to conclude from some pieces of testing data that was done here and there.

Majority of time, I did not make good decisions based on those evidence. I had tried to buy something with good Price/Performance values and fantastic subjective reviews. That normally ends up with getting craps. I also tried to pay more premium and hope I can get what I paid for. Yes, sometime I did get something looks better, however the design is still sux, UX is still such bad, the quality control is still nowhere comparing to the price.

Discovering ASR opens a new door for me. I immediately placed my order after reading this review. For the first time I felt such confident about it. I will receive my Element X soon. I hope I would have some good time with it.
 

Schackmannen

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I just registered and this is my first post. I has been reading this website for about a month. The reviews here were done in a very impressive way. With certain engineer and research background, I always try to find a "proper" way to measure the performance of HiFi equipments. I used to trust others' experience, read a lot of articles and magazines, or try to conclude from some pieces of testing data that was done here and there.

Majority of time, I did not make good decisions based on those evidence. I had tried to buy something with good Price/Performance values and fantastic subjective reviews. That normally ends up with getting craps. I also tried to pay more premium and hope I can get what I paid for. Yes, sometime I did get something looks better, however the design is still sux, UX is still such bad, the quality control is still nowhere comparing to the price.

Discovering ASR opens a new door for me. I immediately placed my order after reading this review. For the first time I felt such confident about it. I will receive my Element X soon. I hope I would have some good time with it.
Welcome, looks like you made a great purchase :)
 

gavin898

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What if Matrix can implement THX technology for the ampifier part into their next flagship product. Then it will definity be a beast product. I dont mind if the form factor of the combo be bigger.
 

manisandher

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I received an Element X last week, which I intend to use in my office system. Playing with it over the weekend, I couldn't really hear any difference between its 7 internal filters, so I decided to measure the output of each filter playing back 44.1 kHz white noise. To my surprise, on my particular unit, all the filters measure identically! They all have this 'soft' attenuation:

Element X filters 1-7 _ all identical.JPG

Compare this to my PCM1704-based DAC being fed the same signal:

HQP_NOS1 filter.JPG

Mine is a new unit, but perhaps needs a firmware update? Unfortunately, although the MA Remote app discovers the Element X on my network, it doesn't allow me to update the firmware.

On a brighter note, both MA Player and Roon work fine with the Element X. Oh... and it sounds pretty good, even with its 'leaky' filter ;-)

The jury is out whether I'm going to keep the Element X or return it to the dealer...

Mani.
 

Veri

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I received an Element X last week, which I intend to use in my office system. Playing with it over the weekend, I couldn't really hear any difference between its 7 internal filters, so I decided to measure the output of each filter playing back 44.1 kHz white noise. To my surprise, on my particular unit, all the filters measure identically! They all have this 'soft' attenuation:

That's rather odd. Amir tested at least 3 filters that should properly attenuate at 22Khz. Could it be that your source is already resampling in an improper way, i.e. Windows DirectSound?
 

manisandher

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Could it be that your source is already resampling in an improper way, i.e. Windows DirectSound?

No. Roon shows a lossless path to the Element X, and MQA works perfectly (though I doubt the latter could really be used to test for bit-perfectness!).

Also, I used exactly the same setup with my other DAC, and it measures fine (see 2nd plot).

Mani.
 

Veri

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No. Roon shows a lossless path to the Element X, and MQA works perfectly (though I doubt the latter could really be used to test for bit-perfectness!).
Also, I used exactly the same setup on with my other DAC, and it measures fine (see 2nd plot).

Then unless the measurement is off, I suppose something is wrong :/ hope @MatrixAudio can find the problem.
 

manisandher

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I've sent an email to MA support. I'll post updates here...

Edit: Just received this auto reply, so it'll be a while before they're likely to get back to me:

"We are now on Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.
Matrix office will start work after Feb 1st.
Your email will be answered as soon as we back to work after holiday."

Mani.
 
Last edited:

manisandher

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Just another quick thought...

I wonder if playing 44.1 MQA files has somehow disabled all the regular filters?
 

EVOLVIST

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So, in theory, I should get better performance out of this $3k gear than my Linn KDS/3 streamer/DAC, which uses the same DAC as the one measured here?

That's a very interesting proposition. Is there a return policy is it doesn't work out?
 

EVOLVIST

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Eh, never mind. I'll just keep my Linn. I love the sound of it. I imagine that the Sabre DAC will impart a different sound to the music that I might or might not enjoy (perhaps, higher highs, or lower mids, or something along those lines that we hear with other DACs). The Matrix DAC/streamer certainly is an interesting proposition, though.
 

lszomb

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All modern DACs are quite transparent at least according to ASR. So it would be hard to justify on moving to the other DAC if you like the current one.

I felt you made a good choice. Sometime, I felt so eager to get something and cannot wait anymore. I got it and my brain made me feel happy. However, very soon I need to repeat it again.



Eh, never mind. I'll just keep my Linn. I love the sound of it. I imagine that the Sabre DAC will impart a different sound to the music that I might or might not enjoy (perhaps, higher highs, or lower mids, or something along those lines that we hear with other DACs). The Matrix DAC/streamer certainly is an interesting proposition, though.
 

manisandher

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I'm currently liaising with my MA dealer about my filter issue. I've tried both USB and ethernet now, and in both cases I'm stuck with one very 'leaky' filter, irrespective of which filter I select on the Element X (24/44.1 white noise):

Ethernet - Filter 1.JPG


Unsurprisingly, this filter is causing extensive imaging (1kHz sine tone):

MA Element X - 1kHz sine tone - Ethernet.JPG


Looking at the manual, all the filter profiles show EDIT: good attenuation before the Nyquist frequency 10dB attenuation by the Nyquist frequency:

Filter curves - manual.JPG


EDIT: And yet Amir's own measurements show four of the filters going well beyond the Nyquist frequency exactly the same:

Filter curves - ASR.JPG


I'm sure between MA support, my dealer and myself, we'll get my unit sorted out. EDIT: But whilst we wait for MA support to return from holiday, does anyone have any thoughts on all of the above?

Mani.
 
Last edited:

ZeDestructor

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I'm currently liaising with my MA dealer about my filter issue. I've tried both USB and ethernet now, and in both cases I'm stuck with one very 'leaky' filter, irrespective of which filter I select on the Element X (24/44.1 white noise):

View attachment 46805

Unsurprisingly, this filter is causing extensive imaging (1kHz sine tone):

View attachment 46806

Looking at the manual, all the filter profiles show EDIT: good attenuation before the Nyquist frequency 10dB attenuation by the Nyquist frequency:

View attachment 46808

EDIT: And yet Amir's own measurements show four of the filters going well beyond the Nyquist frequency exactly the same:

View attachment 46810

I'm sure between MA support, my dealer and myself, we'll get my unit sorted out. EDIT: But whilst we wait for MA support to return from holiday, does anyone have any thoughts on all of the above?

Mani.

Remember to compensate for the scale of the graph. amir's scale is from -100dB, while Matrix Audio's is from -10dB. if you look as from amir's -10dB mark, it's essentially identical to the Matrix Audio graph.
 

manisandher

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Yes, I realised as soon as I had posted, hence my edits.

Mani.
 

Arslan

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Hello everybody. I bought the element X and it will arrive in 14 days. I hope i can drive my 420 ohms Audiotechnica ATH-ADX5000 well. When it arrives, I will give you my opinion. Greetings to all
 
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