Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

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nige2000
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by nige2000 »

Fran wrote:I'm not convinced at all by DSD. First of all there's the complete lack of material - re-releasing a classic album in DSD ain't gonna make it sound better. Think of how comparatively few 24/192 albums there are for instance. Then there's the size issue - I downloaded a test track from 2L before Christmas - and 15 min classical track that was 9Gb!

And none of that would make eg Sketches of Spain sound any better I think....




Fran
The file size and the lack of material makes DSD a bit of a non runner

But in fairness even the 24 bit 192 conversons of DSD are on the hugo were around mqn quality

Is it because DSD is easier to convert to analog
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markof
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by markof »

Claus wrote:Any thoughts on the X-Sabre?

After all the talk about DSD (now that 24/192 is no longer enough!) I came across this DAC on the Danish forum. It seems to be very popular on Headfi.org forum, and is getting great reviews all over the place.

It's going for around 850 euro plus shipping and duty depending on where you get it.

Image

http://www.matrix-digi.com/en/products/49/index.html

Or would it be better to save up for the HUGO?
Hi Claus,
What dac did you eventually decide on?

Mark.
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Claus
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by Claus »

Hifi has been put on hold, so I am down scaling for a while. Some of my stuff might end up for sale soon. I am considering a small integrated with Dac built in, until I get more space for the hobby, or the kids decide to move out.... ;)
Claus
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by Claus »

I am back! I just can't live without good sound, so I am keeping my setup. I will need to move speakers into place for listening but it is working out ok so far.

I went into The Listening Suite to demo a new Dac (and also hear the dynaudio contour 1.4s) and got to hear the hugo against the micromega MyDac. The MyDac won! I went home a happy camper but quickly ran into problems with pops and cracks on the PC using jplay. mQN only got me distortion, so guess the driver is non compatible. I switched over to my MacBook running Audirvana Plus and all problems were gone. And what a glorious sound! this little Dac performs way beyond its price point! Heard the usual demo tracks with lots of extra detail especially in the bass region.

Now the dilemma is that it seems unwilling to work with my PC - and that is my dedicated audio file player - so I think it might have to go back. But what to get then...?
nige2000
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by nige2000 »

Claus wrote:I am back! I just can't live without good sound, so I am keeping my setup. I will need to move speakers into place for listening but it is working out ok so far.

I went into The Listening Suite to demo a new Dac (and also hear the dynaudio contour 1.4s) and got to hear the hugo against the micromega MyDac. The MyDac won! I went home a happy camper but quickly ran into problems with pops and cracks on the PC using jplay. mQN only got me distortion, so guess the driver is non compatible. I switched over to my MacBook running Audirvana Plus and all problems were gone. And what a glorious sound! this little Dac performs way beyond its price point! Heard the usual demo tracks with lots of extra detail especially in the bass region.

Now the dilemma is that it seems unwilling to work with my PC - and that is my dedicated audio file player - so I think it might have to go back. But what to get then...?
i think its thesycon drivers
go into thescycon settings and change to low or minimum for both buffer and latency
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Claus
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by Claus »

Thanks for your suggestion Nigel, but no luck. It is not a thesycon driver. At least I can't find anywhere to set the parameters you mention.

I just tried with my work laptop Win 7 Pro and it is no better... Only worse in fact...
Will bring it back on Tuesday and continue the hunt. Sennheiser is going to be tried next but I see reports of it having problems with the upsampled HDtrack albums, so... Maybe I will just order the Hugo and be done with it...
Sligolad
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by Sligolad »

Definitely a Thesycon Driver Claus, maybe rebadged with MYDAC name but it should still work I would have thought.
Have you had a look here to follow Driver installs for Windows?
http://www.micromega-hifi.com/en/suppor ... r-le-mydac

You probably have a folder in your start menu called Thesycon or maybe MYDAC with the TUSB Control Panel where you can adjust buffers if you have installed the driver for windows.

You can also increase buffer sizes in JPlay control panel.
Cheers, Pearse.
___________________________________________
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Claus
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by Claus »

Thanks for your help Pearse. I can't find any way to set the buffer other than Jplay settings. I tried them last night and it made no difference. Very frustrating....
nige2000
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by nige2000 »

Claus wrote:Thanks for your help Pearse. I can't find any way to set the buffer other than Jplay settings. I tried them last night and it made no difference. Very frustrating....
in your program files is there not anything that looks like your driver folder?
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
Claus
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Re: Matrix X-Sabre - DSD for us cheapskates..?

Post by Claus »

The MyDac went back and in came a... HUGO! Very nice sound so far! Will be doing some more testing tonight if I get a chance.
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