Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Hi guys,

This is one of the most interresting thread that I read since a long time. It took me 3 days to read all posts since the beginning (lol). But I did it ! Long short story, I have the same need than Matt concerning my next DAC. My equipments are more modest than Matt's devices, but I work on it, and the sound begin to be good (for me). After 15 years as an Audiophie I can say the best investment that I did as an Audiophile is to build a dedicated listening room. Trust me when you have a dedicated room with a perfect acoustic design, it's a huge improvement in term of music.

My last weakness point is actually my DAC. The Overdrive DAC seems to be really good, but I didn't tested it for the momment (but it's in my plan). I found a dealer to test the Metrum Pavane. There are a lot of good review about it and the price is in the same range than the ODSE. I will listen it tomorrow and I will give you a feedback after that.

I also want test the E22 from Exasound, and the new Veritas from Resonessence Labs. Yggdrassil is also in my list but i not sure if the Dac is in the same category than the ODSE or the Pavane in terms of performance.

Hi guys,

As promised here the feedback of my listening session with the Metrum Pavane.

Before starting, please note that i am not a professional reviewer, it's just my personal opinion and my personal taste, my personal experience.

The session was driving by Samuel Furon owner of L'Atelier Audio in Montreal. For some of you, this name is not unknow. Sam is also co-founder of Ocellia who produces high-end audio equipment (speacker, electronic and cables).

It's always pleasant to make a listening session with a very real sound engineer.

Time to talk about the Pavane. The device is solid, heavy, and well finish. Pavane is a real NOS Dac. No DSD here, No MQA. First surprise : the Pavane don't make any oversamplig. So if the source is 16/44 the Pavane reproduce the sound of the source without any modification.  This is the sort of feature that is like in NOS Dac.

The Pavane sound is neutral, agile, hyper detail, never harsh, always highly musical. With a 16/44 source the sound is really surprising.

The first impression with the Pavane is very special. It's like if the sound literally jump outside of the speaker. You have the sound in the face but it's never agressive. it's wow !

Second things to note: On vocals, specially with Jazz, the voice is push in front of the stage. The direct impact is on the soundstage. It's deep. Incredibly deep.

All details in the music are reproduces with precision and subtlety. It's never analytic or harsh. it's always musical and elegant. 

IMHO for people (like me) who want a immersive experience with the music, this DAC is really good. If you looking for a DAC for ambient music it's not the good choice.

Marc

To ctsooner :

Sorry I really don't know who is the dealer for Metrum in US. I am canadian and my dealer is here... But I am pretty sure you can have information by contact directly Metrum (info@metrum-acoustics.nl).

About the Vinyl sound. I started my Audiophile life with vinyls records. When I discovered the RIAA curve (10 years after using vinyls), I realized that the vinyl sound is totally artificial because you need to apply an strong equilization to create a vinyl (to managed Bass impact) and apply a counter-equilization to listen correctly the record (it's the primary function for phono-preamp). 

It's always funny to ask to an Audiophile who spend a lot of money on turntable and phono-preamp : Do you want use a equalizer to correct the sound of your system. Everybody, without any exception says : Of course not ! I am an audiophile !

IMHO (and it's just my opinion, please don't jump on me) a lot of people are confused about Vinyl and Sound. Vinyl don't sound better than digital. The both are limited in terms of dynamique, frequencies, etc... If you use a good phono-preamp or a good DAC your sound should be good in the both case. I know a lot of people who have bad sound with vinyl records because their equipments are not good enough.

I think people like analog sound not vinyl sound. For me the real challenge is here : how to have a real relax, detail and warm analog sound. 

Interesting. On the paper Digital is far away better, but Vinyl still sound better. Why ?

Few years ago,I had a very interesting experience with a friend that I want share with you.

Chris (my friend) is a pure Vinyl guy. I am a pure Digital guy. And of course we had a lot of discussion about that (recurrent and long discussion).

One day I decided to go the Chris house with my Music server and my Dac. When I listened my music on Chris's System the sound was horrible. But on my system the sound was good (not fantastic but good). The same record from a Chris's Vinyl sounded incredible good. I was traumatise. So, I started to think, may be I should switch to Vinyl. In this perspective, I asked to Chris to come to my house to tested his turntable and phono-preamp on my system. He came few day after. Surprise, this time my sound was really better than his Vinyl. Why ?

Chris and I use dedicated systems for Vinyl and Digital. We don't mix Digital and Vinyl on the same system.

The conclusion was really interresting because at this momment I realized that I like Digital source and analog sound. So, now I choose my equipment based on that. For exemple : in my living room I use Verity Audio Speakers. When I move the Verity to my listening room the sound this bad (too ' digital'). So, I decided to use Audio Note AN-J speakers to have more musicality. Same with audio Cables. Chris uses Nordost Wallaha cables, but in my system they sound bad. Shunyata is far away better in my system. Etc...

I think it's difficult (may be impossible) to have the same equal good sound from Vinyls and Digitals source in the same system. Digital can be very very closed to Vinyl sound (sometines better) if the system is dedicated and design to have this sort of performance.

Marc

Funny things...

Since I finished my listening room, I changed (or upgraded) all my equipments piece by piece. As i said in a previous post my last device to buy is a good DAC. So I started a long process to test different devices. In the same time, I still don't have DAC. So I can not listen my music and it's very frustating because all is ready to run. I talk about that with my friend Chris and he says to me : 'Just buy a small DAC'... after a several stupid arguments about the sound quality of budget's DAC and my audiophile ears, he said : 'Just buy the new Idac2 from Ifi. It's not expensive and it's realy good'. 350 $... why not.

So, I did it. I received the 'Gadget' one week ago and you know what? I'm blown away by the quality of this product. Really. It's so small, tiny, and inexpensive.... Wow. Of course it's not in the same range than a Pavane or an Overdrive, but honestly I can live with it without any problem. And because ifi products are really inexpensive, I will buy the iUSB 3 to test if the USB 3 is better for sound than the USB 2.... In fact, inexpensive products are sometime surprising.