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Meitner i upgrades

New i upgrades are available for Meitner DACs. It’s an extensive upgrade requiring a trip back to the factory in Calgary, Ontario and dealers are facilitating the process. I should be getting a return authorization number soon to send in my MA3. Cost for the MA3 upgrade is $3500. I believe it will be a noticeable improvement for a not outrageous cost (by hi-end audio standards). Details are on the Meitner website.

paullb
paullb OP
138 posts
 

No new impressions. Still very pleased with the upgrade

buzz's avatar
buzz
11 posts
 

Paullb, thanks for your reply.  Mine is heading to Canada tomorrow.  I will share my thoughts once I have it back in my system.

paullb OP
138 posts
 

Safe travels for your dac. Please let me know what you think. Don’t be put off by my lack of additional info. I think the new unit is noticeably better and a bargain. I’ve never been one to think the sound of components changes significantly over a long time. Been doing this a while and I know what I like sonically and can tell within a few days at most if I like a new component or set up. 

abd1
165 posts
 

I'm currently using an Auralic Aries S1 streamer to Laiv Harmony R2r dac to Holo Serene KTE pre onward. Really love the preamp, but have been thinking of going to an integrated dac/streamer. Was looking at Lumin X1 and now looking into the Meitner MA3i. Any insights or thoughts on what I could expect from a performance perspective? I've enjoyed R2R dacs the past few years but like the idea of fewer boxes and from what I've read the MA3i seems very similar to the EMM Labs DA2i, which would make it a killer bargain. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

bigwave1's avatar
bigwave1
250 posts
 

MA3i back in my possession now for a week. Right out of the box, I was hit over the head with  everything everyone has commented about in this post. However, I will say that after over 100 hours on the upgrade, to these ears, I notice little change from the first day. YMMV. I had to call Meitner about a $425 bill I received from FedEx yesterday ( for another discussion another day), and spoke to a tech about my listening observations. He confirmed my observation as he said most of the upgrade is done on the analog boards and that they spend about 3 days on the test bench so that each upgrade has quite a few hours on them prior to being shipped out. Currently, I’m using it as a DAC only. BTW, the volume by pass mode has been eliminated so “100” is considered “bypass”. I’ll soon try the MA3i as a pre on a Decware amp and a SS Sim amp. Now, do I need to upgrade the usb cable from the DH Silversonic? 

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