Meitner MA3i DAC Review

ayang90, thanks for sharing that review.  It's a great read.  I have had the same listening experience he described.

I had a chance to listen to it paired with the Meitner PRE. OMG, it’s really a next level experience. I thought the realism was phenomenal with the MA3i but the PRE takes it and goes even deeper on every level.

Bottom line is my current preamp is limiting the full potential of the MA3i.

I wasn’t in a position to purchase it because I just upgraded the MA3 but if I had the money I would have.

When the Pre was released Shahin at Meitner told me it really elevated the performance of the MA3.  But I suspect any number of high quality pre amps might be able to do so. Before you dismiss your current preamp, make sure you have fully bypassed the volume control on the MA3i and are sending max output voltage to your preamp by turning the MA3i to full volume - 100.  Then adjust the volume level on your preamp to suit your listening preferences.  Also, have you tried drving your amplifier directly from the MA3i?  The output voltage from the MA3i's balanced and single ended outputs are much higher than that of the MA3.  If the input voltage requirements of your amp is low enough you might be pleasantly surprised by the results you get from removing the preamp from the chain, particularly if your amp can accept a balanced signal from the MA3i and it's higher output voltage.😉  

@buzz,

You make some good points. I did try bypassing my preamp and went direct but I still preferred having my preamp in. While I know preamps should just be an attenuator, it just added a smidge of cohesiveness that wasn’t there when going direct. I actually like running the MA3i at 97 or 98 rather than 100. I have a Bryston BP17 cubed with a Bryston 4B3 amp. All Canadian stack. 😀