Metrum octave or Wyred 4 sound coax vs usb

I haven't heard the syncromesh but like all of Steve's products will be good. I don't know if it is better or worse than the AP2. People who own one tell me Steve is spot on when he says its about 90-95% the performance of the Off-Ramp which would put it about the same as the AP2.

I don't know the EE DAC although guys whose ears I trust speak highly of it. I own the M51 and I give it a slight edge over the Metrum. It has a more natural sound - but its a personal preference thing - some describe it like putting a blanket over your speakers and knowing the particular DAC people who said that were comparing it to (a PDX) I understand the comment - the PDX is a very dynamic, forward and in your face DAC - clearly better than the M51 (also twice the price) but for some its a bit too much describing the PDX like ultra violence - but to my ears the PDX is simply more real.

Thanks
Bill

metrum quad

hi again.
after buy iphone now my budget goes down to 500-600$ for dac lol. so now i dont have the money for octave dac but i tought maybe to buy cheap dac like HEGEL HD2 (what u think how it will sound on my system someone try it ?), and if it will nice dac for now maybe someday that i will buy the metrum octave dac it can be use as usb-->spdif convert .
what you think my friends can you help me to decided ?

Hi Bolero, to be honest, I haven't tried Octave without Synchro-mesh (reclocker like AP2). My impression on Synchro-mesh is with my old Electrocompaniet ECD-1 dac. If you can wait, let me give a proper burn-in on Octave (it will hit 400 hours by this coming weekend), I will try feeding it direct with optical out from AppleTV (16/48) and report back. I fully expect it to be inferior, but I do not know how much.

To be honest though, if you have a less than ideal transport (PC, AppleTV, Sonos, SBT) with a sub $1k-2k dac, products like Off-ramp, AP2, Synchro-mesh will surely take the sonic performance to another level, regardless of how good jitter rejection is claimed to be by the dac manufacturer. Metrum doesn't have an internal clock. In 6moon review of Synchro-mesh, it does say the improvement is not noticeable with PS Audio PWD2, which has a very good internal clock.

My digital collection is a fraction of my LP's. Even with a nice tubed universal player digital was simply a convenience for casual listening with an annoying quality.

After ripping my digital collection I auditioned the W4S and a few other well reviewed conventional DAC's at home but I was unable to audition the Metrum Acoustics Octave side by side. The W4S has impressive connectivity and it did improve the sound quality.

Bhobba is an excellent digital component resource as is Elberoth2. Between them they made a very good case for me to purchase the Metrum Octave without audition. They were spot on, thanks guys. IMO the Octave kills the W4S because it's simply way more analog like in its presentation to my ears in my system.

I don't doubt for a minute that the Octaves performance could be improved to some degree by adding an Empirical Off Ramp or a Synchromesh in front of the Octave but it's not required to get a very good presentation from the unconventional designed Octave.

For me the issue was simply getting past that horrible digital presentation without spending thousands of dollars. The Octaves unique NOS design partnered with a Squeezebox Touch being fed wirelessly from an Apple Airport Extreme upsampled Channel Ds reasonably priced Pure Music Audio Engine does just that.

hi first thanks alot for the responses from you all.

i still in dilemma about the metrum octave i m read Bhobba post above is say :" you must feed both by something like an Audiophellio 2 "

i know that audiophellio 2 coast 1000$ so is alot more then buy asynchronous dac so now im really dont know what to do lol. i must buy audiophellio for W4S DAC AND METRUM OCTAVE and if not buy it it will be sound like my rdac asy dac or is it still worth the buy bcz if not i m not wanna spent 2000$ for dac only 1000$ its the limit so what you suggest me ?

I've never heard the WFS dac. I currently own the Metrum Octave. Because of all the comments from our friends here on Audiogon, I'm about to purchase an Audiophellio 2 converter. However, all this time (almost one year), I've been using the Metrum via its optical input. I'm running a glass optical cable from my computer to the dac and even without a usb/spdif converter, it has provided wonderful sound. I listen to a lot of jazz but mostly classical and a lot of it is full scale and complex and I'm happy. I don't know if this helps, but i just wanted to add my .02.

Hi Bill, I read your Metrum thread in an Australian forum and would like to know if you have experience with the following.
1) How does Empirical Synchro-mesh compare to AP-2, sound quality wise? I understand one is USB converter and the other is pure reclocker.
2) I just recently bought Octave but thinking of trying out a couple of more dacs. What are your impressions on EE DAC+ with Dexa opamp and NAD M51? I'll be using them with Synchro-mesh. Will either one of them be quite a step above Octave?

Hi OP, sorry to hi-jack the thread. For your question, I'd say go with Octave and Audiophilio2. I own a similar product like AP2 called Synchro-mesh mentioned above. IMHO, cleaning up jitter at the source is as important as choosing the dac. It will be well worth the investment and may save more $ down the road. You have to try to believe it.

I've used the Audiophilleo 2 + PurePower on a couple of DACs (Anedio D1 and D2, Neko, Burson, PS Audio DL3) and it's been a major improvement in sound quality. I reckon both the Metrum and W4S would benefit from it. I haven't heard the Octave but over on headfi someone sold their Octave for a Neko and I'm very happy with it as well.

I have owned both and I prefer the Metrum. But you must feed both by something like an Audiophellio 2.

The reason in the Metrum's case is the fact its NOS and if you don't up-sample can sound a bit mushy.

The reason in the case of the WFS is the Saber chip it uses is not as jitter immune as some think. With normal sources its is cold, analytical and with some slight sibilance issues. Virtually all of that goes with a good low jitter source but there is still a slight trace of analyticality which is why I give the Metrum the edge.

Thanks
Bill