Yamamoto YDA 01 DAC

Hello Charles1dad.

I was wondering if your Octave finally cleared customs and you were able to receive it. Looking forward to your comments!

Cheers!

Staehli,

I am not familiar with the CD 21 transport, but from reading online it can upsample CDs. Were your comments/comparison between Octave and Benchmark based on 44.1 or 96 kHz output from the CD 21? I'm asking this because at another forum someone who's trying the Octave mentioned its performance was superb when fed an upsampled signal (in his case upsampled inside a computer, then reclocked thru Offramp 4), but mediocre when fed 44.1.

Charles1dad,

OK, you have me really intrigued now. If the Metrum can deliver as much detail as a Bryston BDA1 or Wyred4Sound DAC2, yet be as musical as typical NOS DACs...it might be IT for me. Given the tradeoffs between musical/detailed at these pricepoints, I was leaning towards a Bryston to go with my tube pre and amp, but then I saw this thread.

A good thing is I'm patient too, so will be looking forward to your feedback.

For reference, what has been your experience, if any, with oversampling DACs?

Staehli,

What's the source you are using with the Benchmark and the Octave?
Also, what's downstream from the DAC in your system?

Thank you!

Briang,

I think the upsampling would be best done at the computer, then sent to the Metrum. An option for upsampling out of a CD player could be an Esoteric G25. Over at computeraudiophile a member has been trying with upsampling at the computer and he claims it is an awesome DAC.

Maybe you are asking how would the sound be with a 16/44.1 feed from a CD player. I am wondering about that too.

I myself, am very much looking forward to Charles1dad experience with it.

Charles1dad: so sorry to hear that. That's frustrating! Will continue to look forward to your comments.

B_mueller: thanks for chiming in. Are you running preamp-less and with Amarra? Looking at your past threads I see you have had your fair share of experience with good DACs. Have you ever heard a Bryston BDA-1? It is good to see you describe the sound as detailed when you are coming from the Weiss. When people describe as non-fatiguing I can't help wonder if this is at the expense of detail resolution. I see it's not the case here - great news!
BTW, does your Octave have the 7 or 14VA power supply?

Quietman,

I have no insight regarding the Eximus, but if you haven't yet, you might want to look over at computeraudiophile.com the "Metrum Octave - WOW" thread, where member Bhobba compares the U3, an Audiophileo, and an Offramp feeding the Octave. The short story is he feels the Audiophileo is far superior to the U3, and then the Offramp is superior to the former although quite more expensive too. And he's adamant about feeding the Octave hi resolution files.

Charles1dad: thank you for the great input. Seems like this is it for me. I now need to pull the trigger, which might take a while.

Jaspert,

Correct. It was wiped! First it was wiped from the daily listing, but I was able to find it with the search function. Then that didn't work anymore. Someone found it through Google. later I tried the same and couldn't find it. Another member who was posting in detail his experience started digging and he claims some manufacturer complained and the thread was taken out. See the computer audio forum here for the SB Touch thread where this was mentioned. Kind of enfuriating!

Glad you are enjoying the Octave. It's a the top of my list, but need to wait a while longer. Thanks for posting your experience!

I've seen posts commenting on how good the Audiophileo is paired to the Octave. Better than Stello, but worse than Off-Ramp (but quite less expensive too).

cheers!