Let's be cruel and hijack the Yamamoto dac thread once more for the Octave mk1.
I was very surprised by the good soundquality from the beginning, particularly the energy in the lower frequency.
But I also noticed a bit glassy highs like others did before.
I pimped the m2tech hiface evo with the m2tech clock, both powered by 9 volt 350mH lithium ionen batterys, and now it simply sounds amazing. NO glassy highs anymore but very refinded once go hand in hand with an open up of the soundstage. That is such an enhancement of SQ that I always craved for but wouldn't dare to expect. My room is floated with fine shimmering reverbs (lampizator call that plankton or someone spidernet stuff) and a better soundtage depth!
Also the lower octaves gain in form of a better gestalt. All in all it is more 3D. Soundstage expands not only in depth, also vertical and to the front. What a fine sound!
But if I change to the included power supply (not exactly walmart but that kind of) after the battery depleted and connect it to the hiface evo the charmingly SQ is gone - a loss of body take place. In effect it is so thin sounding compared to the battery power that I do not want to listen without the battery supply. I know there is a m2tech akku supply that I did'nt try yet.
The power supply effect is so enormous that I wouldn't believe it if I didn't experienced it by myself.
So first step: The evo hiface powered by battery, than add the clock also powered by battery, that's for me the route to reach soundquality nirvana. The clock itself makes a huge difference, evolve in charmings highs and open up the soundstage and show all the fine grained spiderweb stuff. The Metrum Octave definitely wins through a better clock in the upstream usb-spdif bridge.
I did'nt use a special bnc-bnc between clock and hiface evo but I couldn't resist to order an oyaide dr 510 for further improvement. I already use a coax silver wire between Metrum Octave and hiface (Rg 400).
Equipment:
Intonation Terzian (classic)
Nubert AW 1300
Bat VK 5se
Nakamichi pa 7
Metrum Ocatve mk 1
Mit Terminator 2
Thanks a lot to Elberoth and his test of usb-spdif bridges:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/15-usb-spdif-converters-shootout-15327/
That inspired me to go that route.
The quality of the m2tech hiface evo with clock and decent power supply is outstanding. I can affirm what Elberoth wrote about it. That it sound a bit ethereal is what I like particularly.
