Metrum Musette Impressions

No, I would not say more so. Whether NOS or oversampled - the current high end solutions can benefit from clean / quiet signal. Side note, the USB implementation in the Musette is pretty good. It's not gonna keep pace with my Mutec modded for LPS + REGEN & LPS, but it's pretty good.

 

I heard the mussette out of the microzotl2 at canjam. It was the most amazing pairing for my HD650. I have wondering this whole time if it was the dac or amp that gave this magical soundstage or it might have just been an amazing pairing.

 

@MisterRogers thanks for this thread! Any comparison with your own 4490 DIY dac? or other R2R dacs that you have tried so far?
Myself, I have tested so far a few DACs (theta ds pro basic and 3a, rdac and dangerous source). I feel like something is missing. Difficult to put it in words... but I would describe it this way... they lack realism, weight....

 

Any further impressions? This is one of few dacs I'm remotely interested in.

 

If anyone's going to AXPONA, we'll (Linear Tube Audio, in the Ear Gear Expo) have three different NOS DACs behind three identical MicroZOTL2s: a Metrum Musette, a Mojo Audio Mystique v.1.1, and an Audio-gd DAC-19 NOS. A good time to compare the Musette to others. The only unfortunate variable that is possible is that the Musette and the Audio-gd may have coaxial sources, while the Mojo will get to be USB. It's also possible that only the Musette will need to use its coaxial input, and it's also possible that we'll just have a table really crowded with gear and they'll all be USB. We'll get a hang of audio shows eventually.

Headphone selection: ZMF&LTA Omni (wenge wood), Audio Zenith PMx2, LCD-4, HE1000, Ether-C, HD800.

 

@zach915m has a Musette now. I wonder what his impressions are?

FYI, Zach is not nearly as scarey as his avatar implies....

 

More impressions on Musette; I'll be packing it up today/tomorrow to send off to Hands while I recover from my spinal surgery scheduled for Monday. Plankton retrieval again, is slightly below Gungnir Multibit, but it's fairly strong. My impressions distill down to this: Musette has a slight edge in dynamics, while Gungnir Multibit has a slight edge in detail retrieval and 'fleshy' notes.

I signed up as a Metrum OEM awhile back, and ordered samples to build a Pravane. I'm working with my wood case guy to design / build a beautiful Purple Heart case for it, but in the interim I've wired it up for use with Studio. So essentially, I have a Pravane hooked up balanced to Studio, and Yggdrasil hooked up SE. I'm using AES with Pravane, BNC with Yggdrasil. Both being fed by a dual LPS powering a REGEN / Mutec 3+USB combo. I'll give Pavane some burn-in before I make any comparisons, but as it sits - it pairs extremely well with Studio balanced.

So when I'm ready I'll post specific info about it, but I plan to build a batch of 10 Pravanes with custom Purple Heart cases. I'm still putting together the BOM and designing the case, but I should be able to offer them to interested SBAF members for less than what Metrum sells them for. When the case is all done, I'll upload pictures / details.

 

@MisterRogers

That sounds like quite a system. I'm not typically the jealous type but you're getting close. Would love to see some pictures later

 

hi,
i'm trying to upgrade my DAC and i would like to have more opinions or comparisons between the Musette and the Gungnir Multibit. i already have a mutec mc1.2 .

my headphones are the HD 800s and i'm expecting the Torpedo iii in few days if that helps

 

I have a couple questions for Musette owners:

First, has anyone connected portable devices, like an iPad to the Musette yet? I would assume a CCK (camera connection kit) is necessary, but one might get the often seen error involving to much current being pulled. But usually a powered hub like the Schiit Wyrd deals with that problem. Anyways, and portable device connection story would be helpful, as a secondary source option would be nice...

Second, has anyone used Optical input on the Musette? And how does it compare to USB? I'll have both options with my MBP...

Thanks

 

I just bought a musette at a good price, I will be posting here later on when I receive it.

 

@Jun Li I'll be very much interested in a comparison of the musette vs Bifrost Multibit as I see Bifrost Multibit in your signature!

 

For sure I want to compare them as well.

Oversampling Bifrost Multibit vs Non oversampling Musette dac battle.

 

I have 2 vintage theta dacs... so not sure I want to spend more and go Bifrost Multibit road for the time being. But I'm very much intrigued by NOS sound and whatever I have been reading on it...

 

SET UP:

JRiver Upsampled 384khz or 352.8khz dithering off > Regen > Musette > Torpedo III > HD650 modded

JRiver dithering off > Regen > Bifrost Multibit (internal upsampling) > Torpedo III > HD650 modded

I decided to compare musette upsampled, since It sounded better than nos, but nos sounds better than the Bifrost Multibit still.

When I plugged in the Metrum I just loved how it sounds. I just couldn't stop listening to it. I didn't even want to put the Bifrost back in for a comparison.

I finally put the Bifrost Multibit back in for comparison today. I thought it sounded good initially, it made me wonder why I spent the extra money on the musette? After listening to a few songs, I got bored the music didn't involve me. I just wanted to hear the musette again.

When I plugged the musette back in it became apparent why I liked the sound of the musette, it has a natural, live sound to it. The sound stage is bigger, the background is blacker (lower noise). It sounds amazing with live music. I listened to bee gees live recording (24bit 96khz upsampled to 384khz) and It feels like I was at the concert.

I am selling the Bifrost Multibit.

edit: Schiit internal upsampling filters are done really well.

 

I would have thought that the main usp of the musette would be its sound in NOS mode... so curious it didn't make such a difference by itself.
Anyway,I would be curious to know which filter is used by the musette for upsampling....

Thanks for the short feedback!

 

Jun - do you know how many hours are on your Musette?

 

My hunch is metrum skipped hardware upsampling to past the savings on to us. The Transient dacs are capable of very high sampling rates while having very low noise and it's fully r2r multibit. But it is bottlenecked by the usb receiver supporting only up to 384khz. It seems that we should at least try it upsampled to take advantage of it's high sampling rates. It seems more real to me upsampled. I will do another more detailed comparison in nos and os mode later on.

The past owner said it wasn't even burned in yet. I am assuming he put at least 10-20 hours on it. I put about another 8 hours.