Matrix X-Sabre Pro DAC Review - Stream of Consciousness

Hey, that's Calgary airport. Except that 'eating establishment' is a wine bar, and I'm pretty sure that the people-movers are not powered by Audio-GD (because then everybody would be able to hear them coming).

 

Ha! That NFB 3.2 was my first standalone DAC! I felt the Metrum Quad was a significant upgrade across the board - except for imaging, where music felt more ethereal with sounds coming out of a distant haze - but I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the NFB’s strengths either.
The Ref 5.32 was also way better across the board, but very dark sounding.

Edit: it seems like transports improved much more than D-A technology and we should revisit a bunch of them!
I’m not talking about the multi thousands $ DACs of the golden era that sell for cheap now; those had great input stages that make them more transport agnostic.

 

Just don't tell Ultra or he's gonna go ballistic on your ass.

 

Could be. I had that one, too.
Kingwa was pretty clear that unless you wanted 192kHz support, you should go with the DIR.

 

I'm finding myself listening a lot to a combination of Matrix XSP, ECP Audio T4 (Mullard tubes) and HD800-jmod running 88KHz Dante to AES. The system does not draw attention to itself, music flows. I've caught myself stepping away and having the headphone cable remind me I'm tethered to a listening station.

 

Maybe it's time to order an ECP T4. What Mullard tubes?

 

Only if your preferences align with mine.
Mullard CV4024
DSHA-3F and T4 have been in constant use for the last three months. My preference depends highly on my mood. Both are excellent amps, neither will be rotated out of lab inventory anytime soon. Can settle into either for a listening session and not feel the need to switch or experiment.

 

The MQA x sabre pro is my first ever home dac. I have it set up to a wooaudio 22 amp and is only for headphone duty.

I have an opportunity to purchase a new dac and was just wondering, for those who have had the chance to listen to the xsp and Schiit dacs.. Were the gungnir and yggdrasil a definite improvement over the xsp? Or would there be anything else in the price range (up to yggdrasil) which would be worth considering?

I have a Benchmark Dac3b which is on backorder and supposedly coming end of this month, but that will be used in the office.

 

I would skip the Benchmark Dac3b and get a used Matrix Pro or a Schiit Gungnir for work. The Yggdrasil is on par with the Matrix but with a different presentation. Had the Benchmark Dac for a while and it's just ok compared to the matrix or even most of the schiit dacs. Also, what headphones are you using?

 

Thanks for chiming in.

I had an opportunity to get a second hand gungnir multibit but I passed it over to order the dac3b.. Am curious as to what u didn't like about it.

Not sure if I'd like to get another matrix pro.. Keen to try something new/different.

In between this and my last post, I did end up joining the Drop for the THX789 amp. Was on the fence for the Airist r2r dac just for kicks. Ended up ordering a Topping D70 to try out.

I'm using the Meze Empyrean and Focal Utopia. These are my home cans. For work, will probably use an iem, as open backs would leak too much and just couldn't find a nice closed back which I liked.. (just ordered custom 64 audio A12T).

 

My notes on the loaner -

Setup

Laptop (USB) -> X-Sabre Pro -> Schiit Saga -> F7 clone -> various headphones (650, 580, 800, HE6, a few ZMFs) and my JBL L55s.

The only other DAC I had on hand to compare with is my standard Monarchy M22B (PCM63-based R2R DAC). I only used the RCA outputs and the USB input, with an Eitr on the M22B as well. Didn't mess with the Matrix's filtering settings at all, and only used PCM files.

9038?

X-Sabre Pro is also the best 9038 implementation I've yet heard. 9038 DACs (Mytek Manhattan and Lumin X1 come to mind) tend to have this glossiness in the higher frequencies that has always bothered me a bit. It's like a forced 'silky' type presentation - somehow sweet but also glaring in the lower treble, and soft around the edges of textures and attacks. "Cloying" is a word that comes to mind in the upper half of the spectrum. Another issue I've had with other 9038-based DACs is the up-front, wide, yet diffusive placement of images in the stage - kind of blurry and always feeling thrown in your face without much depth or localization.

Neither of these are issues with the X-Sabre Pro, but it does still have that pseudo-holographic, slightly lean (at least compared to the R2R-type sound I'm used to) Sabre sound. Ironically, imaging and treble cleanliness were actually the strengths of this DAC, and also the only places I felt it was clearly superior to my M22B.

For a point of reference (since my DAC is a bit obscure) - the M22B sounds a lot like a 'baby' Theta Gen V. Not quite as thick, not quite as slamming, doesn't do space quite as well, but the general character (likely because of the PCM63 chipset) is there.

Comparison

The X-Sabre felt less prominent in the mid-bass thru lower-mids than the M22B, so on some tracks it felt a bit less dynamic. Bottom octave extension might have been better on the Matrix but I prefer the richer, fatter bass texture of the M22B. The Matrix certainly felt cleaner and leaner here.

The M22B has a tiny bit of hardness in the upper-mid through lower-treble area (at least with the Eitr feeding it), so the X-Sabre fared slightly better here as well (feeling more damped), allowing me to seldom get more volume without fatigue. This was track-dependent though, and snares definitely had a lot more 'wham' on the M22B.

Matrix had noticeably more granularity of texture in the top octave and a half than the M22B, which is to be expected given the slightly smoothed-over and simplified treble presentation of many R2R implementations. Certainly more air than the M22B.

Matrix's imaging felt generally better delineated and separated than the M22B, but the stage also started a few rows further back in comparison. I'd say both have just as much front-to-back range in terms of staging, just with 'a few rows back' offset on the Matrix. So back is further back, but forward is less forward, if that makes sense.

This can actually be helpful in reducing that 'inside your head' feeling some headphones (*cough* planars) tend to give. M22B stages wider. Matrix wins on separation. The differences are there but these qualities don't affect my level of enjoyment compared to tone and slam.

edit (additional thoughts on dynamic presentation) -

Matrix had a slightly blacker background. Monarchy had heavier note weight. Attacks felt equally as abrupt, but the M22B maintained a grip for a bit longer, giving more slam and pump to percussion, but slightly simplifying and overshadowing trailing decays. Matrix's transients came on with just as much immediacy, but backed off more quickly than the Monarchy, which allowed microdetails and spatial boundaries to be a bit more clearly heard. I prefer slam over detail. Matrix is more precise, but I like Monarchy here better. Most audiophiles would probably prefer Matrix.

Conclusions

After going back and forth between the DACs, I feel like the Matrix is definitely a better technical achiever than my old Monarchy, but my engagement tended to prefer the latter. Maybe it's just a matter of familiarity bias.

Don't get me wrong, the Matrix is a great unit - clean, dynamic, just a touch of color, non-fatiguing. From my other loaner experiences, X-Sabre has none of the daintiness of the Solaris, none of the cartoonishness of the Convert-2. It's definitely in the same playing field as those others, but with a different (albeit slightly more bland) flavor I find more agreeable for long-term listening than either, even though the novelty factor isn't there quite to the same degree at first listen.

I had one of my partners compare with me as well (blind comparison on her end, she's had quite a bit of ear training but isn't an audiophile™) - she said she felt like she was grasping at straws trying to find a meaningful difference and that both of the DACs I had on hand sounded great.

 

Did any of you owners of the Matrix X-Sabre Pro also buy the Matrix USB cord? If so how do you like it?

 

I use their cord in a non mqa version of the dac. It is robust and would probably fare well in a physical test. I use a belkin to the xspdif 2 feeding i2s... outside of a poorly made cable, I don't worry about it...

 

@E_Schaaf Thanks for the great comparison. What settings were used in your evalation

 

Has anyone tried XSDPIF-2 via i2s yet, is it better than direct USB connection from streamer?

 

Kind of a late reply but I have the XSPDIF-2 with the XSP via I2S and do find it better than via USB directly. I'm also using the Element H, with the power portion of the USB being separately powered to further isolate it from PC noise. It sounds much cleaner with a blacker background, better separation and slightly better sense of dynamics. I have only tried the XSP out of a streamer for a short duration to compare it with my PC connection (Innuos Zenith Mk3) and I'd say that the streamer combo is better but the gap is certainly a lot smaller with my current set up.

 

3rd day using the Matrix X-Sabre Pro, transitioning from the Forssell MADA2.

I like the Filter Type 2 with Dither and Jitter OFF.

The Forssell has better low end dynamics and depth.

So far, I'm very happy with it. I got the non-mqa version used for US$900.