Metrum Dac owners

Would also love to know how the Onyx compares to the latest Schiit Yggy, which is priced similarly.... 

Copy and paste from my head-fi post, I reviewed with actual music and noted my observations, unlike going through the same 5 audiophile recordings and using nebulous descriptors like blacker backgrounds and tighter bass, so bare with me:

Yes, I just purchased the Onyx. Stupendous Fidelity. I would have a hard time believing anything bettering it at it's price range. I haven't heard the Yggdrasil though so can't comment on that, I'm just not a fan of OS dacs so it wasn't really in my list to buy. My reference dac was PS AudioPerfectwave MK2 for years till that started acting up on me. As a stop gap I have been using the CA Dacmagic+. The jump from Dacmagic+ is pretty large. The delineation of instruments in space is very precise, from a width and depth perspective, DM+ was pretty vague, but I'm not gonna use typical audiophile lingo here as DM+ is a high-res, good dac for the price, but not at all in the same class as the Onyx.

My PWD2 was always used on NativeX mode (NOS), and you could say I prefer this sound signature, the Onyx is easily a lot more high resolution, without really trying, the details are just there. Bigger stage, easier to listen to. One of my typical reference/test track is Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams', all dacs should and will place Stevie Nicks in the middle of course, most dacs worth their salt should be able to place Lindsay to the right and middle height during the chorus, and Christie to the left, and you should be able to discern their backup vocals among all the other instrumentation. All the cymbal hits should be striking and decay very nicely. Now, the few great dacs should be able to tell you that Christie is taller than Nicks and is standing farther away. The Onyx EASILY tells you that, along with making Lindsey and Christie's vocals much sharper and easier to discern within that sound stage, among the cacophony of everything else. Like I said, Stupendous Fidelity.

Additionally, after about a month or so of listening:

It basically sounds good with everything, a very high res, high bandwidth dac which has no fatiguing qualities as far as I can tell, and this is without any USB cleaners or power conditioners on my chain. Those are two of my next points of upgrade, hence the thread.

If you listen to a lot of well recorded acoustic, or jazz...the immediacy and organic nature will astound you (given the rest of your system)...the short intakes of breath, blowing on wind instruments, hands plucking guitars and fingers sliding on the strings, little things you've never noticed before that were always on the recordings but just muffled/veiled will just be there all of a sudden, not as distractions, rather as parts of the recording.

I am highly impressed with what Metrum can offer for this kind of money.

I recently purchased the Onyx from hifi heaven, still in the break-in period but I already hear all the qualities nitewulf describes above. It  sounds weighty and substantial while at the same time extremely resolving, and the soundstage is deep and broad, somewhat holographic (other components: Wyred4sound stp-se stage 2, First Watt F7, DeVore The Nines). I admit though I am somewhat of a Metrum fanboy, having owned the octave, musette, amethyst and now this. I love that the founders answer emails quickly, as if they are a local dealer. Can’t wait to check out their Roon endpoint Ambre when it comes out.

@nitewulf  I'd be interested to know what works well for you on the USB input of the Onyx as well, so if you try something that works wonders, please update us.  

I also picked up an Onyx last week, and with only 60 or so hours on it, I REALLY, REALLY like what I am hearing so far.  As mentioned above, it has all the detail I could want, but it isn't at the cost of being bright or harsh, nor does it have the stereotypical digital hard sound. I had to try an R2R DAC once again, since my last time with one was anything but rewarding.  It was a Holo Audio Spring Lev3 DAC, and I found it very lackluster and boring in my system. No synergy whatsoever. This was via USB though, not thru the recommended I2S input. I'm not saying the Holo is a bad DAC, it just didn't play for me.

The Onyx manual states it will take 3-4 weeks for the DAC to sound its best. I am running it 24/7 with music, so I can't wait to see where it lands. Pretty awesome so far, I must admit! Color me impressed!

I have an UpTone regen that I used when my laptop was the source (now it is the SoTM), which I will hook up once the onyx is broken in to see what the effect is...