Metrum Dac owners

I have hooked up the UpTone regen between the SOtM and the Onyx and it improves the renderer’s sq, especially in the bass. I use a curious USB cable, AudioQuest’s Columbia XLR interconnects to my preamp, and a shunyata black mamba power cord into the Onyx (haven’t tried others but I had it so I’m using it). Would like to try the Ambre and I2S sometime!

I am using a DIY power cable and silver interconnects (VH Audio recipe) that I made a while back and a generic USB cable. Honestly not much of a cable believer, a generic 20 feet $15 cable from the phono stage to the tube integrated sounds fantastic so I am not sure about cables at all.

But I am planning to buy a Uptone ISO-gen to link from the PC to the DAC, I can see value in that, being an EE myself. Audible, may be not, but it's solid engineering.

Bringing this back up...

Were you ever able to compare the usb vs coax inputs in your onyx? I recently purchased an amethyst and am contemplating an eitr. I get occasional pops from the usb input that I attribute to my laptop.

It is worth noting that the ubs input ( 44.1 -192 kHz ) supports a higher resolution file than the coax ( 44.1 kHz -384 kHz ), however I'm not sure how much that matters in a NOS DAC with current content resolution.

@ajnackman  

I have the Onyx, and I used to use it via USB and my MacBook Pro laptop.  It sounded ok, with no pops or other distortions.  I did go thru all sorts of USB correction devices, decrapifiers, Ultrarendu, etc. but not much really improved.

I then got a Matrix X-SPDIF2 ddc, which converts USB from the MacBook to either SPDIF (coax), and AES (xlr), and while I can only upsample to 192k, the music is soooooooooooooo much better than via USB. 

Highly recommended to go this route, though I am not sure if it's my MacBook or the USB that was lacking in the orig setup. I imagine that the EITR would be a positive move too, though I haven't tried it.

I don't have a Metrum DAC (although I'm interested).  However, with my Hegel HD25, about a year ago I replaced my Curious USB / W4S Recovery combination (which I previously thought was great) with an Eitr.  It was a major improvement - probably the most satisfying upgrade I've made to my system. I was literally laughing before I sat down on my listening chair, the difference was so obvious.