Micromega M-100/150 field reports

"The amp and streamer are outstanding with really good imaging and presence."

benb: that's my experience too with the M-100, and it just keeps getting better the more material I listen to (varying genres, recordings, volume levels etc). No MARS, no power conditioning and a Cullen Cable Crossover Series as power cable. Other than Audioquest Sydney rca from CDP (which I don't use much), no other fancy-pants interconnects to speak of. For my money those aren't a good & credible investment.

Like you I'm getting super-good imaging & stage, presence and drive. Totally stoked.

I did have a weird encounter during .flac playback via http over ethernet through the M-100 LAN input. I use the BubbleUPnP for DLNA/Chromecast android app as control point, with the M-100 as UPnP renderer via its LAN input. Btw the BubbleUPnP app is excellent: well-designed, feature-wealthy, responsibly and frequently maintained, rock-solid stable. Superb value, from the Google Play Store.

I use the Micromega android app to control the M-100 hardware: volume, input sources, etc. Sadly, that app is of entirely different caliber than BubbleUPnP (see my earlier posts about that).  No response from Micromega to my questions about that. 

I had just played back a single track from .flac, and selected another single track in BubbleUPnP.   I hit Play - and nothing happened. Tried again: nothing. Rebooted the BubbleUPnP app - and it no longer found the M-100 as a UPnP renderer on the LAN. Rescanned for devices in the Micromega app, and it too no longer found the M-100. Restarted both Micromega app and M-100: still no UPnP renderer.  M-100 still had a valid IP, an active network connection and responded to ping. All other M-100 functions and source inputs still worked fine, as did the remote.

The tl;dr: after hours of troubleshooting including router and network debugging, and hw/sw isolation, I finally pulled the nuclear option and reapplied the firmware update to the M-100 network module. That fixed it: M-100 reappeared as UPnP renderer and playback via its LAN input works again.

A cautionary tale but hopefully useful outcome if other owners have the same problem (I didn't find any out on the interwebz). I think it's highly unlikely the BubbleUPnP control app 'exploded' the UPnP interface on the M-100 network module - for now I'm treating it as an isolated "lost-its-mind" failure on Micromega's part.

Mine gets lost in internet space all the time. The android app can't even find it now, jriver loses it all the time I don't bother with it anymore I just use my cdp. I can ping it, I can get to it typing in it's ip address. I did all the recent updates. The MARS works bery well. 

With MARS turned off my Paradigm 85f speakers are barely listenable  so having that alone is worth it to me though I am thinking of upgrading my speakers. The M100 drives them very easy and even after 3 or 4 hours it never gets any warmer than any other a/b amp I have had. The compact size worried me a bit on heat. I use the stock power cord hooked to a panamax conditioner I have had for years, actually it's the oldest piece I have and have never had any problem with it. The network probkems while annoying don't bother me since I am looking to run a wireless streamer/server down the road. 

Jriver did the same thing to mine as BubbleUPnP. I have to reflash the network firmware to get the M100 recogized whenever it gets lost. I would think it's a bug in the M100. If they get around to that as quick as the android app it might get fixed in a few more years. 

I haven’t had any bugs on the Mac side of the world.  A couple of 1-2 second dropouts where the WiFi wasn’t keeping up, but that’s all.  I like the internet radio on the app.  
One other configuration for the record is I run Audience Au24 speaker cable to Silverline Sonatinas (v1) with separate wires going to the speaker input on my Adire Rava subwoofer so the speakers run full range.  Good integration, especially with the MARS.  Someday I’ll play with the sub out.